Dates: September 2, 2000
Team: Mike & Teena
Location: Adirondack High Peaks
Destination: Table Top (4,427') & Phelps (4,161')
Approach: Adirondack Loj trailhead
Author: Mike
We set up our campsite on Friday night at Whispering Pines campground after the obligatory 5-hour ride from Rochester. On Saturday (Sept. 2), we attempted to hike Tabletop (4,427') & Phelps (4,161') mountains, but were turned away by some very nasty thunderstorms and torrential rainfall once we made it to Indian Falls. We visited our home away from home, Lake Placid, again on the rainy Sunday that followed, and departed to go home on Monday morning.Details:
I've been told that you learn something every time you hike in the Adirondacks. On this trip, we learned that there is an insidious nature to mountain storms… Somewhere around 3,500' we hiked into a dense, wet fog. In reality, it was a cloud. And, as we soon learned with a blinding flash, static crackle, and deafening roar… It was a thundercloud!
There we were… Standing just shy of Indian Falls, ready to begin the last leg of the ascent up Tabletop Mountain. Our intentions were to reach the summit of Tabletop, and then visit the top of Phelps on the way back to the Loj parking lot. In an instant, our dreams for the day would be all wet. While hiking to the Indian Falls landmark, we entered a cloud - not uncommon for hiking in these parts. There wasn't anything particularly special or menacing about this cloud - or perhaps we need to attend an outdoors clinic ("How to identify thunderstorms while hiking"). Not even a rumble was heard to announce what was to come…
Suddenly, our hair stood on the well-defined goose bumps coating our skin as an electrostatic charge filled the air around us. Then… The instantaneous blinding flash and deafening roar of an uncomfortably close lightening strike turned our nerves to jelly! The air became liquefied as torrential rain fell upon us, and the trail began to disappear under newly formed streams of water. With more haste than precaution, we scampered down the hill like gazelle! Again & again, crackling zaps of static electricity with brilliant flashes and deafening rumbles accompanied us in our rain-soaked scramble to Marcy Dam. Our wonderful weekend excursion of high peaks hiking became a desperate race to safety. Ironically, as soon as we arrived at the Marcy Dam campsite, the thunder subsided into distant rumbling echoes. The rain still fell in torrents however, and we sloshed our way through the rest of our hike back to our car at the Loj parking lot. Once back, Mike took great pleasure in drawing cartoonish images in the trail register of lightening bolts "zooting" merry hikers! Despite the rain, we still cooked our steaks and drank Merlot at the campsite under the handy tarp we erected the night before. We comfortably slept that night atop our queen-sized air mattress in our family-sized tent under the pitter-patter of constant heavy rainfall. It doesn't get much better than that. Since Sunday was also very wet, we decided to head into Lake Placid where we purchased winter boots for Teena, and "antique" snowshoes for our sports wall back home. We departed on Monday morning after breaking camp and packing away our thoroughly soaked tent & supplies.
Overall, the trip was a roaring blast!
After all, how many times in life do you get to experience events that are so awesome that you are accused of exaggerating their stories even though you've toned down the truth somewhat?
Pictures:
TBD - Converting all the old trip reports into this blog
No comments:
Post a Comment