Like I say on my About page, I am a Toxicology PhD student…among other things 😉
…and my weekend spent hiking in the Adirondacks to knock some High Peaks off my list and experience the total solar eclipse highlights that 😊

I am so lucky to have my own personal Adirondacks tour guide with expertise in hiking the High Peaks in any and all weather conditions 😉 In the weeks leading up to our trip, my partner kept saying how the conditions could be really awful and how the most difficult thing would be keeping ourselves dry, as April/Spring is often very wet and very muddy in this region. (I tell him that he really needs to work on his marketing skills…but he says he is just trying to set realistic expectations…which I then say is still possible to do with some added positivity 😂).

Fortunately (believe it or not), the Adirondacks ended up getting 2-3 feet of snow (!!) a few days before we arrived, so we didn’t have to be concerned about mud anymore! Instead, we got to do yet another hike in wintry and snowy conditions 😂 (our first ADK hiking trip was spent snowshoeing up Giant Mountain on a day where the high temp for the day was 5℉…and I still came back for more!!).

It was honestly an amazing weekend (yes, even in those conditions…maybe even especially because of those conditions…you really gotta experience it to get it lol. And genuinely enjoy winter). Both hikes we did are possibly some of my favorite hikes I’ve ever done, I got to enjoy more of a place that my partner loves so much (and learn about the iconic 1980 US Hockey game played in Lake Placid), we had the most wild yet wholesome hostel experience, and we got to experience the total solar eclipse together in the most amazing way, in the most amazing place!!

Our first day of hiking, we attempted to hike Wright, Algonquin, and Iroquois Mountains. Sadly, we were only able to get Wright and Algonquin, as there were whipping winds and whiteout conditions at the top of Algonquin, making it unsafe to attempt hopping on over to Iroquois. This really sucks (especially for my partner, who is so close to becoming an ADK 46er), because we’d already gotten the hardest part of the hike over with. And it was really fucking hard 😂 (but that’s what makes it fun 🤪). So…we will have to go back! In good news, however, maybe next time we will actually get to see the nice view – supposedly Algonquin/Iroquois has some of the best views in all of the Adirondacks!! Which I can neither confirm nor deny, since we only had about 6 feet of visibility when we were there.

Our second day of hiking, which was on the day of the eclipse, was a whole other experience! We knew a lot of people would likely be trying to hike for the eclipse since the Adirondacks were in the path of totality…but we didn’t expect there to be so many inexperienced hikers doing it 😂 (people with NO backpacks/water, people wearing sweatpants instead of water resistant pants, people wearing jeans, people not knowing there would be snow on the trails…the list truly goes on).

I remember last Summer when I went to Yosemite, I was a little scared to try some of the more difficult hikes since I was alone and had read so many horror stories of people falling to their deaths. However, when I was actually there, I saw people hiking in flip flops, with very little water, and starting their hikes just as a huge mountain thunderstorm began…I then realized that a lot of the injuries/horror stories you read about may not be fully because of the park itself…

I think the Adirondack High Peaks (and a lot of the hikes in the Northeast) are especially victim to uneducated hikers putting themselves in dangerous situations. Just because these mountains don’t have the same grandeur as some of the mountains out West, does NOT mean that they are easy. In fact, the mountains in this region are known for their crazy changes in weather conditions as you move up and around the mountains. White Mountain in New Hampshire has the world record for fastest wind speed ever recorded by a staffed weather station, clocking in at 231 mph (technically, there was one faster wind speed recorded in Australia, but the point still stands). You really need to be prepared for any and all sorts of situations (and that’s why I feel so lucky to have my own personal expert, lol).

Anyway, back to our hike. On the day of the eclipse, we were able to successfully hike both Tabletop and Phelps! While these are still inarguably difficult hikes, they felt soooo easy in comparison to Wright/Algonquin 😂 It was a gorgeous sunny day, so we got to see some really beautiful views of the surrounding mountains (and had to work to not get too sweaty…because then you are at risk for hypothermia if the weather changes too much). We were really playing the day by ear (which I love…my partner not so much). We didn’t know where exactly we were going to watch the eclipse from, we just knew it wouldn’t be on one of the peaks, as we wanted to beat everyone out of there and avoid the traffic.

After we got both peaks done, we decided we were going to try and rush back to the parking lot/lodge to watch the eclipse over a lake. We were really booking it down the mountain, which is really hard for someone with short legs like myself still getting used to the new gait that snowshoes require, but I did my best. We soon realized that we probably wouldn’t make it to the lot in time, so we stopped at this footbridge over a creek to watch it (not because of my short legs, but rather because of someone else struggling to get up the mountain 😂). I don’t think either of us could have really planned it all to work out so perfectly. It was a nice break to eat some snacks, drink some water, and watch something so amazing.

If possible, I think everyone should try to experience totality at least once in their lifetime. It is a truly unique and remarkable experience. It was so cool to watch the moon take over the sun so slowly, yet so quickly, all at the same time. It seemed like it went from light to dark so quickly too. Just as the moon fully covered the sun, I peaked at it with my naked eye (I KNOW you’re not supposed to do that, shut up), and it was so, so cool to see the sunbeams behind the moon. It gets eerily quiet and cool. And it’s so cool to think that, just for a moment, so many people are halting their lives to experience the same, incredible thing (humans can be pretty cute sometimes). So many people say that watching the eclipse made them feel so insignificant in this Universe. But I disagree. I felt so lucky and thought to myself, “How lucky are we to experience something like this?” It is such a simple thing if you really think about it. And, yet, it is so rare and so cool. How lucky are we to experience something like this?

Now, enjoy some pics 🙂