I spent a brief amount of time in the Southeastern Adirondacks last weekend. The fall colors were out in full force, as were the massive crowds.
There was heavy traffic going northbound on I-87 between 4-5 AM, with most people presumably heading to the High Peaks region. It's amazing to think that anyone going to the Loj at that ungodly hour wouldn't have been able to find a parking spot, as it was reported that the parking lot was completely full at 5:00!
It wasn't just the High Peaks that got slammed, though. On one short firetower hike (under two miles each way) near Glens Falls, I counted over a hundred people and passed groups of hikers every... single... minute of my hike. I tried counting from 1 to 60 in my head to see if I could even get one measly minute of peace and couldn't. It was a constant stream of hikers parading up and down the mountain unlike anything I have ever experienced in decades of hiking. Not even Cascade on a sunny Saturday morning in the middle of summer was so insanely crowded! Although I did anticipate there being a fair amount of people given various factors (time of day, time of year, the pandemic, etc.) I wasn't expecting it to be anywhere near that bad! Honestly, I got more solitude in the middle of Downtown Buffalo at lunch hour when I used to work there.
The highlight of my trip was walking around Great Sacandaga Lake where I actually had some space to spread out and enjoy the pleasing early-autumn scenery. It looked like an ideal place to go paddling sometime.
The rest of my trip didn't go so well. I received minimal sleep due to inconsiderate $#!+#3@d$ making too much noise and also had a kidney stone attack that left me in excruciating pain for a while. Between those experiences and the weather forecast looking unpromising between 9/28 and 10/2, I decided to cut my trip short and make the long drive back to Western New York. I'm hoping that when I return to the 'dacks (probably during the off-season or perhaps after this covid nightmare is finally behind us), I'll have a more enjoyable time like I did in past years.
Now for some photos to hopefully make up for all the complaining I did :)
There was heavy traffic going northbound on I-87 between 4-5 AM, with most people presumably heading to the High Peaks region. It's amazing to think that anyone going to the Loj at that ungodly hour wouldn't have been able to find a parking spot, as it was reported that the parking lot was completely full at 5:00!
It wasn't just the High Peaks that got slammed, though. On one short firetower hike (under two miles each way) near Glens Falls, I counted over a hundred people and passed groups of hikers every... single... minute of my hike. I tried counting from 1 to 60 in my head to see if I could even get one measly minute of peace and couldn't. It was a constant stream of hikers parading up and down the mountain unlike anything I have ever experienced in decades of hiking. Not even Cascade on a sunny Saturday morning in the middle of summer was so insanely crowded! Although I did anticipate there being a fair amount of people given various factors (time of day, time of year, the pandemic, etc.) I wasn't expecting it to be anywhere near that bad! Honestly, I got more solitude in the middle of Downtown Buffalo at lunch hour when I used to work there.
The highlight of my trip was walking around Great Sacandaga Lake where I actually had some space to spread out and enjoy the pleasing early-autumn scenery. It looked like an ideal place to go paddling sometime.
The rest of my trip didn't go so well. I received minimal sleep due to inconsiderate $#!+#3@d$ making too much noise and also had a kidney stone attack that left me in excruciating pain for a while. Between those experiences and the weather forecast looking unpromising between 9/28 and 10/2, I decided to cut my trip short and make the long drive back to Western New York. I'm hoping that when I return to the 'dacks (probably during the off-season or perhaps after this covid nightmare is finally behind us), I'll have a more enjoyable time like I did in past years.
Now for some photos to hopefully make up for all the complaining I did :)
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