GUILDERLAND — One of the great things about Boy Scouts is watching these young men take on leadership roles and be very successful at it.  Case in point was a recent trip by a group of Scouts from Troop 50 in Guilderland.

They had a desire to climb at least two High Peaks of the Adirondacks in one day.  When that request came in to the adult leaders, they were then given the task of doing a complete trip plan from where we would camp, to what mountains, using what trails and what and where we would eat.

So, on Friday afternoon, June 5, seven Scouts and two adults left the St Madeleine Sophie Church parking lot to head north for the hike.  We drove to a small camping location between Chapel Pond and St. Hubert’s on Route 74, which continues to Lake Placid.

We made quick work of setting up camp as the skies were threatening and we knew the rain was coming.  Not long after, the rain was upon us and we settled down for the night, knowing we had a long day ahead of us.  It rained pretty hard all evening and finally stopped around 4 a.m.

We were all up at 6 a.m. and proceeded to pack all our camping gear back up as we were only using day packs for the hike.  The boys made sure they had plenty of water, hats, sunscreen, trail snacks, and lunch and we drove a short distance to the parking lot of the Adirondack Mountain Reserve.

On the trail by 7 a.m., our first stop was the Indian Head lookout, which is about four miles from the parking lot.  Once there, the beauty of the Adirondacks is very apparent.  A great view of both the Upper and Lower Ausable Rivers along with the surrounding mountains kept us there for quite a while to soak it all in.

But we knew we had a long day ahead so our next goal was to head to the 13th highest peak in the Adirondacks, Nippletop.  We decided to take the trail named Elk Pass, which is only one-and-a-half miles long but lives up to its reputation as a difficult trail.

That was a very slow climb but, once at the top of that trail, we had only a short two-tenths of a mile to Nippletop.  By that time, the skies had cleared and we had bright blue overhead and beautiful green mountains and valleys at our feet.

The view was spectacular and we decided to eat lunch there and soak up the warmth of the sun and view in front of us.  After a good lunch and rest, we took off for our next destination, Dial Mountain.

Dial is the 40th highest peak and, luckily for us, is on the trail back towards the parking lot.  It only took us about an hour to reach Dial and, once again, enjoy the spectacular views around us. 

From Dial, it is basically much downhill hiking going by Bear Den Mountain and Noonmark until we reached the registration hut near the parking lot.  According to our maps, we hiked nearly 15 miles that day and were back at the cars by 5:45 p.m.  We enjoyed a nice dinner in Warrensburg and drove back to Guilderland.

Troop 50 serves youth from 11 years of age to 17.  The troop meets Wednesdays when school is in session from 6:45 until 8 p.m. at the St. Madeleine Sophie Parish Center on Carman Road.  For information, call me, Scoutmaster Sam Dikeman, at 577-0434, or call Assistant Scoutmaster Larry Vincent at 859-9633.