Along the Geronimo Creek: 40th(New York) and 41st (Maine) State Highpoints

Friend, Ed Waley and I flew out of Austin, Texas to Manchester, New Hampshire where we rented a car and drove to Adriondack Loj near Lake Placid, New York. Our campsite was near the Van Hoevenburg trailhead to Mt Marcy(highpoint for New York). We woke in the morning to rain and temperature in the 40s. Terrible hiking weather but we didn't come all this way to stay in the tent and wait for pretty weather so off we went. We were soon wet from head to toe...About four miles into the trip, Ed and I decided that if we survived that we would spend alittle extra money that night and get motel rooms. At about five miles, Ed(who had already summitted Marcy in the past) turned around to break down our camp and get us ready to travel. I slipped and sloshed the final couple of miles to summit. (Mt Marcy- 5344 feet elevation). Couldn't see anything at the summit as the rain was coming down harder than ever. Tried to get a customary summit photo without getting my camera soaked, then quickly as possible made my way down the mountain. Total distance hiked was 14.8 miles. Time was 9 hours. Two hours after reaching the car, I was enjoying a warm dry motel room in Vermont.

We spent the next day on the road traveling east across Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine then turning north to Baxter State Park in northern Maine. Skies were clearing and the forecast was showing no rain for a few days. We settled down to camp just outside Baxter State Park at a place called Big Moose campground. The Big Moose included a restaurant where we had some excellent grub(loved their Broccoli Bake) and Ed just missed some Peanut Butter Pie.

The following morning we got up at daylight and packed our stuff and drove to Katahdin Stream campground in Baxter State Park for our climb of Mt Katahdin. We took the Appalachian Trail from the campground to the summit. We were hiking the last 5.2 miles of the AT, and we met three through-hikers that were finishing up the trail... One guy had started on Feb 26th and the others had started sometime in April. The last three miles of this trail has long stretches of steep grade with boulder climbing. The summit was windy, cold and icey but we had a beautiful blue sky and forever views. Ate lunch at the summit then retraced our steps to Katahdin Stream campground where we set up camp then drove to Big Moose restaurant... drawn by the promise of peanut butter pie. After another great meal (including more of that wonderful Broccoli Bake), we headed back to Katahdin Stream campsite for some much deserved rest.

The next morning, we drove to Manchester, New Hampshire by way of Portland where we stopped at DiMello's restaurant for the best lobster roll in Maine.