This was my first hike with the PHS Hiking Club, and my first ever high peak. I didn't start hiking with the club until my junior year at PHS, and I wish I'd started sooner. I'm not sure what made me decide to do it, but I think that I must've seen an announcement for a hike and decided that I might like it since I'd hiked so much with my dad growing up. Anyway, I don't remember much about the hike until we crossed the tree line. At that point I remember their being an awful lot of ice on the bare rocks, and it was pretty tricky getting up the final couple tenths of a mile. I loved it, though, and so this was to be the first of many such trips.

I remember Mr. Armstrong pointing out Iroquois Mountain next to us, and saying that it was a trailless peak, but that it was real easy to get over there. I'm pretty sure, but not absolutely certain, that a few of us made our way through the bushy col between the two summits and over to the top.

I believe that it was on our way back down that we took the fork over to Wright Peak. I remember being absolutely exhausted on the final barren stretch up, and the peak kept seeming to get farther away as I thought I was closing in on it. I looked at the plaque and some of the wreckage from the plane crash that had occured there many years ago. From there we headed back on down to the Adirondak Loj, where we'd begun.

I remember going up Blue with Dad quite a long time ago, probably shortly after we bought the camp in Raquette Lake. Dad and I went up fast, and I remember we stopped a couple of times and were breathing very hard. We climbed the fire tower at the top to take in the great views, though I was very scared because it was so rickety. I remember really enjoying the last few tenths of a mile on the path, because much of it is very smooth, solid rock, and almost looks like a sidewalk in places.

I believe the whole family went up this time, and Travis and I, and maybe Kevin too, raced up in something like 45 minutes! We had a fun time, and climbed the shabby old tower for the views yet again.

I took Toni hiking with me up Blue once, and though she was really disliking it, we kept on, and I promised her she'd be glad when she got to the top. She was, and we took in the great views, but I don't believe she ever hiked with me again after that.

I believe this was one of the earlier trips that I did with the PHS Hiking Club. It was beautiful the day we went, so most likely it was in the spring of 1990. Mr. Armstrong led the trip, and the only other person I'm sure was on it was Josh Carlsen. We headed up the ridge, over the three Brothers, and I remember being awestruck by the incredible views along the way. You don't have to go far at all before there is plenty of open rock which are fun to cross and provide excellent outlooks. This is my primary memory of the trip. Though the top of the mountain affords excellent views as well, I don't remember it much at all.

This is one of the easier trips one can do over two peaks, and so I think it was a pretty easy day. I hardly remember anything about it, though, unfortunately.

Shortly before I headed off to college at Clarkson, I went on this trip with Marta, a co-worker of mine at the P&C, and her husband, who's name I can't remember. We decided to start bright and early since we were attempting four peaks in one day. They wanted to start hiking at 5am, and it was an hour drive from their house to the trailhead, so I got up at a something like 2:45 in the morning so I could get my stuff together and drive 30 minutes to their place (in Elizabethtown?) by 4am. We made the drive to the AuSable Club and started hiking with flashlights in the dark.

Marta's husband was apparently quite addicted to nicotine, because he was smoking cigarettes all the way. I was pretty surprised by that, it's a strange combination to hike and smoke these days. We weren't far along and Marta started having troubles breathing, and for a time it looked like we might have to turn back. But she got her second wind and there were no problems from there on out. It was overcast and maybe even a bit drizzly the whole day. I hardly remember the individual summits, though I don't think any of them were terribly fantastic. We made very good time, and passed over Dial, Nippletop and Colvin on the way to the summit of Blake, which we reached at just a few minutes after noon!

We took a break and then I think we had to backtrack over Colvin again before taking a different trail back down to the Club. Despite the less-than-perfect weather, I had an enjoyable day chatting with Marta and her husband along the trail.

I went on this hike with the PHS Hiking Club, and we started at the AuSable Club. It was a spring hike, and the trail was pretty muddy. There was also an awful lot of junk across the trail--downed trees and such--that made it a particularly rough hike. I don't remember much about the views from the top or along the way. I remember being absolutely exhausted when I got back down to the trailhead. As a few of us sat waiting for the rest to return, we watched an older gentleman golfing. The grass was wet with dew, and he slipped and fell on a sloped portion of it. I ran over there, frightened that he was injured, but he was just fine.

