Fall Camping and Hiking in the Adirondack Mountains!!

Just returned from 3 days of camping and hiking in the Adirondack Mountains in eastern New York State. Let me tell you. . .it was so BEAUTIFUL! The colors in the leaves were very bright -- showing yellows, oranges, reds, greens, and shades in between. The hills and mountains were EVERYWHERE. We (as in myself and three other friends plus another friend for the day) explored the Lake Placid, New York portion of the Adirondacks. . .which is where most of the High Peaks are located.

I've learned lots of things during this trip. The first being: ALWAYS CARRY A MAP OF THE HIKING TRAIL FOR THE DAY. The first full day we were there (after arriving around 1:30 am on Saturday morning), we ended up going about an hour hiking out of our way because the trail was unmarked and we didn't have a map. We were trying to find the trail to reach the summit of Whiteface Mountain, which is the fifth highest mountain in New York. We were hiking that trail because if we were to take a car to the summit, we would've had to pay over $40 total just for that portion, since it cost about $11 for the driver and car, and $8 for each additional passenger. Crazy pricing!

So yes, needless to say, we were pretty upset. We had hiked for an hour and had to start over again. We ended up going on the right path this time though. . . and came across a climb that was extremely steep. I thought the hike up Devil's Lake in Baraboo Wisconsin was intense, but that was before I saw this trail. It was completely rocky, and it was like climbing steep stairs FOREVER. The hikers we came across told us that was the most intense part of the climb, and that it was about a mile long. HOLY CRAP! We climbed up those rocks though, but it was starting to get late and we were exhausted after hiking over an hour out of our way and using our energy to start over again. It was an amazing view at the top of that steep climb though. It was BEAUTIFUL.

We decided to end that hike after that. We were hungry for food, and just wanted to relax by the campfire after the intensity of that. It was my favorite part of the day, besides the amazing view. We made rice with veggies, and it was OH. SO. GOOD. Smores were also part of the meal, and that was thoroughly enjoyed by mostly everyone.

The next morning, we got up early to get a head start on the day. We were out of our campsite around 9 am, and made it to the parking lot of Adirondack Loj, which is where there were a bunch of different trails, most importantly the one leading up to Mount Marcy. After talking with the office staff, we learned that we were starting pretty late. For future planning: MAKE SURE TO START THE HIKE TO MOUNT MARCY SOMETIME BETWEEN 6 AM AND 8 AM. It is definitely an all day hike, with a round trip hike total of about 15 miles, which means that it should take most people between 5 and 8 hours to reach the summit of Mount Marcy.

Our goal then (after learning we started too late), was to reach Indian Falls, which was a little more than halfway towards the summit of Mount Marcy. The trail was really nice. . .it wasn't too steep, and was flat in a few areas. We passed Marcy Dam, which was about 2.5 miles into the hike. Also for future planning: IF YOU WANT TO CLIMB TO THE SUMMIT OF MOUNT MARCY, IT IS A GOOD IDEA TO CAMP NEAR MARCY DAM THE NIGHT BEFORE. That way, you can get a head start at a reasonable time and reach your campsite before dark.

The view from Indian Falls was gorgeous. We could see Mount Marcy in the distance, and there were a few other mountains in view. We ate lunch there (it was a bit chilly, but such a nice lunch stop), and then decided to climb to the top of Tabletop Mountain.

A bunch of hikers told us (as we were climbing up and they were climbing down) that they had gone to Tabletop Mountain, so we figured since we had climbed that far already, might as well climb to the top of that mountain. Just so everyone knows, that trail is not clearly marked AT ALL. Anyone climbing the "trail" is just following the brook and rocks towards the top of the mountain. It felt like we were bushwacking, only there were no bushes to wack. There were lots of roots, and lots of mud. LOTS of mud. We made it though! There was a sign on top of the mountain that said TABLETOP MOUNTAIN, and even though the view wasn't as nice as we expected, it felt amazing to have reached the top of that mountain. We made it to the top of that mountain at our turn around time, which was 3:30pm, and I am SO happy we were able to do that.

