There's never a bad time to run into the mountains, but running to them for New Years is one of my favorite things to do. Lake Placid is the jewel of the Adirondacks, with a never ending amount of indoor and outdoor activities (not to sound too much like an advertisement). This year I went up with Eva and her family as we did two years before. The fun started on New Year's Eve when I decided to take a walk down with Eva's brother Sam to get an energy drink so he could make it to midnight. Several "accidental" shots of liquor named after narcotics later, I literally woke up in an entirely different bar then the one we were taking the shots in. After an inebriated attempt to find our coats, Sam and I abandoned them and somehow stumbled home in t-shirts....in 6 degree weather. Needless to say, we didn't make it to midnight.
To help clear our bodies of "Liquid Marijuana" Sam, Eva's other brother Mike and myself decided to hike Mount Jo, a stubby 2,870 peak that has fantastic views for the effort. After a quick and mostly uneventful climb up, the weather cleared and gave us spectacular sights to properly ring in the New Year. We were the first ones to summit for the day and possibly even the year! Granted, it was a non-High Peak, but still a cool thought.
Tragedy wouldn't be far behind though, that spiteful bastard. After what sounded like a moderate fall, Sam arose from the snow on the decent down and casually remarked, with smile still on face, "My finger's broke." After a solid 60 seconds of laughing with him, Mike and I realized he wasn't joking, given the awkward tilt of his finger. A quick trip to the ER and Sam's dislocated finger was back in place, with no shortage of flinches and jeers from my queazy mouth.
We all celebrated with burgers from the Redneck Bistro who, and I must agree, boasts about having the best burgers in town. Sam buried his pain beneath the Polish Power burger, a 1/2 lb. of beef topped with a 1/2 lb. of Polish sausage. A summit victory has never tasted sweeter.
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