I’ve been hiking and climbing mountains in the Adirondacks for most of my life. Up until four or five years ago, I had only climbed mountains outside of the 46 high peaks (those above 4000 feet) such as Vanderwacker Mountain and Goodnow Mountain. Most of the time I hike with my uncle who joins me on these hikes to the summits of mountains on trips that are a day long. When we climbed Giant Mountain for the first time, we decided that we wanted to climb Mount Marcy but we knew that it would take more than one day to reach the top. This year we finally made the ascent after hiking up to Johns Brook Lodge from The Garden in Keane Valley and spending the night there before continuing to Marcy by way of the Phelps Trail (correct me if this is the Hopkins Trail) by way of Bushnell Falls and Slant Rock. After reaching the summit and resting, we continued down by way of Lake Tear of the Clouds to Panther Gorge and spent the night in the lean-to there before heading back to Johns Brook Lodge crossing Haystack Mountain on our two day backpacking trip in the Eastern High Peaks.
(The lake shown in my photos is of Lake Tear of the Clouds, the source of the Hudson River.)