We made it to the parking lot by dark (we were pretty tired from walking though), and enjoyed a pb&j sandwich right outside the car. It was great.

That night, we ate pasta, and baked potatoes using the fire. It was so great to enjoy the last night of camping, before we needed to head out of the Adirondacks and back to the real world. I would definitely love to do it again (HOPEFULLY NEXT YEAR!) and I'd be much more knowledgable of what to expect in doing these two hikes again. I really want to try for these two again next year. I am determined to make it to the top.

I have left some photos to share from the trip. I highly recommend anyone interested in hiking the Adirondack Mountains to go out and do it. You'll be pleasantly surprised!

This is us at Lake Placid, New York. This is the Saturday morning we had gotten to the campsite super early. We were in town to grab extra supplies we had forgotten, and to wait for Abdul, who was joining us for the day. From left to right is Brittany, myself, Andrea, and Abbie.

This is a photo from the top of the steep hike on the trail to Whiteface Mountain. It was a great view and I'm so glad we made it through the mile of intense climbing/hiking. As you can see, we were super excited to reach that point.

 Panoramic View

Group photo op on Sunday morning, on our drive to Adirondack Loj, which would be where one of the trails to Mount Marcy begins.

This is what the trail to the summit of Mount Marcy generally looked like. The leaves were very colorful and this was the most prettiest trail we had hiked on all weekend.

Brittany and I at Marcy Dam. Such a precious moment.

      

The view near Marcy Dam was fantastic. There is a campsite (actually a couple of them) very close to here. I wouldn't mind waking up to this view in the morning.

This is what you see as you approach Indian Falls. The water was pretty cold.

Me near the edge of the rock base at Indian Falls.

Panoramic View at Indian Falls.

The view at the top of Tabletop Mountain. Elevation: 4,413'. Number 19 of the 49 highest peaks in the Adirondacks. Approximately 9 miles round trip.

Group photo of us at the summit of Tabletop Mountain.

Proof that we made it to the summit.

 Panoramic View of the summit at Tabletop Mountain.

On our way out of Lake Placid, we had to take a photo of us at the city sign. How cool is that?!?

Summer 2015 Photos

These are NOT all the photos from Summer 2015, but I felt that this was a good selection.

This is a picture of my housemates, Mike and Brittany. We are a bunch of crazy, fun-loving, adventurous people. I love them dearly! This photo is super funny in that we had just bought this charcoal grill and were having a hard time lighting it. It was a Memorial Day Cookout that ended up being over an hour late starting because of how little we knew of how to start it. Now we can do it pretty quick!

Picture of the Buffalo shore, right on Lake Erie.

This is a picture of Lois. A friend of mine. We decided that we needed to swim in Lake Erie and decided that this spot was a good choice. However, we kept debating about whether or not we were allowed to swim because of a sign confusion. It was placed in a weird spot stating that the waters were not safe to swim in. However, there were others there in the water. We decided to go in and actually go swimming. It was pretty cold, not going to lie. A week later we came back, and there was a clear sign stating that no one was allowed to go into the water at this area. WHOOPS.

The first free concert in Buffalo for summer 2015 was a Matt and Kim concert. The music was great, and had some great openers. However, once darkness came, the concert quickly became chaotic. These four ended up staying up front through most of the chaotic-ness, which involved the crowd pushing against the barricades and being so close together that it was hard to breathe, and fights breaking out. Lesson learned here? Don't get right next to the stage for a free Matt and Kim concert. Chances are you'll get crushed and pushed, and have a hard time escaping it.

This is a photo from participating in Color Me Rad at Darien Lake Amusement Park. It's a great run, and the profits go to a charity located in the area. It was a great run, and allowed us to spend the day in the amusement park riding roller coasters.

The two photos above are from the STS9 concert at Artpark in Lewiston NY. It was a cool lightshow, and the band played some great tunes.

