Last week I took Bradley on his first adventure camping in the Adirondacks! I saved the two "easiest" high peaks Cascade and Porter to do with him to see how he likes mountain climbing.
We left Tuesday morning and arrived to the South Meadow site around 3pm. I hadn't been to this spot before, but it was nice primitive campsites right off the road with access to trails close to the Loj. We set up camp then explored around the road up and down for a few hours before dinner.
Here's where the fun starts....
Around 8:45pm Bradley took his flashlight and started exploring around the campsite. It was twilight and just a bit of light left for the day. I ducked into the tent to clean up and change into PJs. When I came back out of the tent, Brad was NOWHERE to be found. I started yelling into the woods for him, and heard a very faint and far away reply. I quickly put my boots and headlamp on, then went a bit further into the trees and kept yelling for him. No response. Cue the freak out!
I continued walking around the site, up and down the road, and into the woods as far as I could and still see the tent.....I didn't get another reply. I decided I needed help and could not do this on my own, or else I would get lost too. I walked down the road to where I saw a couple was camping and told them the situation. I gave them the DEC emergency number and they drove away to find a signal and call for help.
It took about 20 minutes until they returned, but thankfully they had a ranger following them! By this time, it was around 9:45pm and pitch black outside. I gave the ranger all the details and information I could as several other rangers pulled up as well as police. The ranger instructed a few others on the plan then headed off into the dark woods to find him. He was confident it wouldn't take long. The police officer drove farther down the road to park his car and run his siren for a few minutes so that hopefully Brad would here it and go toward it.
The nice couple stayed with me to help keep me calm, and after only about 30 minutes a ranger stopped by and said they had located Bradley!!!! It took another 30 minutes for them to hike out of the woods and get back to the campsite at around 11pm.
Brad was very scratched up from thick tree branches, and soaking wet from crossing creeks...but otherwise intact and happy to be found! I was so thankful for the rangers/police and their speedy assistance. They truly have super powers!
They rangers actually encouraged us to continue with our plans for hiking the next day, and didn't want this to ruin our experience. Brad agreed that he still wanted to hike (despite his boots being wet), so we woke up early the next day and drove to the trailhead for Cascade and Porter.
We did Cascade first which has a beautiful view and a bald summit. The weather was perfect and we enjoyed a break before heading on to Porter. When we got there, we had lunch and took our shoes off for a rest!
By about 1pm some storms were moving in, so we began our descent down the mountain trail. We filled up on water at a creek close to the beginning, then returned to our campsite by 3pm. We discovered a sweet note the ranger who found Bradley had left on our tent while we were away, as well as a ranger patch!
The rain moved on and we just rested in the tent and enjoyed our last dinner before heading home the next morning. All in all, Brad said he had a fun time and is looking forward to going again!
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