*

I’d rather be standing at the top of the hill I just dominated -unable to breathe, ready to puke, hair matted to my forehead, than at the bottom wondering what it would be like~

11 hours & 55 minutes into our hike we summited our fourth Adirondack mountaintop that day. The one word on the yellow disk on the tree, “Emmons”.

The rain started enroute to our second peak. Raincoats came out early and stayed on late into the night with hoods pulled tight for warmth against the cold night air.

Clearly there were other places to be instead of hiking a herd path with a flowing river surrounding each footstep. My cousin, Pam & I couldn’t think of any place we would rather be that day than in the Adirondack wilderness about to conquer ‘The Sewards’ – four remote mountains on a 21 mile hike.

We had done our preparation: research, planning and physical conditioning over the long winter. We were ready to hike and we were ready for The Sewards.

Pam & I made a commitment to each other that we would “finish our 46”. Translation: we would complete hiking & summiting the remainder of the 46 Adirondack Mountains (peaks). I already had climbed 15, Pam had 30. When originally measured, all peaks were over 4,000′ in elevation. Some are a lot closer to a parking lot than others.

Why, you ask?
It’s kind of a long answer…let’s start hiking.

*for those who recognize their mountains, correct-this view is not from/of Emmons!
the photo on the bottom of the page you’ll recognize as Emmons!