Who Are We?
We're the Fasoldt family and our number one outdoor activity is hiking. My name is Adam Fasoldt and I'm the Dad. Our dog, Sunny Days the Golden Retriever, almost always hikes with me. My son, Quinn, likes to hike with Dad sometimes, especially fire towers. Mom, Wendy, makes it all possible and is very supportive. We have several friends who we enjoy hiking with whenever we get the chance. For the most part, we hike in the Adirondack Mountains in New York State, but we will travel elsewhere on occasion.
Our Story
For most of my life I was morbidly obese, 5'6" and 330lbs at my heaviest. My weight went up and down 50lbs for years, but never kept it off. By the time I was in my mid-30s with high blood pressure and diabetes, I decided enough was enough and I underwent gastric bypass surgery. I quickly lost about 120lbs and started going to the gym to keep the weight off. The birth of my son in 2019 kept me busy and the gym began to bore me. COVID was the nail in the coffin for going to the gym. I did some hiking in that time, including hiking Sawteeth and Avalanche Lake in 2019. Hiking and running in my neighborhood helped me keep the weight off a bit.
In 2021, we got a dog. We'd had Golden Retrievers before, both adopted. They definitely had mirrored our own largely sedentary lifestyle. Sunny came with the promise of getting out, doing things, and staying healthy. We'd never had a puppy before and he was definitely a challenge. I took Sunny hiking a bit after his 6 month shots, but things really didn't ramp up until he was over a year old.
In 2022, my friend, Jay was planning to finish his ADK 46er on Dix sometime in October. I asked him what it would take for me to join him on this occasion. He gave me a list of 8 to 10 High Peaks to tackle and said if I could do a bunch of those, I could probably make it up Dix with the crew. That summer, Sunny and I summited Phelps, Big Slide, Cascade, Porter, Tabletop, Gothics, Armstrong, Upper Wolfjaw, and Colden. Then, on October 10, Sunny and I were fortunate enough to join Jay and Mark with a bunch of other folks on their 46er finish on Dix. It was just about a perfect day.
I was hooked, determined to finish the 46 and then some. This website details our adventures attaining this goal. I'd say the toughest adventures we've ever faced have been the Santanonis, Cliff & Redfield, and the Pinnacle Traverse. We hiked the Santanonis in 2023 and we were still kind of learning at that point. I know we definitely should have made that a 3-day trip. Sunny has never been so exhausted towards the end of a hike. Cliff & Redfield was just a miserable time in miserable country. I just plain do not like the gloomy, cold nature of that part of the High Peaks. The 21-ish mile Pinnacle Traverse, of course, was a mighty physical challenge for me. I did it with friends in 2025 and it was hard on my body. The dogs, however, were fine.
Over the 4 years it took Sunny and me to summit the 46, Quinn has also shown great proficiency on the trail and he loves climbing fire towers. This causes me (and especially Sunny) a bit of anxiety, but it builds character for both of us.
Now, we're all continuing our work on fire towers and other challenges and I continue to hike 46ers with my pal. Quinn has also hiked his first 46er and I plan on bringing him up more soon. I do have my sights set on possibly going for the ADK highest hundred, but we shall see.
Adventures
I like to give narrative reports of our adventures here on this site. I do my best to describe the trails and conditions in the hopes that it'll help others (and myself) in the future.
I've categorized the adventures into a variety of other categories. You can use the site's main menu to find those. You can also use the search. If you have any questions about any of the hikes we've done or routes we've taken, don't hesitate to contact us.