In 2013, my mom decided she wanted to hike the 46 Adirondack High Peaks. At the time, my sister, Kristen, had a more flexible schedule than I and she began doing the hikes with her. Not soon after, Kristen followed in my moms footsteps of trying to complete this goal.

I began joining them on some of their hikes partly through their journey. I had grown up visiting the Adirondacks every February and the occasional Summer trip, but I’d never experienced an Adirondack High Peak until 2016.

To date, I’ve climbed 13 of the 46 peaks. While each hike was a different challenge and experience, they each had an underlying motivation of allowing my mom and sister to come one step closer to their goal.

In September of 2019, my mom accomplished her goal! My sisters not far behind her and now I’m realizing that I’ve never hiked an Adirondack Mountain without having this motivation behind it. Going forward, I’m excited to start experiencing these mountains just for the beauty of it, without having an underlying goal in mind.

Algonquin, Iroquois & Wright, July 2016

Total Distance: 10.1 mi
Total Elevation Gain: 4,360 ft
Lodging: Northway Motel, Lake Placid
Hikers: Mama Bear, Kristen, Maria & Kevin

There’s nothing like hiking the 2nd tallest Adirondack summit during your first High Peaks adventure. I came into this hike completely blind. Sure, I’d heard my mom and sister talk about their previous hikes, but I really had no idea what I was getting myself into. 4,000 feet of elevation? Seems fine to me. 10 miles? I’ve ran that before. Scrambling over boulders for what seems like forever? Okay, maybe I wasn’t prepared for that.

I had to go buy hiking shoes prior to this hike. I didn’t have the right backpack. I didn’t have a camelback. I hadn’t been actively training or working out. But, all that aside, I had the encouragement from my mom, sister and two cousins to finally come experience what all the hype was about. That’s how I found myself on my first Adirondack High Peak adventure.

The biggest thing that I remember is the scrambling. The latter part of the trail up Algonquin is a lot of climbing up and over boulders – and my quads were not prepared. When we finally emerged above the treeline, while stunned by the views, I was also stunned that I wasn’t at the top yet. I remember slowly meandering my way towards the top, completely out of breath. And finally, I arrived at my first High Peak, the 2nd tallest in the Adirondacks, completely wiped, and oh wait, we still had two more peaks to conquer that day.

We made our way over to Iroquois and then had to backtrack to Algonquin again. Did I mention I was already wiped? On the way back down, we did one more short 0.4 mile push up Wright and I remember this huge feeling of accomplishment coming over me. Looking up at Algonquin and thinking, “wow, I climbed that, I was just up there!”.

Thinking back, it’s probably this moment that inspired me to keep hiking. To push my body and mind past the feeling of complete exhaustion and to be rewarded with a view that so many people will never see – that was something worth doing again.

Cascade & Porter, September 2016

Total Distance: 5.6 mi
Total Elevation Gain: 2,293 ft
Lodging: Cabin, Lake Placid
Hikers: Mama Bear

This trip to the Adirondacks was inspired by the newest addition to our family – Kyah Mae. At just 3 months old, it was time for her to experience the mountains.

But, when you’re in the Adirondacks, you have to hike a High Peak, right? At least according to my mom you do. Lucky for me, my mom still had some easy peaks to cross off her list. So, when we decided to hike Cascade and Porter, two of the shortest peaks, we also decided this would be the best summits to do as a sunrise hike.

Fast forward to 3am, I begrudgingly wake up, we drive to the trailhead and start our sunrise hike. I remember our headlights were less than ideal – barely allowing us to see directly in front of us – and I remember having a feeling of slight panic when we found ourselves off trail. But, after just a short 2 hour climb, we found ourselves at the summit of Cascade just in time for the sunrise.

The 3am wakeup was worth it. Without a cloud in sight, we watched as the sun emerged and illuminated the vast landscape around us – these were not your everyday breakfast views.

The hike over to Porter was easy. We were riding our high from the incredible views of Cascade only to find that the summit of Porter is essentially one rock with minimal views. But, how can you complain when you just experienced the most beautiful sunrise you’ve ever seen?

Saddleback & Basin, August 2017

Total Distance: 14.9 mi
Total Elevation Gain: 4,091 ft
Lodging: Apartment, Lake Placid
Hikers: Mama Bear, Kristen, Maria, Kevin & Andrew

At this point, the annual Mama Bear + cousins Adirondack trip is in full swing. It’s a blessing to have a mom that not only plans such fantastic hikes, but also puts up with (and keeps up with!) a group of twenty-somethings.

This hike starts off relatively easy until you arrive at the slides. Luckily, there’s stairs for part of the way, but it’s still a thigh-burning climb.

We arrived at the summit of Saddleback just in time for the clouds to roll in, but we were clearly not deterred to still have a summit photoshoot.

