Getting to Gray peak one drops down off Skylight and then has to bypass Lake Tear of the Clouds (pictured here) which is the headwaters for the Hudson River. It’s a beautiful little high mountain lake and probably the best photo op when climbing Gray peak. The herdpath up Gray is kind of what I expected herd paths to be. Tricky to navigate, scrubby, bushwhacky and a real test of will. Fortunately most of the herd paths I’ve been on so far have proved to be not what I expected of them – they have been for the most part well maintained, easy to follow and a real pleasure to hike along. Gray on the other hand… was exactly what I expected herd paths to be (scrubby, bushwhacky, test of will). At least it was pretty short.
After scrambling up, taking a few summit shots and working my way almost down I managed to jab my leg into a broken tree branch and dug a pretty big gash in my leg. After the initial “@#$%^!” of pain, I was actually pretty pleased with myself. Finally, after many, many years of hiking, I was going to get to use my first aid kit that I lug through the bush trip after trip – yippeeee!! I pulled out an alcohol pad to wipe away the now flowing blood (no lactate monitor handy to take valuable data). The small 2-inch pad quickly soaked red and was pretty useless. Another pad did the same…. Blood starting to roll down my leg. Hmmm…, time to apply pressure and get a band-aid on this (debated needle and thread to stitch up my thigh… opted against it). Applied band-aid, which seemed to stop the bleeding. No longer in a threat of losing quarts of blood I had to now package up the “medical waste” and continue on my way. Debris safely stowed I headed down the herdpath and regained the main trail. Five minutes back on the main trail and the band-aid was now showing signs of falling off my sweaty leg. Possible recurrence of bleeding scenario? Still 6 or 7 rough miles to the car? As luck would have it a group of young ladies from the Gordon College backpacking club arrived on the scene… but before I could get them to administer wilderness first aid – for extra credit – I realized the cut was no longer bleeding…. Drat!
Other excitement of the trip back to the car was a chance meeting with Pin-Pin (and Pin–Pin jr.). He’s (they are?(long story)) an Adirondack legend (from Montreal) who has (have) summited the set of 46 ADK high peaks close to 80 times (that’s more then 3600 summits!!!). He whizzed by me like a flash with a brief conversation in French (I tipped him off about the college girls ahead so he may have quickened his pace ;-).
All in all another great hike. I was less beat up at the end of the day (cut to leg notwithstanding). The hike was a similar distance and elevation to the last hike so that suggests I’m getting stronger. Good start to a Canada day weekend.
Marcy - a revist
Skylight 28 of 46
Gray 27 of 46
skip to main |
skip to sidebar
On a not-so private road to the woods
No comments:
Post a Comment