Black Mountain, Adirondacks

We left right after work on Friday June 25th. Gabriela and Paulo picked up Jon and I at home and then we left towards Black Mountain, by Lake George. The car trip, once we managed to get to the highway, was about 3 hours long. Black Mountain is located by Pike Brook Road, just off route 22 in the state of New York.

Our first hike comprised a stop by Lapland Pond for a quick swim in the muddy waters, and a walk by wetlands and two other ponds before we reached the peak of  Black mountain. Paulo and Gabriela are more experienced hikers and could keep up a very decent pace. Jon, although also experienced in outdoorsy life, had injured his ankle playing basketball and had to pay attention to each step. That was good, because I was carrying a lot of wait for what I am used to and I can't say that I spent that many hours of my life hiking, being a city girl that I am.

I love it though and want to keep on doing this. I like city life but there is definitely no comparison with the life you experience in the wilds.

One of the best aspects of this park is that there is no entrance fee and you can camp wherever you want. The first night we stayed at the top of the mountain and had burgers for dinner. They were delicious! Partly because Gabriela made them really well, and partly because we were so hungry after walking up hill for a few hours. The Kraft processed cheese that we put in the burgers never tasted so good before. After dinner, we were ready for bed, and ended up skipping the Smores that Paulo brought. It was OK, we though; we could have them the next day.

We put the alarm to ring at 5am to watch the sunrise, but tell me who had the courage to get up? Nobody. I woke up simply to turn it off and was hoping that Gabi and Paulo would stay in bed as well. I knew that Jon would. We actually got up after 7:30am. I went exploring the area, recovered the food that they had hung from a tree to keep the bears away from the camp and started making breakfast. After eating, we all headed down the mountain to set camp by the Lapland Pond, where we had swam the first day. Paulo and Gabriela ended up taking a wrong turn and got there later than us two, the slow ones. Set camp, took a nap and by 4pm, Jon and I decided to take a trip to Lake George.

Following the yellow trail markers, we passed by a creek, by a beaver dam, and finally arrived at a very pretty pond where we photographed a frog and a bunch of other pretty things. But something was unfamiliar. The trail was supposed to be the same one we took to go to the peak of Black Mountain, and we didn't remember a beaver dam, or a bridge, or that pond. After taking a look at the map, we realized we took the wrong turn somewhere and ended up 1.5 miles away from the other trail. Luckly, this trail also took us to Lake George, but it would be 2 extra miles than the intented one. We decided to march on; by our calculations we would have time to get there, take a quick swim and turn back to camp before it got too dark.

Except... that this said trail was much more difficult than the other one, and it was much more down hill (1750 ft descent, as opposed to 1000ft) and it started raining, which delayed our arrival at the lake. We got there at 8:30pm. I was so scared to get trapped in the middle of the forest in the middle of the night that I implored to Jon to stay there. He did not think it was the best idea, but once we tried to head back and saw that the trail markers were sparse, he agreed to stay.

Our map came really handy because we noticed it indicated a shelter about half a mile away. When we got there, it was actually a day camp site, with a few picnic tables, barbecues and a cover roof. We would not be protected from the wind, but at least we would be from the rain. 

I noticed that someone must have just left, because one of the barbecues was still warm and there were amber coals in it. That really was lucky because Jon had found fire wood, which albeit being wet from the rain, caught fire much more easily after drying by the left over warmth. With a few wood chips from the floors and a few small branches from a pine tree we managed to get a fire in no time.

By midnight, a park ranger came on his boat to see who the heck was there. He asked us what we were doing there and we told him our story. He didn't have a blanket for us, but he did give us Gatorade, which helped a lot on the trip back.

By dawn, Jon and I had managed to take turns sleeping a bit and were more or less ready for the 3 miles back to camp. Hungry and tired, we walked until we reached Lapland Pond, all the way hoping for Gabriela and Paulo not to be too worried about us.

When we say Paulo, he greeted us with: hey! you also didn't spend the night, here! We told them our story, but when he told us theirs, we realized that in fact we had spent the night in a 5 star hotel.

They got lost in what was intented to be a very short trail. The only thing they had was 2 flashlights. No water, no food, no map. After wondering in the forest, off-trail, for hours, they decided to stop and wait for dawn. It turned out that they walked so much they even left the limits of the park. Luckily, they went uphill and Paulo's iPhone's GPS started to work (it didn't in the campsite) and they managed to walk back to Lapland Pond.

We would not change a thing though. Now that we survived, this is a freaking awesome story!