Monday, May 12, 2014

TableTop, Phelps 5/11/14

We had mixed reports of the conditions in the ADK's. Sue and Bruce had hiked up Marshall the weekend before and encountered a lot of mud and deep snow off of the packed path. We decided to go up Table Top and Phelps thinking that it may be in better condition than most but still predicting difficult Spring conditions. It turned out to be a great hiking day. Some snow and ice up high but mostly good trail conditions and warm temperatures. The Table Top herd path is easy to spot and leaves the main trail .1 miles from Indian Falls. Indian Falls has great views of the Algonquin range and is an interesting area. A large stream goes across a flat rock area and then drops straight off. You can't walk to the edge safely but you get the idea that there is a pretty good cliff there. From Indian Falls to the top of Table Top is only .7 miles and was fairly straight forward mostly walking on a 2 foot high ridge of snow. The top has good views to Marcy and Haystack. As we were eating lunch we noticed a fox colored weasel type animal circling around the woods where we were sitting. It turned out to be a Pine Marten who was very interested in us or more accurately our food. He stayed in the area the whole time we were at the summit.

Next was Phelps. The trail was in pretty good shape although steep. The top was 65 with very little wind. Very nice sitting in the sun. We spent a while sitting in the sun and looking out toward the great range. Hard to get motivated to get walking again.

Carolyn just got a FitBit which counts steps and miles traveled among other things. It has a flower that "grows" the more you exercise. She had it attached just inside her shirt and spent a lot of time, since it was new, looking into her shirt to determine step progress and flower growth. This explains, to some extent, some of the pictures below.




Indian Falls



Marcy from TableTop

Haystack from TableTop

TableTop summit





Top of Phelps







This picture, and the next 3, taken by Sue




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