Colden, Algonquin and Wright in a day
The joys of sore body after a hike. If I’m not sore, I know I didn’t work enough, and let me say this. My butt is still in pain 2 days later!
Jan 28th – Friday night – The trip in – The night out
I headed out to Adirondack Loj straight from work. The border crossing was unusually quick and cordial so I made good time. At about 6 I was parked at the Lodge, and about 1 hour later, getting setup in the lean-to. This time, lean-to #4 at Marcy Dam (I love the name!).
Finding the lean-to’s wasn’t super obvious though. The two most obvious ones were taken, but knowing that there is supposed to be a few more, I kept up the search in the dark to finally stumble upon my home for the night.
A night which would be eventful for this chicken shit urbanite, woodsman wannabe. At about midnight, I was awoken by a sound not two feet from my head, on the other side of the lean-to side wall. Snow crunching under the steps of something big. Something huffing. Something that sounded hungry. I lay still waiting for it to get the fuck away from me. Curiously, it was scared away from my sobs and bowels emptying themselves … odd that a grizzly or even worse, a hyena would be afraid of a grown man crying and shitting his pants. Yet … After waiting a few minutes to be sure it was really gone, I got out of bed with my plastic spoon as only defence to check out WTF? Traces! But they’re so small … a bear wearing high heels? … Uh, probably a squirrel or some sort of baby mouse. I received visits from my small but scary friend a few times during the night, so sleep was sparse.
Home sweet home
Early morning view from my sleeping bag
Jan 29th – The hike
Despite this short night, I was out of my sleeping bag at 6 and off to big hike at about 6:50. The plan for the day was lofty: Colden by Lake Arnold, get back down from the South at Lake Colden, then go back up to Algonquin by the Boundary Peak trail to link up Iroquois, Algonquin and Wright.
There’s really not much to say about the hike … it was long, it was tough, it was beautiful, it allowed my to push my limits a bit further and it allowed me to feel so friggin alive!
- The hike up was done in quick order with no surprises. There was practically no snow cover and the trail was relatively hard from previous hikers.
- The summit was unfortunately devoid of any traces as to where the trail went; I spent a half hour trying to get to the South (red markers) trail. In the process I got eaten up by my first spruce trap …
- I was the first person in a very long time to take the South trail down from Colden. I had snow up to my thighs for most of the very steep descent.
Lake Arnold on the way up to Colden
View of the top of Colden from a false summit to the North
The view from the top of Colden. I have to go waaaaay back down to do Algonquin!
Not too happy! Just got out of a spruce trap!
Panorama shot taken from the Lake Colden looking towards Algonquin
Iroquois and Boundary
- The hike up to Boundary from the Lake Colden Interior Outpost was steep and long to say the least.
- Iroquois was not meant to be …
When I got to Boundary Peak a group of 6 had just turned back from Iroquois informing me that they couldn’t make the summit (too much snow and spruce traps). Being a realist, I didn’t even try, preferring to save my energy for the still long hike back to Marcy Dam.
Looking back at Iroquois and Boundary while hiking up Algonquin
- Not much of a story here except to say that I find it to be a beautiful, beautiful peak.
- I wore my big Serac crampons for the first time this winter and didn’t take them off until I got back to the lean-to 4 hours later.
Crampons on before hitting the rocks on Algonquin
Looking up towards Algonquin from Boundary
Algonquin summit picture
- From the descent trail, it says 0.4 miles. After Colden and Algonquin, those .4 miles were long to say the least.
- Again, a beautiful peak; I love the bare peaks.
So tired! Algonquin is the beauty behind me in the picture.
After finishing on Wright, I quickly returned to my lean-to, packed up my stuff and returned to my car from Marcy Dam.
The stats
- Mount Colden: 4715 feet
- Mount Algonquin: 5114 feet
- Mount Wright: 4580 feet
- Hike distance: 25km
- Time: 12 hours
- Elevation gain (total): 6125 feet (1867m)
The TrimbleOutdoors data is here.
Tracklog
Elevation profile by time
Elevation profile by distance
For the sake of tracking the 46er status, these were #9, #10 and #11 (#3, #4 and #5 winter)
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