I did this trip with the PHS Hiking Club, but hardly remember a thing about it.

This trip, which I also did with the PHS Hiking Club, I remember a bit better. It was a winter hike, and for some reason, a guy named Joe Pendleton decided to come along. He was a nice guy, but small and stocky and not really the prototypical hiking type. Brian Sholette also came on the trip. I think there may also have been others, but they didn't get far and turned back and went home with Mr. Pavone (or maybe that was another trip, I'm not sure). Joe was having a terrible time right from the start, slipping on the slightest snowy slope, and I can picture him on his hands and knees desperately trying to clamber up one spot. I gave him the instep crampons that my dad had given me to use, but they didn't seem to help him much. Poor Mr. Armstrong couldn't leave anyone behind and so he had to stay with Joe, but he told Brian and I to go on. I believe that the two of us hiked together most of the way, though I don't think we talked much. At the top, we sat separately and got out our lunches. It was bitter cold and windy up there, and so we ate fast and started back down. Eventually, we met up with Army and Joe, at which point they joined us in heading back down. I wouldn't be surprised if Joe never went on another trip after that.

Choosing to go on the orientation trip before starting college at Clarkson University was one of the best college decisions I made. We had a meeting and talked about the trip the day before we left. I believe that we were lent equipment to use, backpacks in particular, but I'm not 100% sure. There were several different trips going out for orientation, and this was supposedly the most strenuous, since we'd be hiking over several high peaks. I believe that we spent four days and three nights in the woods. I'll reconstruct the trip as best I can.

On the first morning, All of the people from all of the different trips met in front of the gym (IRC) and ate bagels. Then we filled up a yellow school bus (or maybe two) and headed south toward the Adirondacks. Different groups got dropped off at different places along the way. We ended up getting dropped in the town of Keene Valley. I believe there were ten of us. Dave Kerr and Mark Morel were two that I would remain friends with through college and beyond. Others were Stan, who I knew casually during school; a very quiet guy with curly blond hair whose name I've forgotten; a guy who was also somewhat quiet but an amazing hiker--I've forgotten his name too, but we had a nickname for him, Speedy, or something like that. There also was one other incoming freshman--a friendly, talkative guy named James. We also had two trip leaders, Joe ("Fonzy") and Brian, and a professor who's name I've forgotten. Joe was a small guy, but seemed to always get stuck with the heaviest pack.

Once we got our stuff together, we hiked up the road toward the Garden, the parking lot where the trailhead is. It was my first time hiking with a full pack, and I remember that it didn't take long before I got pretty tired. We hiked straight in on past Johns Brook Lodge and to Bushnell Falls, which are not too far beyond it. I believe we set up camp near the falls, and would spend our first night there before hitting any summits.

On the second day, we hiked Basin and Saddleback. I believe we left our big packs at our camp site and brought day packs with us for a quick trip over the two peaks. We went up past Slant Rock and over Basin first. The one memory that I have which makes me think we went this way is that of Joe losing the trail going up the steep side of Saddleback. This would imply that we were coming from the southwest which would mean we went over Basin first. I think Joe was one of the last ones up, because I recall a bunch of us sitting at the top and hearing Joe shout something like, "Did you guys come up this way???" He had gotten off of the trail, which is steep and difficult to begin with, and had reached a point which was even steeper and more difficult. We suggested he backtrack, which he did and eventually made it up OK. After Saddleback, we completed the loop back down to our campsite along the Orebed Trail. I think we may have picked up and moved to a different spot for the night, perhaps one of the lean-tos near Johns Brook Lodge. I remember that for dinner, we had some chicken wrapped in tin foil which we threw into a campfire to cook (or maybe that was the previous night). I don't remember much else about the evening, though I think we sat around and talked a lot, and heard lots of stories about life at Clarkson from the trip leaders. I know that so far, I was really enjoying the trip.

The next day we started towards Gothics. We went up the steep side which has a cable running for hundreds of feet to give hikers something to grab on to. Before reaching that point, though, I remember that a few of us--Dave and I and probably Speedy--were doing short sprints up steep sections of the trail. Instead of hiking at a steady moderate pace, we would sprint as far as we could up the steep, rocky trail, then stop for a minute to catch our breath before doing it again. I thought I was a pretty good hiker, but Speedy really was kicking all of our butts, mine included. He disappeared ahead of us all as we were going up the open face of Gothics along the cable. I was next in line, and finally caught up to him at one point when he was not sure which way the trail went. Eventually, we all reached the top and I think we stopped there for lunch and to take in the incredible views. I don't remember exactly what the weather was like, but it definitely was warm and not raining.

