More goodness from the Falls Trail in Ricketts Glen State Park in northeastern PA.
The Falls Trail hike made for a much different feel over the summer compared to this week, with more colors in the leaves and more water over the falls. The Kodak E100VS slide film matched the day perfectly.
You will not find a better rental than Mercy Cabin, inside the hamlet of Keene — centrally located to Lake Placid, Wilmington (Whiteface Mountain & skiing), and all the major trailheads for hiking the high peaks.
Wanting to finish my summer off in style, I made one last 800-mile drive to climb more mountains. Wanting to satiate my inner masochist, I chose a day hike of the 5-peak Dix Range.
Iterations of this hike have been planned and scrapped since July, with the latest one a proposed Colvin-Blake-Nippletop-Dial hike. The previous day’s over-hiking scrapped the 4-peak plan in favor of a more modest straight up-and-back over these two, allowing if nothing else an extra hour of sleep.
Wright, Algonquin, and Iroquois were the three best back-to-back-to-back peaks we’ve enjoyed in the Adirondacks.
We had been dunked in mud, trod underwater, stopped-and-re-started, rushed off a peak, re-routed, drenched in a passing thunderstorm, and hiked over 18 miles & 5,000+ vertical feet. We wouldn’t have changed a thing.
The only car in the lot, we signed into the trail at 7:44 AM. Before noon we were enjoying lunch on our 15th high peak, on Rocky Peak Ridge.
My friend and fellow photographer Stephen Gushue joined me for a hike along Ricketts Glen’s Falls Trail, which encompasses 21 waterfalls in its inspiring 8-mile loop.
I decided that some of the shots from my excellent vacation could use a black & white film emulation. These are digital shots converted to b&w with a (real) TMax 400 film texture.
We had already completed two hikes which to us were special – our one-way traverse of Gothics & Sawteeth and our first “unmaintained” hike up Street & Nye. After making them both easily, our new 46er mentors gave us a new challenge, for a secret passage up the back of Phelps Mountain.
Having successfully navigated a one-way traverse of Gothics & Sawteeth, and with the encouragement of our new 46er mentors, we decided to hike our first “unmaintained” trail to Street Mountain and Nye Mountain.
The views from 4,736-foot Gothics were wonderful. We had a perfect day again.
Mount Marcy, at 5,344 feet, is the highest mountain in the Adirondacks. It is also the most hiked of the 46 high peaks, which is a little odd to me since it is a 14.6-mile round trip taking the usual way from the Adirondack Loj (pronounced ‘lodge’).