Welcome!!

Hey everyone!, Dee here and I’m excited to share with you all our first post on the Seriously ADK Blog. So, let's start off with a little back story.

Dave and I started hiking together back in 2021. Dave had already completed half of the High Peaks when his daughter left for college and he began to tell me how he assumed he’d have to continue hiking alone. I jumped in! Now I’m an active person. I workout doing High Intensity Interval Training at least 4 or 5 days a week. I love being active and working out. With us freshly coming out from the pandemic shutdown I had definitely noticed I had slacked off on my workouts but was shocked at how bad I had let it get.

Now I had attempted a high peak once before. I was in my early 20’s and was invited to hike Mt Marcy. Yes Marcy! The highest point in New York, with an elevation of 5,344 feet. I thought, how hard could it be? Hiking is just walking right? Just some rocks and tree roots to climb over? Wow, was I unimaginably off base! I didn’t make it. Even in my most “vibrant”, healthy youth I couldn’t make it the 8 miles to the top. I was way to good to go pee in the woods (yes I’m also shaking my head at the ridiculousness of that) and drank far to little to be attempting this hike at the humid end of June. I had to turn back about 2/3 of the way up after I got heat exhaustion. Rule number 1 in hiking the High Peaks…don’t ever underestimate these mountains. They have been here long before you and will remain long after. They do not care about how cool or bad ass you believe you are. They can and will challenge you at every step and it is quite humbling.

Picture from All Trails View from Mt Marcy

Fast forward about 20 years to my 40 year old self and again thinking I was in pretty good shape. In fact, I felt better in my early 40’s than I did in the early 20’s so here we go again. Dave suggested to start at the beginning. Where everyone (well most people) begin their 46er journey, Cascade and Porter. I’ll tell you all about our first hike in the next post. As we document our journey here for you I will warn you, I am not a spectacular writer. I’m definitely not a professional nor will I ever pretend to be. These posts moving forward will be written as if we were just having a conversation. Sometimes jumping off track when I remember an exciting little detail, because that’s how my brain works. Dysfunctional and haphazard as it is, I will try my best to keep my thought son tract and help you relive our amazing days spent on these spectacular mountains.

So with that said, Dave here with a few things that are important to know. Before you head out into the ADK, or any side or backcountry trip for that matter, you need to make sure you’re ready. As James Appleton of the 46 of 46 podcast is so fond of saying, and Dee loves to repeat, “these mountains don’t care about you”. If you get in trouble out there, help can be a long way away. And while the mountains may not care about us, we definitely need to care about them. Preparing for your hike, both at the 10 Essentials level and specific for the next hike will help keep you and your party safe; using the Leave No Trace (LNT) Principles will help keep the mountains and trails we love safe and available for us and future generations.

Have fun out there, stay safe and enjoy the journey. It’s seriously inspiring. Seriously!