This is a photo of me, courtesy of one of my students Nadia. She artfully depicted my blue colored hair perfectly :)

In July, my housemates and I (mostly Brittany) decided to foster a dog from an animal shelter. Meet Roxy, a 5-year old pitbull (pretty sure a mix) that was at the shelter for just over a year. She is super sweet with people. We are currently working on getting her behaved around other animals. We love her a bunch though!

Sunday brunch with some amazing people that I work with!

Photos above are from a sailing trip on Lake Erie with my co-workers. It was a great trip, and we ended up swimming in open water on Lake Erie. It was SO AWESOME!

Group picture of some summer camp staff on a staff trip to Darien Lake Amusement Park. I loved riding on the roller coasters. We pretty much rode them all day. My two favorite rides were the Boomerang and the Viper. It was a great day!

This is a panorama photo of the beach at camp. The clouds were rolling in, and I thought it would make an amazing picture.

A Cradle Beach Sunset.

Grilling kabobs and corn outside to celebrate the last few days of summer.

Some aerial artists dancing to music using sheets during their performance. They were amazing, especially since they were able to twist and maneuver using the cloth and their bodies to keep themselves in the air.

It's About That Time of Year Again!!

It is September. Can you believe it?? How the heck did it already get to be September?!? I feel like this summer flew by so fast! Not going to lie, it felt like a long time being away from my apartment, but when I think about what I did this summer, I feel like I did SO MUCH in SO LITTLE TIME! It's pretty strange.

I have now been away from summer camp for. . .let me think. . .about 6 days. So pretty much a week. I did go back to the camp's site yesterday for a meeting, but it was SO QUIET. I kept expecting the summer staff to show up and hang out for a bit before all our preparations for the next group of kids showing up started, but obviously they wouldn't be coming. Summer is over, and all the staff are either working normal year-long jobs, or going back to school. It's very strange to think that they won't be back for almost 10 more months.

I kinda MISS it. haha

I would've probably guessed that it would happen. Towards the end of summer though, I couldn't wait to go back to my apartment and be in my own space. Now though, I want to go back.

It's like how the saying goes, "You never know how much something or someone will mean to you until it is no longer there or available. You never know how much you'll miss it until it's gone."

Technically, camp is not "gone." It's just a long changeover. A long period until we begin again for summer camp work. It'll come back.

Also, the first day of school was today in the Buffalo Public School District. Very exciting. I really missed my kids. I also missed my teachers as well. I had FANTASTIC teachers in the earlier part of this year. I spent most of my time with Ms. Krause and Mr. Wells (Probably my two most favorite teachers, mostly because I got to know them and learn from them the most). I really enjoyed working in the other classrooms as well, but felt I was most needed in the two previously mentioned teacher's classrooms. Mainly because they were by themselves, and the other two classrooms I were in had co-teachers. Regardless of that though, I loved all my teachers.

My students that I work with will be moving up from the 3rd grade to the 4th grade (for the most part). I haven't seen them in so long. I saw a few over the summer at camp, but haven't asked them or seen them since they were there. And not all of them went to camp. So it'll be great when I can work with them during lunch and ask them how they've been and what they did this summer.

Today, I went with a few people that I work with (Rachel, Mason, and Lois) to Chestnut Ridge Park. It's a very nice park to hike around in, as they are mostly famous for the Eternal Flame (a flame that burns in a natural gas opening near a waterfall). We ended up walking to a different location though. We were looking for a swimming hole that Mason had previously seen on one of his hikes during the summer. It was a nice hike (about 20-30 minutes) before we found the swimming hole. However, it wasn't as deep as what it was earlier in the summer. It may be due to the fact that it hasn't REALLY rained in a few weeks. We still waded in, and enjoyed the brisk cold water. Rachel ended up carrying half a watermelon on our hike, and we pleasantly enjoyed it's contents at the swimming hole. YAY Rachel for bringing yummy fruit!!!

So other than starting school this month, I've just been trying to reconnect with people haven't talked to in a while. I have seen several people this past week, and it's been awesome! I also need to call several more before life happenings happen and I don't have the time to do so. Hopefully I continue to do so the rest of the month!

