“Don’t break a leg.” - Ming
English phrases can be really misleading and the etymology nebulous. If someone tells you to break a leg, they aren’t some obvious sadists lunging for the popcorn when you go do a thing. I am no proponent of such fear mongering phrases and those of you who know me, will know that I am more of a literal guy and I like people who tell it like it is. A poor man’s Ron Swanson if you may.
Mt Marcy is the tallest peak in New York and proudly falls somewhere in the top 500 of tallest peaks of USA. At a lofty 5344 ft, this is a long day for a casual hiker. As a self proclaimed mountaineer, this should be an easy objective for me so I thought. This was a bold claim given that I had been sitting on my couch for about 3 months straight.
Ming and I set out from New York to meetup with David at a campground in Lake Placid. After a fairly long drive we pulled in at around 11pm and without much time remaining in the day just set up our tents and went to bed.
The following day we woke up at a leisurely pace to begin hiking at around 10am. Parking was an absolute situation. I guess we weren’t the only ones thinking about hiking this weekend - 2 miles of cars was evidence.
The weather was perfect - not too hot, not too cold. We hiked at a nice steady pace up the mountain, I tried taking some videos but was getting tired out, Ming was suffering a little bit from cramps and carrying all his camera gear and David was cruising along. In any case about 6 hours in, we made it to the top and were greeted by a horde of people hanging out at the summit. With the perfect weather and a phenomenal view, we decided to hang out as well.
After 1 quesadilla, a nap and some reprimanding by a ranger (for unknowingly walking over some rare alpine plants), we continued our journey back to the car. It was fairly easy going making the return trip in around 3 hours.
Great weather, excellent company and epic food after our hike wrapped up one of my best weekends this year!
– G