Adventurous
New member
Until Wednesday night, HuiYeng and I were undecided on our Christmas plans. We checked the weather and chose Lake Placid since Christmas day looked like a great day for a hike. Our plan was to hike Wright, Algonquin and Iroquois weather permitting.
We woke up Christmas morning to find that it was a beautiful day. We packed up, had breakfast and headed over to the Loj to find less than a dozen cars in the parking lot. It was a little colder than I had expected so I decided to add the toe warmers to my attire. I get cold very easily so if I think I’m going to need the warmers then I probably will.
We were soon our way following the well packed Van Ho trail to the junction of the trail to Wright and Algonquin. We than began the climb up to the junction with Wright. This section is also well packed and easy to follow. We passed the camp and then an area that looked like the waterfall – we were getting close to the junction with Wright. This was our first time out this winter and we just took our time and enjoyed the pleasures that winter hiking has to offer – solitude, beautiful snow covered trees and the absence of rocks and roots. The snow leading up to the Wright junction and beyond was very strange – it was pea sized snow pellets on top of the snow – similar to Dippin Dots but bigger.
Once at the Wright junction, we decided to hike Wright first. It looked like there had only been one person on the trail to Wright recently. The trail climbed steeply and within minutes, we reached the gentleman that had been hiking solo ahead of us. He let us pass and just below treeline, we came across a steep rock that required some help if you didn’t want to take your snowshoes off. HuiYeng went first and then she pulled me up. The gentleman was right behind us and happily took the help up. We followed the cairns up the exposed rock to the summit. There was hardly any wind, we had mostly blue skies, a fabulous undercast and 360 degree views of the Adirondack high peaks. I couldn’t think of a better way to spend Christmas. We found a nice spot below the summit and had a snack and some warm soup before moving on to Algonquin.
We decided break time was over and began our hike back to the junction. It wasn’t hard following the trail back down but it was much more slippery getting back to treeline. We carefully made our way back to the junction where we met another guy – we’re assuming he was the one that we saw on Algonquin from Wright. We started up Algonquin and came to the steep section that I had been worried about. There was a long steep slab of rock that I feared would be icy. To my surprise, it was completely covered in snow and caused not problems at all. That was the steepest section of the trail and the rest of the way up Algonquin was uneventful. The wind was picking up a little and hunger was setting in so we sat behind a rock and had a bite to eat. It was still fairly early and we both had the energy to continue on to Iroquois so we cut our break short.
We didn’t see any tracks heading down Algonquin to the junction with the trail leading down to Colden but it was easy to follow the cairns. We had good views down to the col between Boundary and Algonquin and were both thinking the same thing – it’s a long way down to that col!!! Iroquois was only a mile away so we continued on to the sign where the trail turns left. There is a large cairn here and on the sign, somebody has written Iroquois with an arrow pointing to the right. Since this wasn’t an official trail, the path was much narrower and the snow a bit deeper. There was an easy to follow trail to Boundary but beyond that, the challenge began. Shortly before the PUD between Boundary and Iroquois, the trail started to disappear. We could make out faint showshoe prints here and there. We made it to the last col before Iroquois and found the snow to be really deep. There wasn’t a beaten path anymore and we rarely found prints. We kept coming to spots where it looked like someone went left and right. We kept going left and occasionally found a track. If we were to do it again, we would have gone right since there are cairns below the summit on the right side. The summit looked so close yet so far away. We fell into one waist deep spruce trap after the next. Our biggest concern was getting out of this area before it got dark. We soon made it to an open area of snow where we climbed up to the wall below the summit. I tried to go left but I was unsuccessful. HuiYeng went right and soon found a cairn. Within minutes we were on the summit of Iroquois – a HARD earned summit. We took a picture and left. We decided to follow the cairns back to the PUD. Once again, we were in spruce trap hell without a track to follow. We decided to head in the direction of our previous track. At least that lead back to the PUD. Many exhausting spruce traps later, we found our track and began our hike back to Algonquin. As HuiYeng mentioned in the trail conditions – I would probably follow the track to the right and not to the left.
We used an incredible amount of energy climbing out of spruce traps so the climb back up to Algonquin was not welcomed at this point in the day. The wind had picked up and was making the climb even more difficult. We stopped for a quick snack break and continued on. Soon, we were up and over Algonquin. The climb down the rocky section of Algonquin was not difficult like the climb down Wright. We didn’t have any problems with our footing. Once below treeline, there were a lot of butt sliding opportunities which made getting back to the junction easy. It was easy going after the Wright junction all the way back to the Loj. Our car was the only one in the parking lot when we arrived. We were hungry and wanted food so we wasted no time packing up and heading back to Lake Placid for a fantastic Christmas dinner.
