To continue on with my ADK trip leader journey, I have to co-lead 2 level B or higher hikes.  I did the first of those Sunday with doing the upper tongue range and then over to deer leap on the way out.  To me, this is an easy hike apart from the distance, but it's a level B+ because of both the distance and elevation.  As a group though, including stops, we had a pace of 1.5 mph, so it really was a pretty easy hike... and a few of us (myself included) felt like we were going slow, so I was surprised to see that being our pace, or our movement pace being 2 mph on average.

The hike itself was beautiful.  We started off with a bit of drizzle and we had on and off drizzle through the hike.  This meant that the trail was wet, and muddy is sections, and the exposed rocks and roots were slippery.  The hike in to 5 mile had us going from old, rough trail to a reasonable wooded trail.  The wild flowers were starting to bloom, and we saw plenty of pink ladies slippers throughout the hike, along with a bunch of other flowers.  Sadly the blueberries weren't in bloom, and they didn't have berries on them yet.  We didn't get to see much wildlife, and thankfully non of the rattlers the range is known for.

When we got back to the junction for Deer Leap, we decided that we'd add that on to the hike, adding 2 miles.  I honestly recalled it as relatively flat.  Well, there is one big dip about 1/2 way in that I just didn't remember.  Oops, memory can be like that.  But it was a relatively easy hike in, and that's where you get some of the better views of the hike.  A couple of us went down to the edge of the cliffs for some more views.  I slipped and saved myself on the way down, in full view of everyone.  Then warned the people following me that it was slippery.

In the end we did just under 9 miles in just under 6 hours, with about 2500 feet of elevation.  Beautiful day for a hike, and it was a good group of people, a couple of whom I've actually met before :)  Next up, an ADK hike up Phelps next Sunday.