Two down, 44 to go: Our first Adirondack High Peak summits

Saturday night found me looking at the sky in awe.

Bright red and yellow leaves floated down from the maples and oaks surrounding us as dusk fell, illuminating the sky like falling stars.

“Sometimes, the seasons pass without me even noticing,” said Margaret, my camping buddy for the weekend, as she gazed at the trees above us. “You know?”

Yes. I know. Trips like this are our ammunition against time flying by unnoticed. Watching autumn leaves fall to the ground is a portal into the timeless, the purest form of meditation possible.

Leaf-peeping on the hike up Cascade Mountain.

We’d spent the day hiking to the top of Cascade Mountain, our first Adirondack high peak. There are 46 high peaks total, and folks who bag all 46 Adirondack peaks higher than 4,000 feet call themselves “46ers.”

Pondering the view from the summit of Cascade Mountain.

We arrived back at our tent feeling spent but exhilarated, ready for what the next day would bring.

I braced myself against a rock for this summit-celebration shot.

As it turned out, the next day brought adventure in the form of hurricane-force winds on the summit of Wright Peak, our second high peak. The gusts were strong enough to knock a person over, so we half-walked, half-crawled to the summit, where we quickly hung onto a rock for support. It was another kind of meditation: You know that if your mind starts to wander, you might not make it back down in one piece.

The climb up Wright Peak required unwavering focus.

After a soggy hike downhill, we headed back home. Hikes like the ones above make views like the one below, spotted near the town of Keene on the ride back to Saratoga Springs, even sweeter.