Crushed a breakfast sandwich from Stuarts, bought a pair of roller dogs and some sunscreen, and started the ride out of Saranac Lake. Decided not to bring the wetsuit for this one, which made the pack much lighter. I really did not enjoy the ride between Saranac Lake and Lake Placid, as there were way too many cars driving way too fast. I took the same bike route as the previous record holders, staying on the highway. In the future, I think the Adirondack Rail Trail would be the better way to go: safer, simpler, prettier, and more aligned with the picnic's goal of having a great day out in nature. The sky was moody, and I got rained on for the last few miles of the ride, and greatly considered just turning around and bailing. Glad I didn't.
Locked my bike to a tree, and didn't even have to change, as I was already wearing my running shorts to swim in. Packed up and hopped in the water right as some sunlight started to hit Heart Lake. Very nice. Swimming with no wetsuit was pretty fun, and the swim is short enough that'd I'd recommend it to others who do this picnic. Was a little hard to choose where to exit the lake on the far side, so just sighted towards a fallen tree and crawled my way up onto the shore.
Changed in the woods, ate a snickers bar, bushwhacked up to the trail, and headed out on the run, filtering some water at the first stream I crossed. Once the climbing began, I tried to keep up a good speed-hiking pace. Passed lots of hikers, and was happy that I only had a small trail-running vest, compared to the huge backpacking packs that most of them were carrying. Ran out of water up around 4000ft, and filtered more water from a sketchy little dribble coming across the trail. Super foggy and windy up above the trees, so didn't get any good views, unfortunately. Spooky vibes as I ran/scrambled the last little bit to the top. Sat down with a few folks and the summit steward, ate a roller dog and some gummy bears, and then headed out pretty quickly to get back to the less-exposed trails off the summit.
The descent was amazing, and my legs and mind felt good enough to really cruise the technical wet trails all the way to Marcy Dam. Ate the other roller dog, and then hydrated a lot the last few miles back to Heart Lake.
Changed quickly, packed up, and jumped into the lake, which felt amazing. Also gave me a chance to scrub all the mud off my legs. Got the the dock by the Loj feeling clean and refreshed. Ate some more gummy bears, hopped on the bike, and cruised down the road for another hour back to Saranac Lake, finishing at the 6er bell.