@ClifBarCompany #AdventurePastContest 2006 was a year with a lot of changes in my family, especially for my mother. Her mother was in the hospital with cancer, and it was like everyone was holding their breath. My mother's favorite thing to do as a family has always been hiking in the Adirondacks, so one spring morning we took off for Black Mountain. The map for this mountain may seem simple, and for a relatively smaller mountain it should have been. Yet, after heading up the right side of a loop trail, we came down the left side and took an accidental detour, which happened to lead us to a water access only trail head, just as the sun was setting. In 2006, the hiker present were me at 10, my parents, our Aupair Inoba, and my four siblings aged 9, 7, 6, and 4. With almost no cell service, and a sleeping four-year-old, we were not hiking back up. Not to mention the seven year old had no pants. We shared fleeces, we walked down roads we would come to find were tens of miles long, and we sat as my parents attempted to find service. We finally got ahold of 911, and learned that the only way off would be by fireboat. It was cold, and my siblings and I were sitting on a rock near the shore. I'll never forget looking up at the stars, and seeing my first shooting star break across the sky. In that moment, I made the obvious wish a ten year old kid would make while stuck and cold with her little sister snuggled next to her. I swear to this day, just a beat after that star, we saw the bright light of the fireboat turn the corner, and released an exhale we had been holding in. This photo is from just a few years ago when I went to conquer this old mountain with a friend, to finally figure out how we got so lost, and camp on the waterfront. In a case of irony, we got lost this time too, and ended up on a trail that led us to the very same waterfront instead of the summit. So we spent the night and hiked up to the summit on the trail my family had come down back in 2006. This image is the marker that we should have seen, but never did. Maybe one day I'll hike this mountain without getting lost, but then again, what fun would that be? (at Black Mountain Point. Lake George)
andulkaphoto
snowghoul
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