I decided to take Friday as a vacation day from work, my 10YO daughter had the week off of school and the weather has been miserable. Friday the forecast was for a beautiful day, sunny and high in the upper 50's. I could have ridden a metric, could have gone after a big hill, could have done a lot of things but I decided to pack the 10YO up and head for the Adirondacks to work on her goal - becoming a 46'er. A 46'er is someone who climbs all 46 high peaks in the Adirondack park (peaks over 4000' of elevation).

It was a full day, we got to the trail head of Cascade Mountain at 9:30AM with full winter day packs - there was a good 4' of snow at the tops of the high peaks and it had snowed a few inches the night before. We packed crampons, snow shoes, extra clothes and lots of water and snacks. We started off.

We were on the Summit of Cascade right at lunchtime, eat lunch and had a small break and then we added Porter to the list of summits, hitting that summit just after 1:30. We were off the mountain by 5:30 that evening. Then a big dinner at the Noon Mark Diner in Keene Valley and the long drive back home.

The sky was perfect, the snow was beautiful, the trails are a lot easier when they are snow packed - no rocks to scramble over or mud to slog through. You just need the cleats because there is ice in many places.

My daughter was totally whipped when done, and so was I. I am thinking this was a great cross training day, I did get my HR up and worked muscles I don't hit when cycling.

My daughter has a blog if you are interested.