Since I stop to take a lot of pictures when I am hiking along a trail, especially when the weather is nice, my hiking partners often get a chance to stop and wait for me to catch up to them.
The lower portion of the Cascade Mountain trail passes through mixed hardwood forests which can be pretty dense in the summer time and very colourful in the Fall. As with many trails in the Adirondacks, hikers get the joy of walking through boulder fields which vary in density. The Cascade boulder fields are relatively easy to navigate providing that the boulders are not wet or icy.
Once above the boulder fields, the trail begins to pass through conifers and opens up to some vistas of the surrounding countryside.
At that point, you realize that you have been climbing steadily even if you are in great shape and haven’t noticed that you have been climbing. For the rest of us, it is a chance to get a breath and look around, take some more photos and perhaps stop for a lunch break and soak up a bit of the sun on the warm, exposed rocks. :-).
