WEEKEND AT JOHN'S BROOK LODGE

The weekend of June 22nd, we left early Friday morning for some hiking in the Great Range of the Adirondacks, New York.  Here's a weekend of hiking in the Adirondacks which brought us a medley of sun, rain, thunder and lightning.  We hiked in 3.5 miles from the Garden Parking Lot in Keene, New York, to John's Brook Lodge.  We wanted to take the South Trail but as we made our way down the steep bank over to the brook, there was so much blow down that we had to turn back and take the popular John's Brook Trail to the lodge.  We settled in at the lodge for the evening with a good supper, conversation and sleep in a bunk room of two double bunks.  The next day, Saturday, we started fresh about 7:40 am on the trail to Lower Wolf Jaw, but as we made our way to Upper Wolf Jaw, we could see the storm clouds circling on either side of the range and would make a decision atop Upper Wolf Jaw whether to continue on or not.  Several systems were moving through the mountains bringing rain, thunder and lightning.  I didn't see the lightning until we reached the last mountain, that is Gothics, which had open slabs of rock with a cable running down it, which looks like a hose.  The very last place you want to be in a thunder storm.  As I grabbed the cable, I felt like a rock climber belaying down from a cliff in speed form, anxious to reach shelter in the short artic pine before the next clap of thunder and shot of lightning.  There was more rain than lightning but shelter was more important.  We covered about 11 miles in that loop for the day, making it back to the lodge by 3:50 pm, just in time for the sun to come out in full beauty to dry things off.  Mother Nature is never boring, challenging our senses and our skills.  The new slides created from last year's Hurricane Irene were amazing.  The last slide coming down Orebed Trail off Gothics was the most spectacular.  As we descended the slide with the rain running down the slab of rock, our boots amazingly stayed gripped as we inched our way down to reach the newly constructed wooden stairs to take us lower to the existing trail below.  The real challenge was getting from the bare rock to the steps as slick and slippery mud was between and one slip on this would send us on a sliding into pointy branches and debris at the bottom of the slide about a half to full mile below.  We carefully watched our footing and made our way, key was being alert and careful placement of your feet.  It was a great day with half and half of sun and  rain.  We finished our weekend on Sunday with the hike over Big Slide, down the Brothers to the parking lot.  It was a beautiful hot sunny day and as we  made our way home we made several shopping stops to top up our hiking gear and take advantage of sales in Lake Placid.  Of course, the WalMart stop provided us with savings in groceries and supper that night with burgers topped with Vermont sharp cheddar, hmmm, what a great way to end the day ... and of course, more pictures .... take a look!