Sixteen miles, six-and-a-half hours, three falls, two ankle rolls and one High Peak later, Libby, Sophie and I had successfully hiked Mt. Allen as part of Peak Weekend.
We only had to visit the trailhead twice before finding the right one, but once we found our trail we took off with a vengeance.
We ran most of the way up, until reaching the slowly-freezing river bed of the summit trail, were we slowed to a cautious climb. We started to see remnants of snow (YAY!) and we also had an impromptu general strength session as we pulled, pushed, and otherwise forced ourselves up the rock face. The view from the top was actually quite nice, but we were thankful for the forested peak because as it was, we were completely frozen after our ten minute break.
I had hoped for the sun at the top, but even without it the foliage was beautiful. A few of the peaks had quite a bit of snow on them, and even at the top of Allen, I tasted my first mouthful of the season.
The way down held all of our falls, a few more food breaks, and a significantly slower pace on the last part of the hike.
I found that I could keep up with Libby and Sophie while running and hiking, but when we were walking I was like a dog on a short leash. Every five minutes or so I’d fall behind, jog a little to catch up, fall back again, jog a little... I’m blaming this on short legs, not on lack of leg strength… By the time we were attempting to finish our last few miles we were beat.
We got back to campus around 5:30 and pried our destroyed bodies out of the warm, comfy car. It was a great OD despite, or possibly because of, the fact that I felt as though I had been hit by a truck.
Turns out it is possible to do Mt. Allen as a day trip.
Well we still need to go through the results and check the record books but I think this was probably one of the best time trials up St. Regis in recent years. The weather didn't hurt.
