Mount Marcy Trip

This plan was made the first day Laura and I met. While hiking up Garfield we talked about vacation and how Laura would be taking a week off in August and wanted to do a trip to the Adirondacks. I said sign me up!

Time started to creep up on us fast and before we both knew it vacation was here. We were only a few days out from this trip and making last minute plans to head to the Dacks for a couple days. Our plan was to head out early Sunday morning and come back either late Tuesday or early Wednesday morning.

Laura and I were going to backpack with the pups, but decided after the previous weekends adventure carrying all of our weight plus the weight for 3 dogs wasn't going to happen. We opted for car camping and some day hikes instead.

She mentioned she had a camping spot she knew about and it was free. I had no qualms with free what so ever. We agreed she would meet at my place at 8:30am, we would grab some groceries and then head to New York from there.

We had a but of a later start but we managed to hit the road by 10:00am with hopes that when we arrived there would be a camp site free of people and waiting for us to arrive. I suggested we take the Charlottee, VT ferry as it gave us and the dogs a break from driving. Laura laughed and told me how she had never been on a ferry before. She drove on and drove off without any issues! Can't be that hard right? hah

Once in NY, she led the way to camp. In the mean time I receive a text from her as we are driving that says "I will drive off into the woods, you do not have to follow me if you don't want to because of your new jeep." I laughed out loud and responded with "OK, but that's why I got a jeep!"

So she did drive off into the woods, I followed. We got out of the cars, checked the site and BOOM! Not a soul in site. This camp spot had lots of space, a fire pit, and was right on the river. It was perfect. We were all stoked to be there. We got to set up camp while the dogs hung out and then we decided we would just relax for the rest of the evening.

We made some dinner, drank some beers, and discussed our hiking options for Monday. As we sat there discussing our High Peak options, Laura mentioned the start to Mount Marcy was just at the end of the road. We both said since we are here we mine-as-well hike the highest peak in NY. Go big or go home right? We both agreed on Mount Marcy and its 14 mile trek with an elevation gain of over 3000ft.

We decided we would have to call it an early night. But before we did we needed to get fire wood for a fire after our hike. Knowing we would be exhausted and not want to leave camp we ran out to pick up some fire wood. We were in our tents with the pups by 10pm. We made sure to pack our packs mostly the night before. We set a 5:00am alarm.

I had given Ricky a Benadryl to relax him. this was only his second full night sleeping in a tent. The first was during our Pemi Backpacking trip the weekend prior. I wanted to make sure he slept. Being right beside the river definitely calmed him. As it took away the silence that we experienced in the back country. He would bark at every little noice he heard. This time, not so much!

Our alarms went off bright and early, we both jumped out of our tents eager to get the day started. Fed the pups, made some coffee and oatmeal and packed up. We had decided to try and manage to get both of us and 3 dogs in one of the vehicles and take one car to the start of the hike, 1 mile down the road.

We managed to put Ricky in the front seat and Laura somehow squeezed into the back of my jeep with her Husky Blaze and her Shiba Luna. This was by far the funniest thing I had ever seen looking back in my rearview mirror.

We arrived at the trailhead, used the restrooms and hit the trail. Shortly after on trail we let all three dogs off leash. we kept trekking along until a woman came up behind us, with a uniform on and demanded we put our dogs on a leash. We explained our situation and she wasn't having it. She then proceeded to tell us dogs die in the Dacks and that she had hoped we were carrying enough food and water for both ourselves and our dogs as it was going to be a very hot day.

Laura and I sort of shrug off the concerns of this woman, put the dogs on leash for a few minutes until she was noticeably far away to take them back off. We made a few stops along the way, stopping actually helped to cool us off. Temperature was suppose to hit mid 90's that afternoon, so we were also trying to beat the heat as much as possible.

Along the way we stopped to admire some of the funniest and most interesting signs along the trail.

Eventually making our way to the summit, Blaze did his usual and went to say hello to all summit guests and give as many kisses as possible to get some snacks from them. Our Shiba's stuck close to us as we approached the summit.

We were then greeted by our uniformed friend to tell us to leash our dogs once more. We did. We gathered all of our pups and ourselves found a cozy spot on the rocks, took our shoes off, and pulled out our lunch and summit beers.

I looked over at Laura, and I watch her pull out her lunch. Which was packed inside of a lunch cooler. I started laughing and called her out immediately on her cooler she packed in her backpack. Her response was "I wanted a cold beer and a cold sandwich." He reasoning was legit. In that moment I had to give her a hard time, as she did not share her cooler to help keep my beer cold or my sandwich. We both laughed and cheered to our achievement of reaching the highest peak in New York.

We sat for almost 2 and half hours before we decided we should probably start heading down. The sun shining on our faces, our toes breathing in the wind, our puppets relaxing next to us. It was a glorious day all around.



We hit the trail once again for the long haul out. We eventually came to less than a mile to the car and Ricky Bobby just decided he was done. He layed himself down on a bridge, and I had to bribe him to keep walking with a few treats.


Eventually making it back to the car, we all piled in and were glad to be back at camp to settle in for the evening. Making a fire, dinner, and just enjoying each others company.