Pictures to follow…
We woke up Christmas morning to find that it was a beautiful day. We packed up, had breakfast and headed over to the Loj to find less than a dozen cars in the parking lot. It was a little colder than I had expected so I decided to add the toe warmers to my attire. I get cold very easily so if I think I’m going to need the warmers then I probably will.
We were soon our way following the well packed Van Ho trail to the junction of the trail to Wright and Algonquin. We than began the climb up to the junction with Wright. This section is also well packed and easy to follow. We passed the camp and then an area that looked like the waterfall – we were getting close to the junction with Wright. This was our first time out this winter and we just took our time and enjoyed the pleasures that winter hiking has to offer – solitude, beautiful snow covered trees and the absence of rocks and roots. The snow leading up to the Wright junction and beyond was very strange – it was pea sized snow pellets on top of the snow – similar to Dippin Dots but bigger.
Once at the Wright junction, we decided to hike Wright first. It looked like there had only been one person on the trail to Wright recently. The trail climbed steeply and within minutes, we reached the gentleman that had been hiking solo ahead of us. He let us pass and just below treeline, we came across a steep rock that required some help if you didn’t want to take your snowshoes off. HuiYeng went first and then she pulled me up. The gentleman was right behind us and happily took the help up. We followed the cairns up the exposed rock to the summit. There was hardly any wind, we had mostly blue skies, a fabulous undercast and 360 degree views of the Adirondack high peaks. I couldn’t think of a better way to spend Christmas. We found a nice spot below the summit and had a snack and some warm soup before moving on to Algonquin.
We decided break time was over and began our hike back to the junction. It wasn’t hard following the trail back down but it was much more slippery getting back to treeline. We carefully made our way back to the junction where we met another guy – we’re assuming he was the one that we saw on Algonquin from Wright. We started up Algonquin and came to the steep section that I had been worried about. There was a long steep slab of rock that I feared would be icy. To my surprise, it was completely covered in snow and caused not problems at all. That was the steepest section of the trail and the rest of the way up Algonquin was uneventful. The wind was picking up a little and hunger was setting in so we sat behind a rock and had a bite to eat. It was still fairly early and we both had the energy to continue on to Iroquois so we cut our break short.
We didn’t see any tracks heading down Algonquin to the junction with the trail leading down to Colden but it was easy to follow the cairns. We had good views down to the col between Boundary and Algonquin and were both thinking the same thing – it’s a long way down to that col!!! Iroquois was only a mile away so we continued on to the sign where the trail turns left. There is a large cairn here and on the sign, somebody has written Iroquois with an arrow pointing to the right. Since this wasn’t an official trail, the path was much narrower and the snow a bit deeper. There was an easy to follow trail to Boundary but beyond that, the challenge began. Shortly before the PUD between Boundary and Iroquois, the trail started to disappear. We could make out faint showshoe prints here and there. We made it to the last col before Iroquois and found the snow to be really deep. There wasn’t a beaten path anymore and we rarely found prints. We kept coming to spots where it looked like someone went left and right. We kept going left and occasionally found a track. If we were to do it again, we would have gone right since there are cairns below the summit on the right side. The summit looked so close yet so far away. We fell into one waist deep spruce trap after the next. Our biggest concern was getting out of this area before it got dark. We soon made it to an open area of snow where we climbed up to the wall below the summit. I tried to go left but I was unsuccessful. HuiYeng went right and soon found a cairn. Within minutes we were on the summit of Iroquois – a HARD earned summit. We took a picture and left. We decided to follow the cairns back to the PUD. Once again, we were in spruce trap hell without a track to follow. We decided to head in the direction of our previous track. At least that lead back to the PUD. Many exhausting spruce traps later, we found our track and began our hike back to Algonquin. As HuiYeng mentioned in the trail conditions – I would probably follow the track to the right and not to the left.
We used an incredible amount of energy climbing out of spruce traps so the climb back up to Algonquin was not welcomed at this point in the day. The wind had picked up and was making the climb even more difficult. We stopped for a quick snack break and continued on. Soon, we were up and over Algonquin. The climb down the rocky section of Algonquin was not difficult like the climb down Wright. We didn’t have any problems with our footing. Once below treeline, there were a lot of butt sliding opportunities which made getting back to the junction easy. It was easy going after the Wright junction all the way back to the Loj. Our car was the only one in the parking lot when we arrived. We were hungry and wanted food so we wasted no time packing up and heading back to Lake Placid for a fantastic Christmas dinner.
Pictures to follow…
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