We've been camping at the Lake Placid/Whiteface Mountain Kampgrounds of America in Wilmington for the past week.
The area is nestled under big, white pines in the shadow of Whiteface Mountain, with the trout-filled Au Sable River just over the bank.
This is one of my favorite places because it offers everything _ climbing, hiking, fishing and miles of places to pedal my bike.
On Monday, I took some friends on their first high peaks climb. I selected Cascade and Porter, part of the 46 mountains in the area that measure more than 4,000 feet high.
After all, the guidebook says Cascade is "the easiest of all the 4,000-foot peaks to ascend. It follows the SW ridge on generally moderate grades with only a few steeper pitches."
Well, there are a few in our group who strongly disagree with that statement.
I thoroughly enjoyed the climb, but the steep, eroded trail choked with rocks and boulders of all sizes made every step more difficult than the previous.
From the trailhead to the rocky, bald summit, the two-hour climb seemed to be a never-ending task.
Maybe it was because an area track star led the pack or maybe it was because I was more than three times her age, but I found the pace to be a little on the fast side right from the start.
As we reached the top of the mountain, a group of girls headed down. One of their leaders was carrying an injured girl on her back.
Going down the mountain without an extra 100 pounds is a difficult task in itself, but stepping off every one of those rocks with a passenger aboard is an enormous feat.
I certainly wouldn't have wanted to attempt it.
Soon, we reached the summit. The rocks were a welcomed sight, and we could easily see 50 miles in every direction.
Lake Champlain and Vermont's Green Mountains were off to the east. Mount Marcy, which is New York's highest peak, Algonquin and most of the high peaks' tallest mountains stood guard to the south.
The treeless rock slides of Colden and others glistened in the bright sunlight in the distance.
Off to the north, we could see the ski runs of Whiteface and the tall, Olympic ski jumps.
Lakes and ponds glistened under blue skies everywhere we looked. The spectacular views made the climb all worthwhile.
We ate lunch on top before descending into the col between Cascade and Porter Peaks.
As long as we were up there, we made the short detour to the summit of Porter before starting back down.
Each step down was a little hard on the knees, but we all made it.
For some of my friends, those two mountains would be their only summits of the 46 high peaks. But for me, it was only an extra step in my quest of becoming a 46er.
More mountains await, and no steep, rocky trails will keep me from reaching my goal.
Let me assure you that climbing those peaks is far less of a task than watching the dozens of true athletes who are training for the Ironman Race in Lake Placid this weekend.
While I'm leisurely climbing a few rocky peaks, they're swimming 2.6 miles, biking 110 more and closing with a marathon run _ all in the same day.
Now that sounds like work!
Rick Brockway writes a weekly outdoors column for The Daily Star. E-mail him at robrockway@hotmail.com.
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