Brian Richardson
Morning visitors at the Old Forge campground
We’re now solidly in the Adirondacks, which means that for the first time in weeks we have climbs tall enough to pop our ears. Over the last two days we’ve grossed almost two vertical miles! After so much flat(ish) country, we’re actually pretty excited to be back in the mountains. Also, while the Adirondacks are not geologically part of the Appalachians, these ranges are informally grouped together, and being here reminds us a lot of the mountains back home in North Carolina. For me, seeing the eastern white pines and blue tinted peaks today brought to mind a certain James Taylor tune.
The Adirondack Mountains
During our afternoon miles today, we tried to recall each of the last 61 days. The scaffolding of my memory of this trip are the locations where we ate our meals. So to remember what happened on a given day, I would think about where we ate breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and then fill in the gaps from there. For example, I remember that our lunch in Mt Vernon, OR on day 4 was where we first broke open the King Slab of beef jerky, which means we met Scott (who gifted us said jerky) and saw the dinosaur fossil earlier that morning. This process of recalling went smoothly up until the windy days of eastern South Dakota, which we all have apparently blacked out. It took us the better part of an hour of riding to sort out which day was which in this stretch of the trip. During our recollection of our time in mainland Michigan, we were swarmed by a mass of flies. Once the flies started biting, it was every man for himself to escape the onslaught, and the reminiscing was put on hold.
More scenes from the Adirondacks
Tonight we’re camping by Blue Ridge Falls, probably the best swimming hole all summer. It feels like just yesterday we were crossing the rainbow bridge into New York, and all of the sudden it’s our last night in the Empire State. More than that, it feels like the days and states have been flying by faster and faster as the trip goes on. On a phone call with our Maine-bound older brother (who is hiking the AT), Michael and I recently discussed how we’ve transitioned from thinking “how can I reach the next milestone?” to “how can I make each moment last?”
Brian unwinds at Blue Ridge Falls