After lunch we continued on towards Armstrong, at which point a little prank was played. I arrived first at the little lookout at the otherwise not very interesting summit of Armstrong. I crept up to what appeared to be a sheer cliff. Upon further inspection, however, I realized that it dropped down about 7 feet to another ledge, and from there continued to drop further. I quickly jumped down to the second ledge and told the guys that I was going to hang from the first ledge as if I was slipping, and they had to try to help me back up. We prepared to act out the scene as we heard the rest of our group coming down the trail. I think we surprised and scared them a bit as the others yelled "Hold on, BJ!" But I'm not sure--our bad acting may not have fooled anyone, but we had fun doing it.

From there we proceeded to Upper Wolfjaw and down to the gap between it and Lower Wolfjaw. We were pretty exhausted by then, and could have headed straight back down to our camp site, but a few of us decided that we were to close to Lower Wolfjaw to pass it up. We dropped our packs and hustled up as quickly as we could, stayed for a few minutes, and then practically sprinted back down. We retrieved our packs and then headed on down to where we'd started that morning.

I don't recall if this is exactly what we did, but based on what I do remember I can deduce that once we got back to our site, we packed up camp and headed back toward the Garden. There are some lean-tos along the way, between Johns Brook Lodge and the Garden, and I'm quite certain we stayed in one of those. I do remember that one or two folks got lost on the way there (James was one of them) and we worried about them but they eventually made it. I don't remember much about that night, though I think I played cards with someone for a bit, and probably participated in a bunch more story-telling.

The next day we just packed it up and headed out. It was a pretty short hike to the Garden, but then we had to go the rest of the way down the road to Keene Valley again, I believe. There's a well-known restaurant in town, popular with hikers, and I believe we went inside for a bite to eat while we waited for our ride.

When all was said and done, this was one of the most fun trips I've ever been a part of. It was my first real backpacking trip and the first time I'd done so many peaks in such a short time. Though most of us were completely wiped out, I think we all agreed that this was an excellent start to our lives in college.

Thanks to Dave Kerr, who helped me remember some of the details that I'd forgotten!

This was one heck of a long hike, and it was a nice day if I recall. I remember that Ms. Willette (or had she married by that time?) and Kathy Rose came on the trip. I later found out that Ms. Willette was helping to set up Kathy and I on a date, and I can't help but wonder if that's why she came on this trip. It was here first, and I remember that her boots were not broken in and she was in a lot of pain and not enjoying the trip at all by the end. Anyway, on the way up, the two of them were singing a song they made up, which went something like this: "Me and my spiffy purple boots ...." They were referring to the pair of boots that I was hiking in, which were mostly purple. They were great boots, and I joked with them about it and was at all bothered by there making fun. About the only other thing I remember about the trip was that while sitting at the top, I made a really bad joke about finding a needle.

This is the only trip I did with the PHS Hiking Club where we didn't hit any high peaks. Mr. Pavone led the trip, and though I don't remember a whole lot about it, I do recall that it was a nice day, and there were some nice lookouts along the way.

I climbed this mountain when I was in the Cub Scouts. I remember that I was one of the fastest ones up, and when I started hurrying ahead on the way down, Mr. Bailey suggested that I let someone else go first. I think my response was that it was hard for me to slow down going downhill, perhaps a precursor to my "why fight gravity" reasoning.

I can't for the life of me remember anything specific about this trip, but I'm 99% sure I went on it, especially because I remember going over Blueberry Mountain (though there are probably hundreds of mountains so-named).

This hike probably happened shortly after we got the camp in Raquette Lake. Mom, Dad, Travis, Kevin and I all hiked in from the Brown Tract Road and up West Mountain. I think Kevin got tired of hiking pretty close to the top, but we did make it. I remember that Travis was going on up pretty fast, and I was too but I couldn't quite keep up with him. Near the top I remember a big open grassy area with a couple of big boulders. I'm pretty sure we had great weather for the hike, and excellent views of the surrounding area.