My husband and I reached our eleven year anniversary this summer.
For our anniversary each year so far, we’ve traveled to a destination within driving distance to celebrate. We’ve been to lots of places, but the highlights so far have been Boston (stay downtown!), Toronto (see a musical!), and Ottawa (don’t bring your one-year-old unless absolutely necessary, and if it is necessary, definitely don’t feed her nachos before bed if you expect to get any sleep).
Lake Placid was the type of trip I, personally, hadn’t yet taken. I guess you could say I’m not exactly the outdoorsy type. I really wish this weren’t true. I would love to feel more connected to nature on a more regular basis. I really admire the people who seek solace in the wilderness. I admired one such person so much I moved across the country to marry him.
If you’re going to spend three nights in Lake Placid and you have two legs that work fairly well, there really is no excuse not to find your way to the top of a mountain. At Whiteface Mountain, you can actually drive most of the way up, then ride an elevator the rest of the way to the top. There’s also a fairly easy climb from the parking area to the summit of the mountain, which is the route we took.
But the true highlight of our trip was climbing Cascade Mountain, one of 46 Adirondack "high peaks.”
We chose Cascade because it has a reputation as being one of the easiest to climb. It has a “bald face” with a spectacular 360 degree view of the surrounding Adirondack mountains, and with Lake Placid and Mirror Lake nestled below. Though the hike isn’t exactly easy, it’s easy enough that I saw several children climbing it. We met a six-year-old hiking with his grandfather.
I also saw people our age and younger in tears only about a third of the way up. I guess it really boils down to how you like to spend several hours of a beautiful weekend day.
Personally, I found the climb challenging, but fun, and an utterly perfect way to spend our anniversary.
Trailhead to Cascade Mountain.
It’s not all groomed trail…
We could actually have hiked two of the 46 high peaks – Cascade & Porter share a trailhead
and the trails diverge only about a mile from the peaks. Maybe next time…
Proof I made it to the top. Unfortunately it was quite hazy up there so my photos of the
surrounding area didn’t turn out too well, but you get the idea.
Here are a few of my favorite shots from the rest of our trip.
This is the sky we saw over Mirror Lake before we walked down to the Lake Placid Brewery for our first dinner out.
Some of the wildlife we saw:
Post-Cascade Drinks
A pink sunset
Our decision not to push through to Porter after we reached Cascade tells me we may have awhile before we’ll be ready to conquer the other 45 Adirondack High Peaks (some of them, I understand, are very challenging climbs and can take as long as twelve or more hours). However, the fact we talked about hiking anymore mountains together at all tells me our trip was a success.
Here are a few resources if you’re interested in learning more about the Adirondacks High Peaks and Lake Placid:
The Forty-Six High Peaks
The Official Adirondack Forty-Sixers Website
List of the Adirondack High Peaks with approximate hike/climb times. Includes a printable download
Here’s a great Flickr group with hundreds of gorgeous photos of the 46 High Peaks
Lake Placid
The Lake Placid Flickr Group
The Official Tourism Website of Lake Placid
Our Favorites
Lisa G’s Restaurant had a unique and delicious menu, beer and wine selection and Lisa herself came over to make sure we were being taken care of. Loved the hospitality, the view from the patio and her creatively-written menu!
Lake Placid Pub & Brewery – because we love craft beer and the cozy bar with better-than-movie-theater fresh-popped popcorn (truly delicious).
Golden Arrow Lakeside Resort – when they say lakeside, they mean it.
The view from the little patio outside the door of our hotel room at the Golden Arrow Resort