Other than that, I am planning a long weekend trip to the Adirondack Mountains. I'm so excited!!! I've never been there, and I've been wanting to go for a while. I'm SO excited to see the leaves change color while hiking up some mountains and seeing the AMAZING views! I'll definitely put up photos on here once I come back.

Anyways, I have attached a few photos here from our Chestnut Ridge hike to the swimming hole. Enjoy! I'll give updates soon!!

Love and hugs.

Two Weeks Left!

I CAN'T BELIEVE THERE'S ONLY TWO WEEKS LEFT OF SUMMER!! AHHHHH!! It has flown by SO FAST!! I know that I arrived at camp around mid-late June, but it feels like that was a couple weeks ago.

It is now mid-August. The air is now starting to get a bit cooler, and the days are starting to get a bit shorter. I have been leading mostly science activities this summer, but last session (10 days) I was able to be in a cabin, and work with a specific group of kids. I was a counselor for a group of 11-14 year old boys, along with 4 other staff members. It was different being in a cabin -- and in a good way. I was able to get to know a smaller group of kids, and know what their interests were and to experience camp in the way that they were able to experience it. It is a lot of work being in a cabin, and sometimes can be frustrating, but over all, they were a great group of kids. This next session I will be leading science activities again, but I now understand what the counselors experience and how they experience it (well sort of -- every cabin is different, especially with different kids). Maybe one of these days I will end up in a cabin again.

Leading the science activities has been great so far. I have lead brand new activities involving gardening/plants, crime scene investigations, decomposition, and fish dissections. I've also been leading activities that I lead for a bit last year as well, involving such things as adaptations, the scientific method through experimenting, and slime making. I think for next year, I may redo some activities that I did this summer, but also create brand new activities so that the kids that did science this year would have something new to learn and do.

So summer is ending in two weeks, with technically two more groups of kids to arrive at camp. Early September is when the school year begins again, and sometime in September I want to be taking a trip somewhere. I have not used any of my vacation days, and I feel like it is a good idea to take a break to go somewhere. Later on in the year I would like to go to Nicaragua for a couple weeks, but I feel like that is too long of a wait. I think I may be interested in going to the Adirondacks on the eastern portion of New York State, and visit/hike some of the peaks there. Maybe I'll go visit Acadia National Park in Maine, as I've never been on the East Coast before (Miami does not count). I've also been wanting to take a trip to NYC, but I may opt out of doing that this year, and possibly do it next year. I think I'm more interested in going camping and hiking somewhere new. I'll ask around to some friends to see if anyone is interested as well, but pretty sure I want to take a trip to the Adirondacks. It'll be very cool to go in the fall, when the leaves will be changing colors, and it'll be nice to get out of the city. I've also heard great things about it too. So that is what I've been thinking about these past couple days.

So yes. Summer is almost over, and I am a bit sad that it happened so quickly. It's been great being here though, and I'm glad that I was able to do it. I'll be seeing my kids from school soon, and it'll  be nice to hear about what they've been doing this summer, and to get back into the groove of things. I'll give updates on what exactly I'll be planning on traveling to in September, and will post a few pictures then too!

Updates!

HELLO!

For some reason, I thought I hadn't written on here in a while, but it's only been 3 weeks. It's not THAT long, considering I've gone for several months without writing on here.

First of all, I want to let you know that I have now finished the science after school program at the schools that I worked at. It was overall a great program, and although we didn't get a chance for every school to finish a project, it was great to be able to work with a bunch of students at the different schools. As one of the last field trips we went on, SAIL Buffalo allowed the kids to sail on some sail boats, go on a pontoon boat, and work on some gardening. The kids seemed to enjoy it, moreso because it allowed them to go on the water. However, I'm sure they would've enjoyed it more if they were able to swim. But since we were on the waters that go into Lake Erie, the water was VERY cold, and so not a good idea to go in the water.

