Cascade and Porter

"When you have worn out your shoes, the strength of the shoe leather has passed into the fiber of your body.  I measure your health by the number of shoes and hats and clothes you have worn out."

          - Ralph Waldo Emerson

I've had the same pair of hiking boots since my first High Peaks adventure.  They're a pair of ankle-supporting Columbia's that I got on sale for $30 (from $60), which is an amazing deal.  I'm looking for a new pair, but all the ones I find that I like are at least $100...oy!  I read in Backpacker magazine that most boots hold together for 350-500 miles; I've had mine for between 450-500.  There are holes in the uppers, I'm missing a couple shoelace grommets, and the inside sole is starting to get pretty worn - but the tread is still great, the toe guard is in fine shape, and the rubber sole is still holding on strong!

Yesterday morning, I slipped on these warriors of hiking boots and headed North to Exit 30.  My plan was to meet up with Kelcey, a friend who lives in Lake Placid right now and whom I'd met while working at Camp Pack Forest, and summit Cascade and Porter.

I had done Cascade once before, but in the winter, and I hadn't been the one driving, so I wasn't entirely certain where the trail was.  While driving down Scenic Byway Route 73, I was rubbernecking at the scenery around me.  I knew the trailhead was next to a thin lake with towering cliffs.  When I passed Chapel Pond, I continued about five minutes before deciding that must be where the trail starts, and I turned around.  Well, turns out that the trail starts much closer to Lake Placid than I remembered, just past Cascade Pond and the Pitchoff Cliffs.  Sometimes you can watch people climb the cliffs at both locations from a distance along Route 73. 

So, I get to the trailhead a half-hour late, but there is cell service for most carriers there, so you can text and let people know what's going on.  This is what the trailhead looks like:

Cascade is the mountain most people do as their first High Peak.  It's less than a five mile roundtrip, not nearly as stressful as Algonquin (which is of similar distance), and has a great rock cap with 360 degree views.  Most people do Cascade and Porter together because the summits are less than a mile apart.  However, I had done Cascade as my first winter High Peak, so I had not yet conquered Porter.

Here's the difference between the trail during the winter and summer:

It was incredibly hot that day.  Once again, I sunburned my scalp, which makes showers so very painful, as well as my arms.  The bugs were also very bad.  I remembered to bring bugspray this time, but it seems like noone else did.  I lent it to many hikers along the way, including a couple that works at the Ausable Club, another necessary and popular trailhead.  Carissa works as the front desk supervisor there and David works at the golf shop.  Being in hospitality I did my best to talk them up, but I'm still working on my networking skills haha.

Here's the difference between Cascade's rock cap in winter and summer, as well:

The bugs were also very bad on the summit.  There was no breeze to drive them away.  I walked around in circles while eating my PBJ on italian rolls in an attempt to keep the black flies off me and my food.  After snapping some pictures we scampered over to Porter, less than a mile distant.  I had heard that the view from Porter left something to be desires, so I was surprised that I found the view to be very nice.

On the walk around Mirror Lake in Lake Placid, they have all the High Peaks and their elevations.

David and Carissa brought their dog with them.  Her name was Kahlua.  On Porter, there was another dog, named Bailey.  So yes, we had Bailey's and Kahlua :-D

Another successful foray into the high Peaks!  I am now an Adirondack 21-er :)

Oh, by the way, we hung out in Lake Placid afterwards.  They are just putting the finishing touches on their new state of the art Convention Center, which I just think is amazing.