Becky goes hiking!

To celebrate Independence Day, and eschewing the first day of the Tour de France, Becky and I drove up to the Adirondack high peaks for an overnight hike in the high peaks region. This was Becky's first foray into real wilderness, and her first night spent sleeping in the woods.

After stopping off for a visit at my old summer camp in Wilsboro, NY (more on that tomorrow), we headed over to Keene Valley. Leaving the car at the Adirondack Loj, we hiked to Marcy Dam and made camp. After an early dinner and early bed time, we got up, ate breakfast and headed off to climb Phelps Mountain, before trekking to Indian Falls. After a successful day in the mountains, we hiked back to the car, to have dinner at the Noon Mark Diner, a high peaks staple, even if the food leaves a little to be desired. Below is the trip in photos, in no particular order:

Water courses over the rocks at Indian Falls
The water cut a narrow trough
Which overflows at high water

The trough pours water over the edge
Thus, the falls.
Not sure why it's "Indian Falls," but so it goes.

I climbed down below the fall to take a shower
It was pretty easy to get down
Getting back up was a little harder

Between dinner and bed
There were a few hours to kill until dark
I passed the time sitting on a rock in a stream

This is me sleeping in my sleeping bag
Becky thought it was pretty funny
that my head was burrowed all the way in to the bag

Success!
Becky makes it to the top of her first 46er
Phelps was my second 46er, so we're starting in the same neighborhood

The bottom of Phelps Mountian
That was one long mile!
I think it might have been harder on the way down.

Becky looks a little apprehensive
But she's a trooper!
This is two miles into the first day.

This is me crossing the same river
This is a shortcut to cut out some small hills from the trail to Marcy Dam
Not too many people know about it.

Here's the view from Marcy Dam
Dam in the foreground,
Colden and Avalanche Mountains in the background.

Here's the camp site.
Tent up, getting ready to cook dinner
The problem with this trip: we forgot things to do while waiting for dark!

And that was our trip. There might be a few more photos popping up tomorrow...

In other news, I just realized that Jeremy Piven, Ari Gold on 'Entourage,' plays the evil, and very short, Dean in the hilarious Will Farell film Old School. Now that's funny stuff!