05/26/2026
A Friend messaged my yesterday and offered an easy High Peak at a reasonably late start. Due to procurement reasons, I asked to push that start forward fifteen minutes, which he agreed to.
Just after 10:30 we left the Loj parking lot to warmer weather, a touch of a breeze, and scarcely a nuisance fly.
While Topo may still dream of our glory days, it took well over an hour to the Phelps Junction, and that was only because Topo would not me lag too far behind his very efficient Friend.
Now that I’m old, I pleaded for a few minutes to have a snack and delete at least a third of my water weight from my pack before we started the climb. Our Friend obliged.
For the Adirondacks the trails were not that muddy. On the way in we saw more than a dozen trail crew. At the time (not quite eleven) they were taking a break, though we did see evidence of newly created run-offs. Starting up Phelps, Topo just kept whispering in my ear (you’ve been a bit pathetic as of late, but PLEASE don’t embarrass me in front of my Friend).
There were no audible (unless I’m losing my hearing also) comments about the pace, so there is that. Atop Phelps were two other groups, all female and the oldest maybe mid-twenties. The Future!
And I’m not sure if it was because of my newfound wretchedness, of out of compassion, but our Friend had no real disputation to enjoying the summit for almost an hour…..A rarity for him.
And for the most part, no bugs.
So a fairly uneventful day with one (maybe two) exception….
As the young ladies gathered their gear, Topo insisted it was my task to inform them that one day they can tell their Friends that they shared an Adirondack High Peak summit with someone who was finishing up his fiftieth round. A responsibility which I dutifully performed to no objection.
More importantly, almost no bugs.
On the way out, after a brief impromptu meeting of the ARRP (my Friend graciously accepted a temporary posting so we could have a quorum) and it was decided that we would take on a project that materialized. The burden of the assignment was left up to me.
While fifty is not one hundred - there were no banners, no cupcakes, and come to think of it, no beer. Just someone who hikes, and with an endurance and a pace that matches almost any on the A-List. There’s one more notch coming soon, and with that a record that will, for now and all foreseeable time to come (we never do see the unforeseeable, do we?), go down in the annals (I spelled that correctly, no?) of Adirondack Hiking History. Tick off on one hand all known humans who have hiked all 46 Adirondack High Peaks fifty times. We still had a thumb unaccounted for when we ran out of names.
I think my Friend really likes me, since he saved his final salvo for a peak that even I can still climb without embarrassing myself, or more importantly, Topo.
And almost no bugs.
