Giant Mountain- #1 of 46

  Keene Valley, New York
Sunday, October 8, 2006

Eric and Francine arrived at the rv around 9am, and we took of for the base of Giant Mountain, about 45 minutes away. It was another beautiful day (seemed like every day was!) with sunshine and temps eventually reaching the 60s, which is unusually warm for the ADK mtns this time of the year.

Giant Mountain is 1 of the 46 ADK peaks above 4,000 feet in elevation, and would be Jeska's first BIG hike. It starts at about 1600 feet and summits in only 3 miles at 4627 feet. So its pretty steep at times. I thought about Roxy. However, after her leaving us behind up Cardigan in NH the other day, knew she'd probably be waiting for us again up this one. I'd hiked a few of the others back in my youth, climbing Mount Phelps in 92 and Big Slide in 95, both w/ my friend Wally when I was a teenager.

We packed up a bunch of food, water, and the like and set off up the trail around 1030am. within a few hundred feet of climbing the views started openining up showing many of the other surrounding ADK peaks. There were still waves of colors spread across the mountains, with oranges, yellows and reds on the lower slopes and evergreens blanketing the upper slopes, topped off mainly by rocky peaks.

We took our time on the way up, stopping several times to sit down, take in the views, and eat/drink a bit. Roxy was on a rampage up this mountain- I mean like a mountain goat. On near vertical rock, she was bounding up, and mean looked like she was running almost straight uphill! I was so impressed- back home she'd spend most of the day huddled behind a toilet in the hallway bathroom, and regularly would shake constantly. We would take her out on walks, she'd pee a house or two away, and tug on the leash to go back home. Little did I know she was an amazing hiking dog. We've always wondered what type of dog she is- lab, mutt- someone ine Woodstock suggested because she is really quiet and her tail curls upwards she might be part Bessengi, which I've learned are bred in Africa for hunting. Out in open space, it turns out Roxy is FAST! Like greyhound fast, she's like a little bullet.

Jeska, meanwhile, seemed to be enjoying herself much more today that on her earlier hikes, getting used to the efforts I guess. She especially liked when the trail got steep and she had to do some rock scrambling to climb up.


It took us about 3 hours to make the summit after all of our stops, but it was sooooo beautiful once on top, although a bit crowded. I think it was Canadian Thanksgiving and also Columbus Day the following day, so there were alot of people out enjoying the area. You could see several of the other large ADK 46ers from one side, and when I scramled over to the other side of the mountain you could see all the way to Lake Champlain about 40 miles away and the Green Mtns beyond that. Visibility was perfect. We hung up on top for about an hour eating and chatting.


On the way down, it was late afternoon and the mountainsides were baked with the setting sun. We stopped at Giant Washbowl, a small lake up on the mountain about 700 feet from the base. The whole scene was just perfect.

We again stopped in Elizabethtown on the way back to the campground to pick up some food from the market. We later made some delicious salads and ate them in the rv while I showed Eric and Francine pictures of the past few days together, while also loading a copy of them all onto each of their laptops so they could take the memories back home with them.