×

Class of 46 reunion

Two Paul Smith’s College alumni almost didn’t hike the High Peaks this summer, and it all came down to a judge’s decision to disallow the renaming of the college.

“We were going to boycott the reunion if the name change went through,” laughed Jeremy Marble and Mike LeMay. The college hosts a reunion each year, and 2016 marked 20 years since the pair graduated.

Marble and LeMay both grew up in Syracuse and attended Paul Smith’s College for forestry-related programs. While neither of them live in New York anymore – LeMay lives in Ohio and Marble in Oregon – the pair decided to hike all the High Peaks in one go after another incident prevented LeMay from completing the 46.

LeMay said that he had planned to hike all the peaks five years ago, but Hurricane Irene hit the area about a week before he had his hiking vacation planned.

“I couldn’t do the High Peaks, and at the time Jeremy was hiking the Appalachian Trail,” LeMay said. “So I figured, why not go hike 400 miles with him?”

LeMay and Marble completed all 46 High Peaks, plus MacNaughton Mountain, in just 15 days, and wrapped up their hike Tuesday on Allen Mountain. The pair began on July 25.

Marble has hiked the Appalachian Trail, the Pacific Crest Trail and several other long-distance through-hikes, but said that climbing the High Peaks was one of the hardest challenges he had completed.

And that’s coming from a guy who recently completed a 100-mile running race, has another 100-miler in the works and did the Ironman in Lake Placid nine years ago.

“Out West on those trails, they’re all switch-backed and graded,” he said. “In the Adirondacks, you’re just hiking straight up and straight down.”

Marble and LeMay hoped to backpack the entire trip, but had to make some adjustments due to what amounted to a lack of food.

“On those long trails, you can do 30 miles a day with sort of a minimal amount of calories, like 3,000 to 4,000. But in the Adirondacks, it’s such a workout. You’re just going up and down all the time. You’re just hungry all the time,” Marble laughed.

Marble and LeMay, who spoke via phone from the Syracuse area, said they did a couple of short day hikes, but the rest was backpacking and camping in the backcountry.

They said they climbed Whiteface and Esther mountains on the same day as Cascade and Porter. Giant and Rocky Peak Ridge were also done as a separate day trip since the mountains are not part of the High Peaks Wilderness Area.

They laughed about their lack of wildlife viewing, noting that they saw a deer and a turtle on their last day of hiking.

But they did say they had two run-ins with bears. LeMay said the first encounter was a sow with a cub that they stumbled on and was only about 10 feet away when they noticed each other.

“I think we surprised each other, and she just took off,” he said. “It was a very natural bear encounter.”

The state Department of Environmental Conservation has warned that due to the dry conditions, bears have been more active. That statement has been backed up by numerous other hikers in the High Peaks who have reported bears on trails and near campsites.

Marble and LeMay’s second bear encounter was slightly less pleasant.

“We were camped out at Lake Arnold,” Marble said. “Mike was at his hammock and I was just getting back to camp and a bear was literally walking down the trail and walked right into our camp.”

“I was getting my coffee ready and I saw a black object. I thought it was a dog at first because we had seen a really cool dog the day before,” LeMay said. “And then it popped out on the other side of my hammock and was right there.”

“He was pretty determined to get our food, but we weren’t having it,” Marble said. “We started yelling and threw a couple of things at him and he took off. And then he came right back to us. We got a little more aggressive, yelling and throwing things, and he was just huffing and hissing at us,” he said.

“By that time, the people who were camped maybe 50 yards from us had heard us, and he (the bear) was making his way toward them. This bear clearly had his rounds that he was making. He had a history of being successful probably.”

LeMay and Marble escaped the encounter with their bear canister and food stores intact.

Although they said the High Peaks were one of the most physically challenging things they had done, the mental part wasn’t that bad for them.

“I think the experience of thru-hiking really helped us out,” Marble said. “When you have a close friend that you can talk to it’s just easier.”

“There was a couple times when you just have to slog through,” LeMay added.

“The whole mental (challenge) part of it was probably in the beginning of it when you realize that you’ve got 46 peaks and you’re only on number three,” Marble laughed.

But far from turning them off of hiking, LeMay and Marble have already started planning their next trip to the Adirondacks, to coincide with their 25-year Paul Smith’s reunion.

They plan to hike the 136-mile Northville-Placid Trail in eight to 10 days.

“It sounds amazing, not being out for four-and-a-half, five months,” Marble laughed.

NEWSLETTER

Today's breaking news and more in your inbox

I'm interested in (please check all that apply)
Are you a paying subscriber to the newspaper? *

Starting at $4.75/week.

Subscribe Today