We left the apartment at 445am so as to get a good head start. We arrived at the ADK Loj parking lot at around 6:50 am, there were a few cars already there, and in fact, it looked like they had spent the night in the woods somewhere because of the frost on the windshields. We did our stretches, signed in, and headed off for Marcy Dam. It was a cool morning with lots of frozen mud holes along the way.
The air was nice and crisp; I love this time of the day. We arrived at Marcy dam at 7:50 am to enjoy beautiful views as the sun came up. We signed into the interior outpost and set off for Tabletop. We had to take the footbridge over from Marcy Dam, not because of high water, but due to ice-covered rocks, dealing with this would be our...
On Saturday, Sept 4, 2004, we set out to climb Mount Colden, our original intent was to stay at the Marcy Brook lean-to, however, we could not, our climbing companions (Mark and Chris) had hiked into that lean-to the previous day and spent the night, we met up with them this morning. We left my apartment in Peru at 430 am, it was my son Derek, our friend Justin, and I.
We arrived at the ADK Loj parking lot at 6 am, did our stretching, and set off for Marcy Dam. It was an overcast morning of heavy fog, kind of cool looking. Arriving at Marcy Dam at 7 am, we were met by a few hungry hikers cooking their breakfast. We donned some bug dope and took a few pictures that turned out awesome because of the mist in the air; it looked like halos...
We had previously hiked this on April 8, 2004. It was a nice warm spring day, but still some snow and ice on the ground. It was Mark, Justin, Derek, and myself. The trail is a fairly easy trail that meanders upward, with not much for views for a while. There is a nice waterfall that looks absolutely stunning when it is frozen. There were a few steeper sections just before the junction with the trail to Wright Peak, and the trail that continues to Algonquin and beyond.
There are remnants of a plane wreck on Wright along with a plaque that memorializes the crew that crashed on the summit. None of us had found it, nor seen any remnants from a plane. So, looks like we will climb it again and do a little more exploring.
We had hiked this on February 21, 2004. It was Mark, Chris, Justin, Derek, and myself. It was an overcast day with snow flurries. I cannot remember what the temps were, but I don't recall being overly cold.
The trail from the Loj was hard-packed all the way to Marcy dam. When we had hiked this Marcy dam was still intact, it has since been destroyed by Hurricane Irene, and the remnants removed.
The Van Hoevenberg trail from the dam to the junction with the trail for Phelps was not as hardpack and had fresh snow on it. This is a nice trail especially under snowpack since all the rocks and roots are covered. This is a nice relief with tired legs.
The trail to Phelps is uneventful until you just start to come out of the trees where we...
On February 1, 2004, Derek and I set out to hike these two mountains. unlike the first attempt, we were prepared to hike our first of the 46 high peaks. it was a beautiful day with clear skies and temperatures expected to be in the low 30's. It certainly made for a beautiful day. We started on the trail at 7:45 am on a very hard-packed trail. we had taken a few breaks along the way. At the intersection with the trail to Porter, we decided to go over to Porter mountain first. We had hoped to be the first on the summit, as there is always something nice about being first on the summit for the day, I'm not sure why. That didn't matter because we were eventually passed by a gentleman about 10 minutes before the summit. His name was Tony...