Training Log Archive: IronDan

Tabletop (4427). This is another officially unofficial trail, but was ridiculously easy to follow. I had the summit all to myself, but as I was leaving, I was passed by a herd of 30 hikers, far too many for the very small summit.

This was a very easy hike, but my knee was starting to be a little sore.

Later, I went for a swim in Heart Lake, where a wedding was happening. It was weird to be a sweaty hiker mingling with the well dressed guests. While wearing nothing but a bathing suit, I tried to sneak into wedding photos.

I am now an ADK 16'er. 1/3 done.

Dial (4020) and Nippletop (4620). This trailhead is at the ritzy Ausable Club.

Dix, which is a 4857 foot hill. One of the neat things about this hill is the number of slides on its sides. The trail goes part way up one of these slides. Very pretty. I found this hike to be easy, as I was well rested from the day before.

I was still tired from the Rocky Peak Ridge hike, so I took the day off and drove around the area.

One of the neat things about this week of hiking was that I was able to start hikes from many of the different trailheads, many of which I had never been to before.

Big Slide via The Brothers, with a loop down near the Johns Brook Lodge. I hiked most of this one with an older woman that I ran into along the trail. She was from Texas. Later, she bought me beer at the Ausable Inn. This hill is 4240 feet.

Rocky Peak Ridge. When I went up Giant a couple of years ago, my partner didn't have the enthusiasm to go for Rocky (it adds about 3 miles). So, I went back along this longer, ridgeline route. My book calls it one of the best hikes in the Adirondacks during fall season, because so much of it is in the open. The views are great.

The interesting thing about this route is that the ascent (4700 feet) is more than the elevation of the entire mountain (4420) because it climbs up and down a couple of intervening peaks. I found this hike to be pretty tiring--probably the hardest one I've done in this area.

Algonquin-Boundary-Iroqouis-Boundary-Algonquin. I was glad to visit Algonquin Peak again because it is so lovely. I continued on over to Iroqouis, on a trail that is not "officially" marked, but is nevertheless very easy to follow. It was icy on Al when I walked up, but it had melted by the time I went down. The ice had formed beautiful patterns on the vegetation. Iroq is 4840 feet, Al is 5114.