St. Regis

 Our East Coast vacation took us to the Adirondacks. We were visiting friends of Jacqueline's dad Greg and Sue. They knew how much we loved to hike so they sent us on our way for a 6 mile roundtrip hike to the top of St. Regis Mountain. Greg and Jacqueline's dad Tom dropped us off at the trailhead, left us a car, and were off to run some errands. We were off on our way and at first the trail was rather easy. It was fairly flat as it wandered through the thick, deep woods. There were definitely less coniferous trees on the east coast compared to the sheer number of deciduous trees. 

The trail crossed a creek and then started its steep uphill ascent. The one thing about east coast trails that were different than Oregon is just the quality. This trail seemed to have tons of slippery, jagged rocks. There was also a lot of mud and running water on the trail. We had to do a lot of picking where to put our feet and we even saw someone bite it right in front of us. As we got nearer to the top, the weather changed from warm and humid, to cooler and humid. It didn't really matter because I was dripping with sweat. We popped out of the woods to a rocky summit. The view was great, although I am sure it could have been better without all the clouds. There was a lookout on a tower and a worker there who offered us some stickers. We took them of course. 

We sat down and had a snack. Zyla and I went over to the lookout tower, climbed to the top, and had a look. Jacqueline went halfway up and Conrad was having none of that. I talked to the guy working up there. He said he spends 3 days a week just on this trail and on top of this peak. Sounds like a boring job, but it is probably nice to have someone to keep an eye on the lookout. We did not stay long on the top because the clouds were definitely moving in. As we were leaving, the rain started to fall and we got ourselves under the trees. Not too big of a deal, though, because with all the humidity the rain was actually kind of nice. The hike down was not too much faster than the hike up as we had to be careful not to slip on the rocks.

Once we hit the flat section, though, we were able to move a bit quicker. Everyone was happy to not get stung by any bees while we were out on the trail and we were able to find our way back to the "Camp" to hang out by the lake. We would spend the next couple of days at Upper Saranac Lake. We got a little canoeing, some cornhole, and some swimming in. Mostly we enjoyed the temperatures in the mid-70s rather than the 90+ we had been experiencing in Washington DC. It was nice to get out in this beautiful area.