When Keith left St Joseph’s Home Care in the summer of 2019, the plan was to take the monies from the 6+ weeks of accrued PTO and spend it on a trip to Disney in the autumn of the following year. Austin would be in middle school, Victoria would be in elementary school, Christine would be working part time, and Keith would have accrued enough time at Nascentia; it would be a good time to go with light crowds and no commitments keeping the family in CNY.
And then COVID happened.
So, here we are now in 2023 trying to figure out how to get to Disney. We have had multiple discussions as a family, and – right now – there are no plans to go. No one is a HUGE Disney fan. Austin enjoys is mostly past his Star Wars phase and has never been a Marvel junkie, Victoria has never been into Disney-fare, no one wants to go in the summer when it is so oppressively hot, and (at this time in her life) Victoria struggles in large crowds, so winter/spring breaks are not a good option for us as well. In the short term, we don;t foresee ourselves traveling to Disney.
This has left us trying to figure out what to do. Everyone sincerely enjoyed the trip to Acadia in the fall of 2023, so we have had discussions about possibly exploring national parks in the summer months. This too, of course, comes with it’s challenges, namely crowds. We visited Acadia off-peak times with both kids being home-schooled so any experience in the summer will be more crowded if we explore “common” attractions at any park. To get the most out of any experience we would need to be “off the beaten path”, hiking or walking away from the crowds and experiencing the parks in a more isolated manner. The only question is, “Is this something that the kids will enjoy?”
After a little bit of discussion, we decided to make a trip to the Adirondacks mountains (ADK) for a few days of hiking to see how the kids would like/respond to the demands of hiking with significant elevation change. At Acadia, the highest walk was to the bubbles, but they were not at all steep and would probably pale in comparison to even the smaller ADK climbs that we thought might serve as a barometer for some walks at the national parks.
We planned to leave in the morning on Tuesday 7/11, stop at Coney Mountain in Tupper Lake and (time permitting) Baker Mountain in Saranac Lake before checking into the hotel, showering, and going to dinner. Wednesday would be spent in the Adirondack Mountain Reserve (AMR) and Thursday would include a hike to the mountain with the most spectacular view at Ampersand.
Tuesday morning started out as planned, but we were forced to call our first audible before we arrived at our first destination. As we approached Long Lake, we came to a road closure that forced us east where we had planned to continue north. Usually, such detours are not an issue: the driver could just take the next left and find their way back to the path that was initially planned. That is home, on level terrain, where roads are built anywhere they are convenient. In the ADK, roads are inconvenient and in this instance we were being detoured nearly 90 mins out of our way with no other choices to shorten our travel. The road was impassable in both directions after a dam had given way from torrential rains and the road had been destroyed by the flash flooding.
Keith had initially planned on taking the family for a brief hike on Coney Mountain before (near Tupper Lake) on the way to Saranac Lake, but it was not to be. Instead, the route was now taking us to Rt 87 and we would be entering the High Peaks through Keene, an area that Keith and Christine are quite familiar with.
There was a problem now: all the hikes that Keith had planned that were shorter in length were all west of Saranac Lake, extending the drive already longer drive even longer still. Along the way, Christine came up with the idea of driving the kids to the top of Whiteface so they could see the views. This proved to be a great idea because Keith also knew of a small walk/hike that was on the base of the mountain that offered a pretty view as well. So that would be the plan: a short walk through the woods (<2 miles round trip), a car ride to the top of Whiteface, and dinner would follow in Lake Placid.
The rains that had preceded had left the trail muddy in spots, but it was mostly passable. Keith had tried the same trail last fall in the dark with snow on the ground and had doubled back less than 0.1 miles into the hike. It was clear to him this date that there was no way that he could have possibly navigated the trail without previous knowledge of the area. It had dogged him a little wondering if there was just one challenging spot that he needed to get through and the trail would have been apparent, but this was not at all the case. While the trail is easy to follow in the summer, snow on leaf fall on a trail with sparse blazes would have posed a significant challenge throughout its entire length in the late autumn when Keith last visited.
After 40-45 minutes of walking and Victoria’s intermittent but persistent and dramatic complaints about how she was “literally dying” we arrived to the overlook. The view was indeed pretty; it must be spectacular in the fall.
We sat on the rocks for a while and enjoyed the scene before returning back to the car.
Next stop: the summit of Whiteface Mountain, the last of the big hikes that Keith and Christine would like to one day tackle. The winds were quite strong at the peak of the mountain but weren’t as robust as the winds that we experienced when we took the kids to the summit of Cadillac Mountain at Acadia National Park. On that day, Keith was challenged to hold his camera steady in the wind, while it was only the occasional gust of wind that got the best of us.
