DelawareMike
06-27-2010, 11:43 AM
The camera stayed in the car for this one, accidentally, so no pics.
Day 1 - Left with 4 people in 2 cars from Yorktown, NY on Thursday. Car A had 2 kayaks and Car B had a canoe. Plan was to paddle across Lake Placid to Whiteface Landing, camp out, hike Whiteface via the Slide and Esther, camp another night, then hike out to watch U.S. soccer. Car B breaks down on route 90 near Albany and after being towed we find out it requires a new transmission. The car has 200,000 miles so we decide the car needs to be junked. The body shop that will store the car for us allows us to leave the canoe there until Monday. So we pack all the stuff in Car A and continue on our way. We reach the Adirondack Park around 7pm, far too late to start a hike, so we camp near Paradox Lake. Fall asleep after some cold labatts listening to the call of loons.
Day 2 - We get a late start stopping for breakfast and gasoline. We arrive at the Connery Pond trailhead near Lake Placid around 11. We hike in to Whiteface Landing, set up camp, go for a swim. Start up Whiteface around 1:30. We follow the trail until it begins to turn away from the brook. We head into the woods following a bearing of approximately 30 degrees, staying high up from the brook. The bushwhacking ranges from 'not-so-bad' to 'kinda rough'. One member of our party decides to follow the brook itself. We all meet up at the base of the slide in about 45 minutes. The slide is extremely wet. One person attempts to climb it and begins sliding immediately. Some gnarly bushwhacking ensues to bypass the wetter parts. We reach what appears to be an end to this section of the slide slide. We decide to enter the woods slide right. Took approximately 45 minutes to 1 hour of some seriously tight bushwhacking to find the rest of the slide. At some point during a really tight spot a stick enters my ear (more to come on that later). I feel my ear, there is no blood or pain. We find the rest of the slide. It is dry, providing great friction and the angle of ascent is low. That combination makes for an awesome slide climb. We reach the headwall, which requires some legitimate class 3-4 climbing to ascend. Eat lunch on top, head back to camp. Cook dinner, make a fire, go swimming.
Day 3 - Wake up finding my left ear bloody and deaf. Let my buddies know I am hiking out to seek medical attention. Apparently the stick did some damage. Arrive at the emergency room, find out that my ear drum is cut in several places, there are cuts in my ear canal, and there are pieces of stick stuck in there. Doctor can't believe I didn't notice something was wrong all day yesterday. Tells me to seek the care of an ear, nose, and throat specialist immediately.
Day 4 (Today) - Going to see an ENT hoping to get a quick recovery of all my hearing!
Lesson learned: If you have really bad luck, like myself, it might be a good idea to wear a hat over your ears and sunglasses over your eyes while bushwhacking.
Day 1 - Left with 4 people in 2 cars from Yorktown, NY on Thursday. Car A had 2 kayaks and Car B had a canoe. Plan was to paddle across Lake Placid to Whiteface Landing, camp out, hike Whiteface via the Slide and Esther, camp another night, then hike out to watch U.S. soccer. Car B breaks down on route 90 near Albany and after being towed we find out it requires a new transmission. The car has 200,000 miles so we decide the car needs to be junked. The body shop that will store the car for us allows us to leave the canoe there until Monday. So we pack all the stuff in Car A and continue on our way. We reach the Adirondack Park around 7pm, far too late to start a hike, so we camp near Paradox Lake. Fall asleep after some cold labatts listening to the call of loons.
Day 2 - We get a late start stopping for breakfast and gasoline. We arrive at the Connery Pond trailhead near Lake Placid around 11. We hike in to Whiteface Landing, set up camp, go for a swim. Start up Whiteface around 1:30. We follow the trail until it begins to turn away from the brook. We head into the woods following a bearing of approximately 30 degrees, staying high up from the brook. The bushwhacking ranges from 'not-so-bad' to 'kinda rough'. One member of our party decides to follow the brook itself. We all meet up at the base of the slide in about 45 minutes. The slide is extremely wet. One person attempts to climb it and begins sliding immediately. Some gnarly bushwhacking ensues to bypass the wetter parts. We reach what appears to be an end to this section of the slide slide. We decide to enter the woods slide right. Took approximately 45 minutes to 1 hour of some seriously tight bushwhacking to find the rest of the slide. At some point during a really tight spot a stick enters my ear (more to come on that later). I feel my ear, there is no blood or pain. We find the rest of the slide. It is dry, providing great friction and the angle of ascent is low. That combination makes for an awesome slide climb. We reach the headwall, which requires some legitimate class 3-4 climbing to ascend. Eat lunch on top, head back to camp. Cook dinner, make a fire, go swimming.
Day 3 - Wake up finding my left ear bloody and deaf. Let my buddies know I am hiking out to seek medical attention. Apparently the stick did some damage. Arrive at the emergency room, find out that my ear drum is cut in several places, there are cuts in my ear canal, and there are pieces of stick stuck in there. Doctor can't believe I didn't notice something was wrong all day yesterday. Tells me to seek the care of an ear, nose, and throat specialist immediately.
Day 4 (Today) - Going to see an ENT hoping to get a quick recovery of all my hearing!
Lesson learned: If you have really bad luck, like myself, it might be a good idea to wear a hat over your ears and sunglasses over your eyes while bushwhacking.