First Weekend of May Wrap-Up

 

What a busy, but fun,  weekend, we had!  

FRIDAY EVENING

Dave worked from home, as usual, all day Friday and after his normal 8-5 time, had to then take an online class for the job....learning some kind of new computer program, so dinner was Pizza as take out since I wasn't sure when his class would end.  I ordered the pizza and surprised him by getting mushrooms on half of it for him (I don't do mushrooms). We also had green peppers on it.  While he worked on some things in the basement, I prepped my backpack and hiking clothes for the next day's mountain hike with my hiking group, SoulSteps.  There were originally 4 people signed up for this, but 2 people had to drop out, leaving just my friend Evelyn and I. Evelyn is someone I just met last May (2025) when she joined the group .....and that's when I found out she is the mom of my oldest daughter's boyfriend, whom Courtney had just started dating last May! Dave was mentally tired from work so wanted to crawl into bed by 10 pm. ......I joined him to read for a bit. 

SATURDAY

Saturday's weather promised partly sunny for the area of the Adirondack Mountains where the mountain hike was taking place, along with 5% chance of rain, and temps only in the 40s on the ground (which means only in the 30s on the summit!). After coffee and a protein packed breakfast, Evelyn arrived and since she offered to drive, I put all my hiking gear in her car and off we went at the early hour of 7:30 AM.  Dave had a gaming event from 11 AM-8 PM so he said there was no need for us to  rush home after the hike. We arrived at the trailhead around 9:15 and to our surprise, the black flies hadn't started yet up there!  Black Fly season in the ADK is typically Mothers Day through Fathers Day and sometimes until the end of June if a particularly wet Spring. Our Spring hasn't been super wet (yet) like last year so we were happy there were no bugs. However, it was cold. We needed hats to start out.  We had some clouds at first but then about a half mile into the hike, the sun and blue sky showed up.  It was warming up, as well and was a pleasant 48 degrees.  We had layers on and shed the hats. We were the only people on the trail. 

This is about .9 miles into the hike
we crossed this stream by rock hopping
as there is no bridge here and paused to take in
the bog/meadow view 

I spied some trillium beginning to bloom!
This is a protected plant in NYS
which means do not pick!! 

Here is about the 1.2 mile mark
and where the trail now begins a significant switchback
before a significant climb. You can see that here
in the Central ADK which is about 1.5 hours northwest of my home,
 that the trees are just now budding....they are about 3 weeks behind us

This is at one of the 11 overlooks
(Not counting the Summit!)
where we could get a good glimpse
of Gore Mt and some of the higher peaks

Evelyn takes in the view from one of the overlooks
You can see that at this point, we had full sun and beautiful blue skies

Here I am on the Ridgeline
We are about at the 2 mile point at this spot
only another .8 miles to go! 

This is just after crossing over the ridge
and the clouds starting moving in again

I don't know if you can see it, 
but there was a drop of rain in the center 
of this fir tree branch.....it rained for about 45 seconds!
and then the sun came out again as you can see

We are almost to the summit at this point,
and it began to sleet! 
it was now about 32 degrees F so on went the hat again! 

The sun came out for about 5 minutes on the summit
so we ate our lunch sitting on the large rocks to the side.
3 other hikers...all college aged girls with a dog arrived on the summit
about 10 minutes after we did......they left just before us.....
while we were gathering our lunch things, it began to sleet again!
I had to add a layer (a windbreaker under my down vest and over my 2 hiking shirts....
when you are used to hiking in the northeast, you learn to dress in layers in the Spring and Autumn)
and then as we were about to leave the summit,  a man around our age arrived.
On our way down the trail heading back down the mountain, we met his friend.
We told him it was only about 32 on the summit and he said yup and sleeting I'm guessing.
It stayed sleeting for about 10 minutes and then it cleared up again to stay partly sunny the rest of the trek down. All in all, it was a fantastic climb and my 5th time up Moxham Mt. 
We hiked a total of 5.78 miles

It was such a great "First Mountain of  2026" hike! It was Evelyn's first time up this mountain and she really enjoyed it. She said she felt the stress of her work week just slip away.  I said yes...I could feel the pain in my upper back just slip away as I approached the summit. The mountains are very healing. 

When I arrived back at my house, it was about 4:30 PM so I unpacked, had a nice long hot shower and put on comfy yoga pants and a tee shirt.  I checked on my flowers to make sure the rabbits had stayed away and did a load of laundry.  I had leftover pizza and salad for dinner and then spent the evening reading blogs, reading my book group assignment and watching the rest of a series I had started on Netflix. Dave arrived home around 9 PM and we chatted about our days and then read in bed a bit before sleep. 

SUNDAY 

Dave and I were up early Sunday morning to have coffee and go to the 9 AM church service. The sanctuary was full! After talking to a couple of friends, we came home and I started prepping veggies and chicken to make Chicken Curry over rice for our company. While I cooked, Dave mowed most of the backyard, both sides and the front lawns.  Everything came out great and I had enough for the 6 of us (I'm not used to cooking Indian food for a crowd!).  On the side we also had steamed green beans and steamed spinach. Our company was our oldest daughter Courtney and her boyfriend Tyler, along with our "third daughter" Hannah and her husband Scott. Scott is employed full time at our church as the Production Manager and Coordinator.  Hannah is our choir director, our  daughter Courtney's good friend...and our good friend...she is a vocal music teacher in our local school district. They arrived around 1 pm after the 11 AM service.  I was so busy hosting and fellowshipping, I neglected to take photos.  Everyone seemed to love the food and dessert was homemade mocha brownies. I sent some home with Courtney so we wouldn't have the sweets left in the house. After everyone left around 4 pm, I sat down to read, after loading up the dishwasher and Dave went outside to finish mowing the back yard. We are spending the evening watching a Netflix movie and reading. 

This week has a few obligations but not too many so I'm hoping to get some more spring cleaning done by tackling the guest bathroom floor and going through some old camping items for the local thrift store. I have one hike to lead this week (Friday) and my annual blood work is early Tuesday morning followed by joining my friend Cheryl's hiking group on a hike in the Lake George area.  On Thursday, if it's a nice day, I'm planning on visiting my cousin Kenny who lives in the Adirondack village where my family camp used to be when I was a child. It's located in the southern Adirondacks and is only about 1 hour and 20 min from my house.  I'm also thinking of applying for a volunteer job at a local visitor's center...I need to look into what it entails this week. 

I hope you have had a wonderful weekend!