There's a lot to be said for following the famous Boy Scout motto, "always be prepared". This hasn't always been my motto, but over time I've learned the folly of my ways. Luckily, my mistakes have become thing of legends rather than a tragic tale.

It was the end of finals and my friends and I were ready to start our summer holidays, but we decided to take a hiking trip in the Adirondacks in Lake Placid, NY first. Having never been there before, we thought it would be fun.

We packed up, drove all through the night and arrived at our destination at 7:30am. After oatmeal at the trailhead in the drizzling rain, we began our adventure. Heading out on the muddy trails we passed a group of hikers on their way out. We were surprised to see them carrying snowshoes because the weather was so spring like.

Since none of us had hiked higher altitudes before, the snow, ice and cold that we encountered further along the trail (at about 2000 feet elevation) shocked us. If we stepped off the hard-packed trail, we sunk to our hips. Our 30lb packs made it even more difficult.

We didn't even have proper boots - ankle hiking boots that weren't waterproof. By the second day, we were wearing plastic bags around our socks to keep our feet dry. I had also failed to bring waterproof pants along with me, so they were wet during day and froze when I hung them up at night. Gore-Tex pants would have been perfect.

Trail markers proved to be another problem. Because the snow was so high, some of the trail markers were buried in snow, which meant we had to search for them by trudging around in the waist-high snow.

We spent three nights sleeping in sub-zero temperatures and the nights were cold - very cold. And of course, Murphy's Law kicked in and we lost our water filter - the first river we crossed swept it away. We tried melting and boiling snow, but finally resorted to drinking run-off from the streams.

How did we survive our winter/spring camping experience? We didn't have the right equipment but we became masters of adaptation. We learned a lot about ourselves by how we met and overcame each challenge. Although we altered our route, we still managed to climb Mount Marcy, the highest peak in the Adirondacks at 5344 feet.

At the end of the trip, it was a great experience that ignited my thrill of adventure. In fact, I returned a year later and spent five months of the spring and summer hiking the same area - what could be better?  Keep a look out for more Adirondack stories because I have a ton of them to share from every season.

Kim Bowerman,
Nomadik Personal Fitness Expert