DSettahr
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Did these three on my way from upper works north to the ADK Loj to visit some friends on Trail Crew. Left the trail head at about 6pm on a Sunday Evening, and didn't see a single person (awake at least) until I summited Marcy the next day. The trail in along Calamity Brook is in pretty good shape for the most part, although there are some muddy spots here and there and one very major flooded section with water about 1-2 feet deep covering the trail. It's almost impossible to cross without getting your feet wet.
Made it to Lake Colden as sunset and hiked along the Opalescent River trail, whistling as I walked to avoid startling any bears that may be out and about. I had intended to stay at the Uphill Brook lean to, but when I got there, there were two tents pitched side by side in the lean to, so I continued along the trail to the Feldspar lean to. I arrived at the lean to at about 11pm, ate a quick dinner and went to bed. Did not have any problem at all with bears, but I was lucky- most of the entries in the lean to register mention bears.
Woke up at about 6 am the next morning and was on the trail by 7. The trail up along the Feldspar Brook is somewhat steep and overgrown in spots, and the wood stairs are old and rotted. The herd path for Gray starts across the outlet of Lake Tear of the Clouds and is marked by a cairn on the far side of the brook. I made it up and down Gray in about 45 minutes. There is a rock at the summit that if you stand on you can get some pretty good views of Marcy and Skylight, but the trees obscure most of the views to the north and the west. There is a herd path from Gray that goes straight to the summit of Marcy, but the DEC is strongly discouraging its use to protect the alpine vegetation. It takes about the same amount of time to descend back to Tear of the Clouds and go up Marcy by way of four corners as it does to take the herd path straight to Marcy anyways.
It also took me about 45 minutes to make it to the top of Skylight and back from four corners. Skylight is an amazing mountain, I think that it has the most alpine vegetation still intact out of any of the high peaks. The entire summit is literally covered in alpine meadow. There was a fair amount of water coming down the trail to the summit though. Remember to bring a rock to the summit from four corners to ward off bad weather.
The trail up the south side of Marcy is steep, but not as bad I dont think as the slide up the north side of Algonquin. Had a little bit of culture shock when I reached the summit and ran into the crowd of hikers who had ascended from Heart Lake- The first people I'd seen since leaving the trail head the day before. Spent a fair amount of time relaxing on the summit and hanging out with the summit steward, whom I go to school with. Then descended down the Van Hoevenburg trail to Heart Lake, taking a few short cuts I've picked in the past from hiking through the area. The trail down was very wet in some spots, especially the flat portions near the summit of Little Marcy. Also saw a lot of people hiking up poorly equiped- hikers in tevas or hiking in sneakers with the laces untied, cotton t-shirts and sweatshirts there were soaked through from the rain. It's a wonder that more people haven't been seriously injured in the adirondacks when they go out like that.
Several days later, I hiked back to my car over Algonquin and Iroquois, trip report is in this thread
Made it to Lake Colden as sunset and hiked along the Opalescent River trail, whistling as I walked to avoid startling any bears that may be out and about. I had intended to stay at the Uphill Brook lean to, but when I got there, there were two tents pitched side by side in the lean to, so I continued along the trail to the Feldspar lean to. I arrived at the lean to at about 11pm, ate a quick dinner and went to bed. Did not have any problem at all with bears, but I was lucky- most of the entries in the lean to register mention bears.
Woke up at about 6 am the next morning and was on the trail by 7. The trail up along the Feldspar Brook is somewhat steep and overgrown in spots, and the wood stairs are old and rotted. The herd path for Gray starts across the outlet of Lake Tear of the Clouds and is marked by a cairn on the far side of the brook. I made it up and down Gray in about 45 minutes. There is a rock at the summit that if you stand on you can get some pretty good views of Marcy and Skylight, but the trees obscure most of the views to the north and the west. There is a herd path from Gray that goes straight to the summit of Marcy, but the DEC is strongly discouraging its use to protect the alpine vegetation. It takes about the same amount of time to descend back to Tear of the Clouds and go up Marcy by way of four corners as it does to take the herd path straight to Marcy anyways.
It also took me about 45 minutes to make it to the top of Skylight and back from four corners. Skylight is an amazing mountain, I think that it has the most alpine vegetation still intact out of any of the high peaks. The entire summit is literally covered in alpine meadow. There was a fair amount of water coming down the trail to the summit though. Remember to bring a rock to the summit from four corners to ward off bad weather.
The trail up the south side of Marcy is steep, but not as bad I dont think as the slide up the north side of Algonquin. Had a little bit of culture shock when I reached the summit and ran into the crowd of hikers who had ascended from Heart Lake- The first people I'd seen since leaving the trail head the day before. Spent a fair amount of time relaxing on the summit and hanging out with the summit steward, whom I go to school with. Then descended down the Van Hoevenburg trail to Heart Lake, taking a few short cuts I've picked in the past from hiking through the area. The trail down was very wet in some spots, especially the flat portions near the summit of Little Marcy. Also saw a lot of people hiking up poorly equiped- hikers in tevas or hiking in sneakers with the laces untied, cotton t-shirts and sweatshirts there were soaked through from the rain. It's a wonder that more people haven't been seriously injured in the adirondacks when they go out like that.
Several days later, I hiked back to my car over Algonquin and Iroquois, trip report is in this thread
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