Then comes the traverse over to Basin. My mom had warned us that this was going to be hard, but I don’t think any of us were prepared for the sheer cliffs that we were expected to descend. We spent most of our time either sliding on our butts, or going feet first down the near-vertical rock.

Eventually we safely arrived at the summit of Basin with some slight breaks in the clouds to offer us some more views.

Thankfully this is a loop trail, so we didn’t have to return the same way we had come. We made our way back down and the next day enjoyed a walk around Mirror Lake and, as is tradition, got icecream at Stewart’s before leaving these beautiful mountains.

Dix Mountain, August 2018

Total Distance: 13.2 mi
Total Elevation Gain: 3,569 ft
Lodging: Cabin, Keene Valley
Hikers: Mama Bear, Kristen, Maria, Kevin, Andrew & Brandon

Rain & bushwhacking, that’s how I’d summarize this one. This was a long hike, both in terms of distance and mentally.

Similar to Saddleback, Dix has slides. Unlike Saddleback, however, these slides don’t have ladders. Now, technically, you can bypass these slides and take the trail that runs parallel. But, why do that when you can forge your own trail on the slides? At least, that’s what we thought.

My mom had warned us that the slides would be slippery and steep, but I don’t think we were prepared for having to grasp at rock and trees in order to keep from falling down. Halfway through the slide, half the group decided to bail and find the trail. Myself, Kevin and Andrew forged ahead.

Now you would think that once we got to the top of the slides there’d be a trail awaiting us – well, there wasn’t. Instead, we were left bushwhacking, sinking knee deep into moss and mud at some points, and no map to guide us.

With some luck, we managed to find the trail and eventually make our way to the summit…. only to have a torrential downpour come as soon as we got up there.

We all scrambled to find cover. Andrew and Kevin managed to find shelter under an overhanging rock. I remember watching them happily eat their tuna, beans and hamburger helpers in their lookout. Meanwhile, the rest of us were pelted with rain.

At some point, the rain stopped, Kristen managed to snag a quick picture of the view and we all happily said goodbye to Dix. On the way back down, we stopped at the base of the slides and the sun came out again. Finally, we were able to enjoy this mountain.

Cliff & Redfield, June 2019

Total Distance: 17.9 mi
Total Elevation Gain: 4,603 ft
Lodging: Hostel, Newcomb
Hikers: Mama Bear, Kristen, Debbie

Safe to say I learned my lesson about coming to the Adirondacks during fly season with this hike. Oh, and also about blindly following two Aspiring 46ers who just needed to knock a few more summits off their list.

Before even setting foot on this trail, I got covered in bug bites. I mean, I couldn’t step outside even for a minute because the bugs were eating me alive. So not the best start to this adventure.

Next, we were warned the trail was muddy – that turned out to be true too.

Finally, have you ever hiked 8 miles to a summit that had no views? Welcome to Cliff Mountain.

The saving grace of this hike was the summit of Redfield. While it offered beautiful views, we were only able to enjoy them for a short while because we still had an 8 mile return trip.

We ended up finishing this hike in the dark, 14+ hours after we had started, and nearing dehydration and exhaustion.

Next time, I was going to ask a couple more questions about what my mom and sister were getting me into.

Marcy, Gray & Skylight, August 2019

Total Distance: 17.6 mi
Total Elevation Gain: 5,068 ft
Lodging: Townhouse, Lake Placid
Hikers: Mama Bear, Kristen, Kevin & Andrew

2019’s annual Mama Bear + cousins Adirondack trip was a big one. This was going to be the last cousin trip before my mom finished her goal – and these were some big mountains.

Similar to Cliff and Redfield, this was going to be a long day of mileage and even more elevation. We got on the trail at 5:40am and made our way to Marcy Dam. From here, we crossed the floating logs and eventually ended up at Lake Tear of the Clouds. My mom informed us that this was the highest pond in NYS and it’s also where Vice President Theodore Roosevelt found out he was going to be sworn in as President.

From here, we ascended to Gray Peak and had a quick lunch before coming back down to Lake Tear of the Clouds.

We then traversed over to Mount Skylight, which sits directly across from Mount Marcy, therefore, offering some of the best views of the tallest Adirondack mountain.

Finally, the last push up Mount Marcy. This was no small feat. As I was nearing the final ascent, I was having major flashbacks to my first Adirondack peak, Algonquin. How come I wasn’t in better shape by now? Why were these mountains still kicking my butt?

Turns out it takes some effort to get to the highest point in NYS, but the views at the top are 100% worth it. Without a cloud in sight, we had 360 degree views of the entire Adirondack Mountain High Peak Wilderness.

With this hike, my sister reached her 40th Adirondack High Peak and my mom was in the home stretch at #45. Since then, my mom reached her goal and has become an official Adirondack 46er. My sister will finish in 2023.