Despite the wind and the cooler than normal temperature, the conditions proved to be outstanding for the views. With no humidity, heat, or haze, we could see far a long, long way.
After returning to the car, we proceeded to drive to Lake Placid for dinner and a brief walk around shops before landing in our hotel room for the evening.
The next morning, we took in a less than great breakfast at the hotel before heading out to the AMR. We had arrived with intentions of taking the kids to breakfast at McKenzie’s, a nice diner at the property adjacent to the hotel, but we arrived the night before to learn that the diner was gone. It had burned down, so the only convenient breakfast to our hotel was the complimentary breakfast that provided some uninspiring calories.
After breakfast (which was not what we expected after the breakfast house adjacent to the hotel succumbed to fire earlier in the year, forcing us to eat at the hotel), we drove the AMR lot for a long day’s walk to Indian Head.
We chose to take the Gil Brook Trail on the way to Indian Head, affording us the opportunity to view cascades and waterfalls along our 5+ mile walk to what is arguably the best view view in all the ADK. As was the case the day before, Victoria quickly ran out of patience long before reaching our destination, but she persevered.
Indian Head, as expected, delivered. There is little to say, really. It is simply majestic.
We would spend a little under an hour at the overlook, eating lunch and enjoying the view. Over the course of the hour, the clouds would increase and stiff breeze that had initially offered respite after a long walk in the stagnant woods began to feel a little less comfortable. After lunch was finished and the kids began to turn their backs to the view to to feel a little warmer, it became apparent that it was time to began the hike off the rock and to Rainbow Falls.
It isn’t a difficult walk to the falls … it all downhill until the damn and the remainder of the day would be far easier than all the miles that had preceded.
While the heavy rains in the days leading up to our trip had worked against us when we were driving into the region, they only helped make Rainbow Falls as robust as they can be in mid-summer and the scene did not disappoint.
After the family exercised some patience while they waited for Keith to take pictures, it was time to return to the car … approximately 5-6 miles away. The plan was to take the west trail along the river to see Beaver Meadow Falls. We never got there.
First, the bugs were worse than we had presumed they might be. Then the trail was more overgrown than we had expected. Then the path ended abruptly at the river, where it had collapsed. Keith led the way throughout, first through the grasses, then leading Victoria and Austin into the shallow water to cross the 10 feet of 1-2 feet deep water. Victoria? She elected to keep her feet dry and (against all odds) managed to hug the bank while grappling for trees and leaning out over the water. If she lost her grip or her feet slipped at all, she wouldn’t have been able to prevent all of her from falling flat into the water, but alas, she persevered and was the only one in the family who walked back to the car in dry shoes.
While Keith was leading the way throughout, Victoria began to develop a headache and it was significantly impacting her experience. When the family arrived to the cascade bridge near signage for Beaver Meadow Falls she seemed to be beyond ready to be done, despite another 3+ miles of walking back to the car. Keith asked a trail groomer if there was a waterfall nearby and he said that he hadn’t seen one, so Keith elected to turn toward the road and head back.
In hindsight, Christine knew or had a sense of what Keith didn’t: the falls were less than 100 yards away. How the trail groomer was unaware, we’ll never know. But standing on the bridge with the heavy flowing cascades beneath him, Keith only saw Christine point in the direction of the falls before leading the family in the opposite direction, his sole objective now being to get Victoria back to the car for rest and ibupofen. Needless to say, Austin and Christine were less than pleased with Keith when they learned they walked 1 mile out of their way and got wet feet only to stop less than a football field away from the sight that they had been working for. Keith will be challenged to live down this mistake for a long, long time.
After a long, long day, we returned the hotel to shower and then enjoyed a nice dinner at the water’s edge on Lake Flower at the Waterfront Restaurant before retiring back to the hotel for some fun in the pool followed by some nice rest.
The next morning, we would go to breakfast at the Breakfast Club in Lake Placid before one last hike up Baker Mountain, the shortest of the Saranac 6. While the climb wasn’t terribly difficult no one really enjoyed themselves, because the deer flies were out in force. No one was happy with them. Victoria was getting frustrated and couldn’t tune them out, and Austin – typically the stoic – was getting angry and loudly growling at them while waving his hands in vain. As we ascended, the flies were less problematic, but still … they were bastards for 80% of the hike.
After returning to the car, we began our return trip home, stopping in Tupper Lake for ice cream along the way.
It wasn’t Disney. Nor was it a national park. But we learned a little about ourselves this week and we have some fun stories to share about the experience.