1. Have any animals besides a human climbed all 46 Peaks?
One of the biggest achievements for a hiker in New York is climbing all 46 peaks in the Adirondacks. They are spread out around a decent portion of Northern New York, so it takes some intentional travel and some long days to get all the peaks, some hikes are easier than others, and many involve hikes that are in the double digits of miles. According to PeakVisor, there are about 13,000 people that have officially registered as 46ers, and according to REI, only six dogs have completed the journey with their human counterparts, which is a surprisingly low number, but that number did come from an REI blog written in 2017. Also, according to DismalWilderness, the official registry has not allowed dogs to be signed up since the late 1970s, so maybe that is why? From my brief searching though, these were the only non-humans that have achieved this accomplishment.
2. So now the question is what other animals could become 46ers?
I think as far as pets go, a cat could accomplish this feat, if it has a good temperament. I did see a cat hiking at Olympic National Park in Washington, so they are out there. It could be easy to carry a gerbil or something of the sort in a pocket, but that would not be them really accomplishing the feat. It would be great to put a hamster in a ball and have them work their way up, but the trails are way too complex for that sadly. On the other hand, there are many different animals that are indigenous to the area, but this is a large amount of distance to cover, especially if they are not accompanied by a human driving them. I think the easiest answer would be birds. There are bigger birds that would have no trouble covering large swaths of ground like an Accipiter or a Yellow Bellied Sapsucker. They could just fly from peak to peak and be done in no time. Is it cheating to fly to the top of a peak though?
As far as mammals go, I think I am going to take the moose. I recently heard a story about a moose in river bed staring down people in a canoe in Minnesota, and then it ran at them and jumped over the people in a canoe. I also heard a different story about a moose traveling hundreds of miles down to Sante Fe, New Mexico, being relocated back to a place where moose live, I think in Colorado, but then the moose traveled all the way back to Sante Fe again. So I think that moose would stand a good chance of being able to navigate and having endurance to conquer this challenge.
3. Why would you not mark and maintain a trail, especially a trail where you have to pay to park at the trail head?
The trail to Nye and Street Mountain starts at a very small parking lot, and to get into the parking lot, a person has to pay. Fine, it is pretty normal to go to a park and pay to hike, but normally if you are paying to hike, that means that the money is going to maintaining the trails and the park theoretically. Although there is no reason online, I would venture to guess that it would be a pain to go up there all the time to cut apart the trees that have fallen. It takes about 3.5 miles, if not more, to get to the part of the trail where trees would really need to be cut down. It is almost like an adult playground from hell. There are trunks crossing the path at a regular basis, and there is an internal debate to go over or to go under the fallen tree, and on the tree, there are these nubs of where branches have broken off, they might look innocent enough, but they are like knives! We all had bloody scratches by the end of the hike. I feel like they could hire someone to go up and cut those things apart every couple weeks. Also it does not hurt to mark the trail. It does not take much effort to go out and white stripes on a tree. Most places do it. You make people pay to get in, so might as well mark it. Why cause unnecessary confusion.
My stepmom fell and broke her wrist on the hike, so I ran back to get some assistance, and there were a couple of times, where I thought oh crap where is the trail… Thankfully the dog was really good at knowing where the trail was, and she saved me a couple times from having to backtrack. Thankfully two other people, who were a good deal farther ahead than us got lost, and they had material that was more conducive for making a sling/splint than what we had, so them getting lost helped us out.
I know with all the trees falling constantly and the rocks moving around that they might have to re-mark the trail, but it is not that hard to walk back out, mark out the previous mark, and paint a new one. The ranger who came to help said that it was a common place to get lost, so why not prevent the confusion? We hiked Cascade and Porter the day before, and that trail was unmarked, but it was straightforward all the way through. You also just park on the side of the road for those mountains, there is no pay to play. Also I am pretty sure that having a marked trail would help with erosion and limit environmental degradation, because everyone is staying on the same path. Oh well!
4. How are the Adirondacks not constantly littered with injured bodies?
My dad and I have hiked all over the country, East coast, West coast, middle America, and we both agreed, that these trails are unlike anything that we have really seen. Everything in the Adirondacks is a climb, and not a slight steady climb, but an intense upright angle for miles on end. The steepness is not necessarily the problem as much as the chunkiness is. Everything is either a boulder field, massive stacks of intertwined roots, that look like insidious piles of snakes, or climbing over fallen logs.
I largely have no qualms with this, but it is absolutely brutal on the body. It is like doing a stair stepper that is uneven for hours. The three of us are all in pretty good shape, but at the end of the hikes both days, I would have easily believed that my knee could have exploded on the way down, and if that could happen to me, it could surely happen to anyone else. This is especially true, if you see some of the people up there hiking in fresh clean white Nikes, not carrying water, and probably not sure of what they are getting themselves into. Yet somehow, they return home unscathed, and I am not criticizing them, people can hike however they feel comfortable. It is really impressive though. I do not know how many times my high-top hiking boots have saved my ankles from rolling or even breaking.
When my stepmom fell and broke her wrist, it was a total freak accident, just a slight miss step causing a fall, that just happened to land in the perfectly wrong way to cause a break. These trails are so frequently traveled that I find it hard to believe that this does not happen multiple times a day. It is almost shocking that besides this incident, I cannot say I have encountered anything like this out on the trails. I have spent so many miles out there, and I never see anyone with exploded knees or broken arms. I assume that can be attributed to the resiliency of the human body and its ability to adapt in extreme circumstances, but who knows.
5. Which is better Raquet River Brewing or Lake Placid Brewing?
We received recommendations from multiple people that the brewery to go to was Raquet River, and after a day of hiking, it was a good place to go, but I did not think that it lived up to the hype. I did not love any of the beers that I had there. They were not bad by any means, but not great. We did have the luxury of staying next to Lake Placid Brewery, and we went there the first night for dinner, and I enjoyed two of the beers that I had, especially the Ubu Ale. Then the last night, while my stepmom was in the hospital I was left back with dog duty. I tried to go to Big Z’s, but their kitchen was closed, then I tried Lisa G’s, but they had a long wait, so I walked back to Lake Placid Brewing, and I was immediately sat, and I tried a different beer, Split Rock Maibock, and it was so good that I had three of them! There was nothing at Raquet River near as good! The food was also good both times, I preferred the steak sandwich on night two over the pulled pork sandwhich. I still think Raquet River wins food wise, but technically those are food trucks and not actually Raquet River.
6. Why is there a zip line by a golf driving range?
I leave you with this. While we were driving to the Cascade trailhead, we went past a driving range. It was the most natural looking driving range I have seen. There were still some trees in the middle of the field, and it was not the most perfect looking grass. I enjoyed it. Then right after we passed it, there was a zip lining place. It just does not seem safe to have zip lines anywhere near a driving range, but it would definitely be fun for those hitting the golf balls!
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