Women and hiking

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More women & hiking.  I finally got my wife to write her own trip report!

Two weeks after the Sewards, the ladies tackle the Dix range.  The thing that impresses me is how these women are systematically taking on the most challenging groups of trailless peaks in big-mileage, 12+ hour days.  The Sewards, the Dix range, the Santanonis:  these are the peaks that generally prevent hikers from becoming 46ers.

Hi Jeff, just wanted to alert you and the lady hikers to the possiblity that there is most likely quicksand in the ADKs. I know, I know you never see anything about it in the publications BUT....

Once I went hiking with the ADK club. One of the hikers told me about how he slipped into what he thought was just some ankle deep mud but he just kept sinking. Soon he was in over his waist and still sinking. Grasping tree roots, he finally clawed his way out. Another fellow with us said the same thing happened to him. These were seasoned hikers who had never encountered anything like this. Both thought they might die and were confused about what it was.

So I asked them " were you dry when you got out of this so called " mud "? " They thought about it and then both said they were. This puzzled them.

So I asked them " What can a man drown in and not get wet? "

" Quicksand. " I told them.

This happened to them on Marshall I believe.

Something to keep in mind.

Thanks for the alert, SB.  Frightening.  

Fortunately Beth has Marshall already.  Marshall is nobody's favorite hike, perhaps the quicksand is why.
 
The day I met Beth, in July 2002, she had driven up to the Adks to hike Marshall with her friend Nancy.  We met randomly in the parking area at Chapel Pond, where I was hanging out after doing some climbs there.  I saw she had a climbing guide to the Adks on the backseat of her car, which I thought was cool, so we struck up a conversation and exchanged emails or phone #s.  That was 9 years ago, now we have 2 kids.

After hiking Allen Mountain with me a few weeks ago, Beth teamed up with a couple of her lady hiking partners for three trailless peaks of the Santanoni range in another 12-hour day, using a newly re-opened historic route.  That makes something like 14 peaks Beth has ticked off so far this summer, all of them trailless.  The ones that are left (about a dozen) will seem easy by comparison.