Other than that, the free Thursday concerts at Canalside have begun, with Matt and Kim being the first outdoor concert for the 2015 summer season. It was pretty cool to see them, although the crowd was extremely rowdy and were pushing people towards the stage in such a way that it was scary. I'm pretty sure it's not usually like that, but because Matt and Kim are so popular, and there were hundreds of people there, it just got out of hand.

FYI Matt -- Please don't tell people to take steps closer to the stage when they're already squeezed together and are unable to breathe. Just saying. It was real scary in the front.

This past weekend, I ran two 5k runs. The first was Color Me Rad, a colorful fun run at Darien Lake Amusement Park. I ran it with my two housemates and another friend. It was nice to get bombarded with color while running. Also, we were able to go on a bunch of amusement park rides afterwards, and it was AMAZING to go on roller coasters after a long time of not being in one. I forgot how boring it is though to stand in line waiting for rides. I think my favorite was the Ride of Steel (Superman) Rollercoaster ride, mainly because it was extremely fast! It was awesome!

The other 5k I ran was with Girls on the Run. It was a run to donate money to the Girls on the Run program in local schools. I saw a bunch of students that I've interacted with there, and it was nice to be able to run a timed 5k. I was trying to beat a personal time of 35 min, and I ended up beating it by 5 seconds, which was very nice!!

This week is a pretty busy week too, as I'm trying to finish up getting some science camp stuff done before I head home to Michigan for several days. I'm excited for summer camp though, and excited to teach some of the stuff I've been planning. Summer camp training is less than 2 weeks away, and summer camp officially starts in 3 weeks! AHHHHHH!

May Adventures

Oh. My. Goodness.

I feel like so much has happened, and that it's only been a week or two since my last blog post. But it's been waaaayyyy longer than that. WHEW! Time sure does fly by.

Anyways, State Testing ended with a bang. I am so glad that is done and over with. The stress felt by both teachers and students have decreased by SO much. Everyone (for the most part) is now in a better mood. It's GREAT!

Earlier this month, I volunteered for the event I Love My Park Day. I went to Niagara Falls State Park, and ended up helping at the Cave of the Winds site. There were so many gulls there! SO MANY! And a lot of them were sitting on eggs. It was really cool that they were everywhere, but it was also really important that as I walked near them, I covered my head to protect myself from droppings. Volunteering felt great, since we were able to repaint some railing that a lot of people from all over the world would see/use. Plus, I was able to see the falls up close. In the picture below, you can see that there's still ice. . . ICE! And that photo was taken in the beginning of May.

In May, I also went on a hiking trip with students to Hunter's Creek County Park in East Aurora. That was really cool as well, since I had never been there before. Neither had any of the kids. The hiking trip was lead by two Buffalo Riverkeeper Staff members, and they were very knowledgeable. Any questions that the kids had were answered by Chris and John. They even showed us and taught the kids various plants in the forest and how to identify them. Very cool! The kids all raved about that trip, and it definitely felt good that the trip was a success!

During this month, there was a Cherry Blossom Festival throughout Buffalo. The cherry blossoms were very pretty, as you can see in the photos below. There were a lot of people taking photos there, and there's also a lot of events during that week as well. It made a nice walk with a friend, and two dogs, that's for sure!

Besides having a lot of meetings and after-school activities for the past several weeks, I've also made it to a couple of concerts. I saw The Heritage, a country band from Buffalo that had an amazing personality with the crowd. They sang some crowd favorites, and it was wonderful. It was also nice that the lead singers alternated who sung the songs, and they also did a couple of solo acoustic performances, which was also really nice.

Last night, I hung out with some friends (and a couchsurfer from France named Justine, who was really cool!) at a concert at The Waiting Room. We saw the bands Wild Thing, Kopps, and Priory. They were all very good. My two favorites were Wild Thing and Kopps, as they had a very energetic and upbeat performance. I've attached a youtube video of one of my favorite songs, so I hope you enjoy it!

Until next time!

(Summer is fast approaching. ahhh!)

Little Ships - Wild Things