A Long Day on Dix

With the temperatures dropping and the summer’s rain finally coming to an end, my brother Bailey and I figured it’d be a perfect time to head back up to the Adirondacks in search of adventure on another landslide. The recent dry weather intrigued us to look for something that would give us a good challenge.

Beckhorn drainage

After much discussion with Bailey and another slide climbing connoisseur — Brian Hikes All Day, as he is known on YouTube — we decided upon a daring day on Dix Mountain (4857’). Much like Whiteface, Dix is consistently steep, tall, and scarred with landslides on almost all of its flanks.

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Mount van Hoevenberg: The Happiest Place on Earth

With travel on two consecutive weekends, my workout schedule has been disrupted lately. Not feeling completely fit, I decided to skip the Climb to the Castle on 11 August. Wednesday would have to be my overdistance day. I didn’t want to spend seven hours in the woods, so I drove to Mount van Hoevenberg to run the old Olympic trails.

new biathlon range

Like the rest of the Tri-Lakes, the Ho is inundated with tourists during the summer. Everyone wants to see the legacy Olympic venues. As I strapped on the unloader brace and my heart rate monitor, people were stepping up for the mountain coaster, the indoor climbing wall, and trying their hand at target shooting with the Be A Biathlete program.

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Phelps Mountain Mission

Your mission, Jim, should you decide to accept it, is to get your a$$ up one of the 46 High Peaks before summer is out. If you fail, readers will deny any knowledge of your existence. This tape will self destruct in 30 seconds.

Marcy Dam

Eight months into my new life in Saranac Lake, I had yet to get out on one of the Adirondack 4000. I’ve been on all of them, some of them multiple times, but most of that was a long time ago.

Sunday had a sketchy forecast. Monday would be better, but my child would be driving up on Monday to spend the month with me, so Monday was out. Eeny, meeny, miney, mo. After looking at my options, Phelps Mountain came out on top.

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