New Goal - Time to try the High Peaks!

One of my friends (Colleen) who helped me to achieve my last goal (finishing the Survive the Farm 5K obstacle and mud run in May) is a runner and in the past couple years started making her way up the High Peaks of the Adirondacks.  There are 46 High Peaks, and they call you a 46er if you hike all of them.

Colleen's last adventure brought her up to her 15th High Peak!  How cool is that?  In my book it is pretty cool.  Her facebook post and pictures of her last hike inspired my next goal - to begin the climb.

Colleen on the summit of Upper Wolfjaw (#11 for her) in 2014

I talked to coach/hubby who said we should wait till the fall, as the heat really is a challenge all it's own in the summer months for me.  Wearing a couple layers of compression from foot to chest doesn't make that any easier.  So we have set our sites on this fall.

Part of me immediately remembered the hilly bits of the mud run and how challenging it was, and this is going to be a hike up a mountain (literally a mountain - I'm not making a mountain out of a mole hill, it is literally a mountain), I must be crazy.

Colleen's 1st peak -  8/15/2010

Coach picked Cascade Mountain (in Lake Placid, NY) as our first, and come to find out it is the first for many (according to wikipedia, Lon Pierce was the very first to make that hike up in 1872).  Not the shortest, but reportedly the easiest.  Ranked 36th in elevation, coming in at 4098 feet, and will be a 2.4 mile hike up.  Wish me luck, and thank you Colleen for the inspiration and photos below.  Turns out Cascade was Colleen's first, too, back in August of 2010...

High Peaks Wilderness Area Details

Colleen going up Cascade

Cascade Summit Marker - Woo Hoo, she did it!

Colleen's view from the top of Cascade

What goes up, must go down.