It has taken all that time for my knee to feel good enough for some hiking in the hills. For most of this time I experienced discomfort walking. Just keeping my foot on the gas pedal while driving was barely tolerable. Even when sleeping if I moved the wrong way I would wake from the pain.
About the time I was supposed to contact my Dr for an MRI if there was no improvement, it began to feel better.
An wonderful stretch of good weather has been with us from mid September through the end of the month. With sunny skies and mild day and night temperatures I felt this might be the perfect opportunity to get in another hike.
Wanting to be cautious with my knee I picked a fairly easy hike up Nye and Street.
Morning on Heart Lake
Just a hint of fog over the water on Heart Lake.
The unmaintained trail from the ADK Lodge to Indian Pass Brook was an easy walk. One thing I had not thought of was the difficulty of following little used trails in the fall with leaves covering the forest floor. But if you pay attention there are enough clues when looking down the path. Boulders with no moss on top, only brown tint from muddy footfalls. Scratches from walking poles. Mud in wet areas churned up with foot prints making the carpet of leaves uneven. Of course if you go off track, low growth and fallen trees stop you in fairly short order.
If you are familiar with this tree, then you know I am on the wrong side of the brook!
Follow that trail till you end up a Indian Pass Brook. Cross the brook and pick up the new trail in the other side.
As the brook came into view, all my attention was concentrated on looking for interesting photos and a path across. Standing on the edge I could see a trail on the other side. What I didn't notice is that about 10 feet behind me the "real" trail turned downstream to cross a few hundred feet further on.
After carefully studying the available boulders, I chose a path across and headed up a significantly lesser trail on the opposite side of the brook. I didn't get far. The trail died out within 100 feet at a fire pit and beyond that the brook and hillside came together with no path through. Realizing this wasn't right i backtracked only to find that the path back across the brook didn't work as well the other way!
After crossing, I followed the trail until it let out at the edge of the brook with a cairn on each side marking the correct point to cross. Much easier, though I would like to see this after a heavy shower! Only a short distance away was another cairn marking the point at which the trail turns uphill and follows a small stream.
The trail was listed as 'unmaintained', though in this shot you can see blowdown has been visited by a chainsaw. There were quite a few trees down across the path that required a little effort to climb over or bend down and squeeze under.
Arriving at the col between Nye and Street a tree had directions carved into it.
Nye was only a short walk away and I went there first.
Lichen along the trail. Someday I would like to head up one of these mountains with my macro lens and ring flash.
The path up Street Mt
Looking west from Street
Duo Discus climbing in a thermal
Though the day I could hear but not see the towplane climbing out of Lake Placid. A couple times I caught a glimpse of a glider climbing in a thermal under a cloud or crossing the blue towards the next one. This time of year a couple Canadian clubs visit Placid looking for the wave that forms downwind of mountains when the winds blow in the correct way. Flights of 25,000 feet in the wave are possible requiring oxygen and a few layers of warm clothes for the thin and very cold air at those altitudes.
One of the few views from this climb gave me a brief look towards the town of Lake Placid
The forest seemed to glow from the yellow and red leaves
Steading my camera on a log I was able to take this 2.5 second exposure of leaves swirling in a small plunge pool along the trail.
I took a moment to worship the Trail God and rubbed his head for good luck.
It must work because I made it down safely...
Though I could hear things in the woods all day, this toad was the only one I saw.
Back down to Heart Lake with about an hour of daylight to spare.
