Hermes and myself have started our Lake George 12ster challenge.
The challenge consists of hiking 12 peaks in Lake George.
We decided to hike Buck Mountain first && here's our hiking journal along with photos and videos of our trip!. I will be blogging away our journals as we complete each hike.
1) Buck Mt. 2665’ Elevation. Date: June 21st, 2021
Start Time: 12:15pm. Summit: 3:45pm Stay: 35 minutes
Descent: 4:20pm End: 5:47pm
Weather conditions: Started the hike in bright 80-degree weather, toward the top of the summit we experienced a bit of wind that was knocking down trees, Hermes was spooked but we made it past and to the top. Along with our time we cleared about 6 smaller trees from the path for others and had to stop about 10 times for people to talk to us and take pictures. After we made it to the summit, we heard some thunder in the distance and had to cut our stay short, we descended about ½ a mile down before it started to rain heavily. It continued to pour the entire descent down, making the trail into a rock filled waterfall/ mudslide. Once we got into the car the weather cleared up again and was back to and 80-degree sunny day.
The Journey: We stopped for conversations with people and to let others pass along the trail, Cleared about 6 fallen trees on the way up. We saw a few frogs, a turtle, birds, and fed a chipmunk on the way up.
We took plenty of breaks for Hermes could eat the leaves and I could catch my breath/hydrate. We got discouraged a few times when we thought we were closer to the summit than we actually were, This was the first summit we did where we had multiple people rudely imply that Hermes and myself were not going to make it and that we should turn back. We ran short on water with about a mile left to the summit. (SIDE NOTE: Pack more water/research bigger water packs for next larger summit) It was an emotional hike, we were less prepared for this one and will try to prepare more for the next one. We plan to hit the harder hikes first, so it gets progressively easier for us to complete this challenge.
The Summit:
About 15 mins before reaching the summit we stopped for a break at a gorgeous opening that showed the other half or the lake, this is where I cried. We were cheered on by the 2 men that gave us some ambition, they were wonderful and gave us the drive to keep going. I wish I could thank them; they have no idea how badly we both needed them cheering. We made it to the summit to see a bird bathing in a small puddle. We both tried to eat our cliff bars but couldn’t out of sheer exhaustion. After hearing the thunder our victory was cut short because we still had a descent of 3.3 miles to get back to the car, we knew it was to rain and didn’t want to be stuck on the top due to the last half mile being all rock. It would have been slick and too dangerous. We made it past the solid rock portion of the slope before it started to downpour on us. Hermes doesn’t like the rain or being in water so he started to pull me down the mountain fairly quickly, He would get spooked by the thunder and the lightening, so I had to stop and hold him when it got bad. He was a trooper and although its hard to trek the trails pulling a 75lbs resistance behind me, It’s so rewarding at the same time and I am very proud of him. Hopefully for our next 12ster we can have better weather and watch the rewarding view a little longer.
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