Packed and Ready for Departure

The long-awaited Adirondacks '12 boys' trip starts tomorrow. Things have been so busy recently that I haven't really gotten excited about it - even through yesterday, when I was feeling almost overwhelmed by everything I had to do before I could leave with a clean conscience.

But now it's all come together, and I'm finally excited. I'm packed and ready to go. Eric will pick me up in the morning, we'll drive to Phil's, load the van as folks arrive, and go as soon as we can.

I look at my bags, and it seems like a lot for four days of hiking and two travel days. But our experience is that the weather changes often - rainy, sunny, quite warm, and quite cold. So I've packed a lot of layers. I have two very small gym bags, one small duffel bag, a large duffel bag of camping gear (tent, sleeping bag, etc.), my day-pack (which can ride with me), and my travel guitar (which I will keep at my feet, if necessary.) I really can't pare it down much (yes, I could leave the guitar...but I'm bringing it if at all possible.)

Tomorrow we'll drive as far as Glens Falls, NY, where we've reserved two cheap motel rooms. Thursday morning we'll hit a Walmart or equivalent for groceries, then head into the park. Check-in at the campground is noon, and we'd like to be there as close to noon as possible. We have sites 9 and 10 at the Wilderness Campground at Heart Lake  (PDF map of the campground is here).

We'll set up camp, then do a short hike Thursday afternoon. We'll do more strenuous day-hikes on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday - then break camp Monday morning and drive home.

Looking at the weather forecast for Lake Placid, NY for Friday-Sunday, they're calling for daytime highs in the low 70's, nighttime lows around 50. There's a small chance of rain Sat. and Sun. If that doesn't change, it looks like Friday might be the best day to climb Mt. Marcy in clear weather. Ted has dubbed this trip "Revenge on Marcy", but the truth is that she could kick us in the ass again. Time will tell.

Trip reports to come.