Camping trip - Day 2 (July 2)

Here we go. The most exciting day of the trip. Most of us got up at around 8 am and this place looked so different in the morning!!! It turned out to be a very organized place with log wood cabins and lots of people around camping in their own RVs which is basically a trailer attached to a vehicle. Heck, they even had bathrooms with running hot water.I didn't take a bath but some of the more 'hygienic' ones did. Duh, this is not how a camping trip is supposed to be. Anyway, while the others were getting ready, I & Harsh sneaked out to the lake nearby and clicked some photos and a video. The weather seemed really violent.U can clearly see the waves behind Harsh in the photo and ofcourse in the video.
By the time we got back, the others were ready and packing up everything. Once we thought we were done packing, it was the other guys' turn to make a visit to the lake and have fun.

Before leaving, the forest rangers told us to be wary of the weather since thunderstorms were predicted for the day. That didn't at all dampen our enthusiasm. And so we made our way to the adirondacks lodge which was around 30 miles from where we camped last night. On the way, we passed Lake Placid again. We finally reached our destination and started gathering all the important stuff. There were lots of really good cars parked around which indcated that not only were there a lot of trekking enthusiasts but also that most of them must be financially well-off. Look at this car!!!

We left behind some things in the van and the rest was stuffed into our backpacks and each of us held our own sleeping bags. We all were ready and raring to go and to our delight, the weather was with us too. The sun shined brightly and brought smiles on our faces.

So off we went in search of the perfect camping spot. On the way we met many trekkers who were on their way back and I was thinking 'are we too late?'. As always in all trips some people are faster than the others. In this case, one of us was slower than the others. Any guess as to who it was? Well it was the one who was making her debut in trekking - Vatsala. She had started off with great enthusiasm on day 1 but now that was no where to be seen. It was really good to be in the midst of nature and I realized how much we take nature for granted. The trail was not really beautiful since we were always surrounded by bushes and tall trees but it was fun walking nonetheless. We took a couple of breaks in between, mainly for the weak link, and finally reached our pit stop - Marcy dam. It offered a breathtaking view of the Adirondacks and we could see the tallest mountain in the region 'Mt. Marcy' as well as our destination 'Mt. Phelps'. Here are some views of and from the dam as well as a video.

We walked a kilometer more and reached a spot where Amol & Co. had camped before. So while we waited at that spot, Amol & Candice went in search of another perfect spot and soon enough came back with good news. This place was just a couple of hundred metre from the previous one and was fairly hidden from the trail. I still have no clue as to how they found this spot. It was perfect. There was a stream containing icy cold water flowing by and a clearing which was just about enough for two tents. We immediately started setting up the tents while simultaneously, Ranjana was arranging to feed our hungry stomachs. By the time we were done with the tents, Ranjana had heated up soup for us and was busy heating up Spanish rice. Harsh was enterprising enough to offer a good view of the spot with this neat video. We all devoured the food and prepared for the uphill climb. We kept most of our things in the tents and took only the essential items like water, energy bars, torches and cameras.

Pretty close to our tents was another stream over which a couple of logs acted as a bridge. Mukul, our official photographer clicked some snaps and here is one of them.

We had to cover an altitude of around 2000 feet and I thought it would be pretty easy but boy, was I proved wrong! There are 3 colours to indicate the degree of difficulty of the trails; Yellow for the easiest; Green for intermediate and Red for the most difficult one. It wouldn't take a genius to figure out that we took the red one. Fortunately, everyone seemed to be fit enough and had enough stamina to keep going. As before, Vatsala's progress was pretty slow and I stayed back with her and Amol for most of the climb. On the way, we met more people and they all would say that its just 20 minutes or so but in fact it took us two and a half hour to make it to the top. We reached there at about 4:45 pm and was disappointed to see that there was only a huge rock on which we could rest, otherwise the top was completely covered with bushes but the view more than made up for this shortcoming. There were mountains all around and the wind was pretty strong; in fact sometimes strong enough to jeopardize our balance. We spent around 30 min and clicked some snaps and videos, one by me and one by Harsh.

Then started the descent and this was more difficult and dangerous than the ascent because the rains from the previous night had made the trail muddy and slippery. Somehow after two more hours of walking and talking we finally reached our tents in one piece. We all were exhausted and I had a severe headache. Ranjana diligently started preparing dinner and most of us had gone bonkers over the soup. After dinner, we clicked some crazy pictures and later gathered in one of the tents for a session of story-telling. Needless to say, it was about ghosts and spirits. A couple of us already fell asleep and that's when we decided to call it a day. Here is a compilation of all the photos from the trip.

Coming up, day 3.