Thursday morning I and 4 friends from church left for a hiking trip into the High Peaks region of the Adirondack mountains. It was a great trip despite the weather. We had a little rain and snow going in. The trail was so wet, muddy, rocky and treacherous that it took us 5 hours to hike 7 miles. We hit the trail at 3pm and finally reached our lean-to at 8pm. A hurriedly created fire (thank God for birch bark, it will burn even when wet), a meal in the dark, a change of clothes and then huddling into our sleeping bags. Friday was a great day. We stayed near the camp, explored, fished (unsuccessfully), did some woodcraft and kept the fire going. This morning (Sunday) started nicely but soon after we began the hike back the rain began. It rained pretty much the rest of the way (and is still raining). The folks at the adirondack hotel where we ate were extremely good sports to serve 5 smelly, smokey and bedraggled hikers.

The pictures can be found here.