Write-up: Roger Felske
Chairman: Roger Felske
Co-Chairman: Dick Blanchard
Keepers of the Canopy: Dick and Lu Blanchard

The 25th consecutive High Peaks Weekend (HPW) recorded a record number of participants, 44 with three cancellations at the last moment. With such a large number, our foremost concern was accommodations and food. Fortunately, some Tramps opted to get their own campsites and others either stayed in the lodge or in Lake Placid.

Realizing that we were going to have a record number presented an issue that we hadn’t been faced with before. How do we feed that many people? Dick and Lu Blanchard, Mary Pat Connors and myself put our heads together to estimate how many hot dogs, hamburgers chicken burgers, sausage patties, rolls, coffee, pancake mix, etc., that we would need. In the end, we had enough food to feed the 10th Mountain division, and no one went hungry.

The weather was once again on our side, thank you “Sunshine Girls,” (Deb Roberts, Lois Chierichella, and Gail Hannahs). Saturday was an ideal day for hiking, cooler temperatures and slight cloud cover prevailed but the views were still awesome. Tramps went in several directions conquering such high peaks as Giant Mountain, Rocky Peak Ridge, Marcy, Redfield and Cliff while others elected to climb Mt Jo and then hiked over to Rocky Falls. On Friday, a group of early arrivals chose to do Algonquin, Iroquois and Wright Peak.

Some of the lady Tramps, (is that an oxymoron?) led by Carolyn Eastman, climbed Indian Head for a view of the Upper and Lower Ausable Lakes.

Garrulous Tramps always enjoy sitting around the campfire reveling in stories of the day and past adventures on HPW. Stories from the past are just as funny this year as they have been for the past several years, taking on a life of their own. This year we had two campfires to better accommodate everyone and to help ward off the evening chill.

In celebration of the 25th Anniversary of HPW, t-shirts were offered that said, “25th Anniversary, High Peaks Weekend 2015 on the front and “Tramps do it on the Trail” on the back. Shirts were handed out on Friday evening and Saturday, one Tramp, wore hers while climbing Giant Mtn. Sixteen people met at the Giant Mtn Trailhead and split into two groups, one being a slow group and the other being much faster and on a mission to do Rocky Peak also. Getting to the summit, we were rewarded with spectacular views of Keene Valley and beyond.

Well, we were all enjoying the summit views when Lois took off her pack exposing the back of her t-shirt. She went over to a young man to see if he would take our group picture, which, of course, he was willing. To see his eyes when Lois turned around was priceless! At first he squinted and then his eyes popped wide open, you could almost read his mind. As fate would have it, part way down the mountain we stopped for a water break on a rocky outcrop and who did we encounter but the hiker who had taken our picture. Amid much laughter, the hiker from on high wanted to photograph the back of Lois’s t-shirt. One photo led to many and we had a true “Rock Star Tramp.” Now for the embarrassing part, there was a tall thin cairn on a boulder near Lois that our “Rock Star” thought was more stable than it was. With a slight touch from Lois, in front of her new fans, the whole cairn came tumbling down to the horror of everyone…and now there is a new cairn.

That Lois! I also found a pair of red boxer shorts hanging on the front of my tent cabin, but that’s another story for another time.

Once again, Dick Blanchard fell behind in his quest to climb Phelps 46 times. Usually he can convince, cajole etc., someone to hike with him, but this year for the second consecutive year, no takers, maybe next year.

As usual, MANY Tramps pitched together, whether cooking, washing dishes, cleaning, preparing food, hauling trash or whatever needed to be done to make it a successful weekend.

For the first time that I can remember, we had two millenials, (reaching adulthood around the year 2000 and under the age of 30) who survived, had a good time and realized that Tramps really do have fun times.

In 2014, as we were breaking camp, Colleen Felske had a dead battery and who but Dick Blanchard came to her rescue with battery charger in hand. This year Dick’s battery was dead, his charger was dead and Lu had to borrow jumper cables from the ADK visitor center. Hard to believe, isn’t it?

Special thanks go out to Dick and Lu Blanchard, and Mary Pat Connors for all the time and commitment in making this an enjoyable weekend, and one to look forward to next August 5, 6, 7th, 2016.

More pictures can be viewed in the Gallery of the Blog.