cbcbd
Well-known member
Date of Assault: 12/9-12/10
Miles Amassed: Let's see - Around 5mi to camp, 4.4mi to Colden and back, ~8mi next day
Mountains Conquered: Colden, Algonquin, Wright
Special Equipment:The pointiest and most menacing artifacts in your posession
Left Friday night with my friend Mira and we headed to the Daks to do some hikin' and campin'. It was Mira's first time in such wintry terrain and with steigeisens, so I figured we'd have ourselves a pretty good time and some torn up pant legs.
We got there Friday night and slept in the car, leaving around 8am on Sat. It had been flurrying the whole night and the trail was a winter wonderland, with about 4-5" at the most of accumulation and as much as 1' up high in drifts.
The plan was to hike to the campsite on the Southern end of Avalanche Lake, set up camp, hike Colden, sleep, and the next day pack up and head up the Southern side of Algonquin and bag it and Wright on the way down.
~5 relatively flat miles to camp so we had a good pace going on...
Obligatory picture from Marcy Dam
...we started getting closer and the dangers were becoming greater. We got to Avalanche Lake and, man, was it gorgeous!! As expected, the ice was too thin and we had to take the long, but fun way around.
Got to camp and set up with a great view of the Colden slides.
Dropped all the heavy stuff, kept to essentials and headed up the Colden trail, which turned to be an ice fest. Ice here, ice there... I forced us to hike the trail without crampons until treeline - hey, you gotta learn to appreciate their pointy points of traction!! After a long adventure up we enjoyed the views from the summit and started down enjoying the end of the day.
Made some rice with salmon, corn, and peas, and enjoyed some hot tea and a can of Vienna Sausages - man, all that stuff was awesome - you gotta love food.
Slept well and woke up with a spectacular view of clear skies. We had some eggs on a bagel, packed up and headed to the hike of the day.
After miles and miles and more miles and the long ascent up Algonquin testing us we break through and start getting closer and really getting to see some good stuff.
Oooh, aaah
Break treeline and head up for the final push. Get to the top and it's just awesome. Great views everywhere and every mountain from here to the Himalayas can be seen. I have no idea what she was doing here... Either she wanted a kiss or something got lost in the translation.
Started down the North side of Algonquin... which was much more pleasant. Ditched our packs at the Wright intersection and headed up like bullets in the blue sky.
No surprises there, the views were excellent and the wind was in full effect.
From there on we just booted and butted our way down the trail which seemed endless.
At around 3:30 we passed a couple from Quebec heading up with very little stuff... They probably had around 1.5 miles to go - the girl made sure to tell me they had a headlamp just in case - well, I'm sure they got to use it. Those crazy Canadians and their mountain climbing superpowers...
Anyway, we got back to the Loj around 4:45 and this time the celebratory dinner was a hunk of Prime Rib with scallops...
Good times,
Doug
Miles Amassed: Let's see - Around 5mi to camp, 4.4mi to Colden and back, ~8mi next day
Mountains Conquered: Colden, Algonquin, Wright
Special Equipment:The pointiest and most menacing artifacts in your posession
Left Friday night with my friend Mira and we headed to the Daks to do some hikin' and campin'. It was Mira's first time in such wintry terrain and with steigeisens, so I figured we'd have ourselves a pretty good time and some torn up pant legs.
We got there Friday night and slept in the car, leaving around 8am on Sat. It had been flurrying the whole night and the trail was a winter wonderland, with about 4-5" at the most of accumulation and as much as 1' up high in drifts.
The plan was to hike to the campsite on the Southern end of Avalanche Lake, set up camp, hike Colden, sleep, and the next day pack up and head up the Southern side of Algonquin and bag it and Wright on the way down.
~5 relatively flat miles to camp so we had a good pace going on...
Obligatory picture from Marcy Dam
...we started getting closer and the dangers were becoming greater. We got to Avalanche Lake and, man, was it gorgeous!! As expected, the ice was too thin and we had to take the long, but fun way around.
Got to camp and set up with a great view of the Colden slides.
Dropped all the heavy stuff, kept to essentials and headed up the Colden trail, which turned to be an ice fest. Ice here, ice there... I forced us to hike the trail without crampons until treeline - hey, you gotta learn to appreciate their pointy points of traction!! After a long adventure up we enjoyed the views from the summit and started down enjoying the end of the day.
Made some rice with salmon, corn, and peas, and enjoyed some hot tea and a can of Vienna Sausages - man, all that stuff was awesome - you gotta love food.
Slept well and woke up with a spectacular view of clear skies. We had some eggs on a bagel, packed up and headed to the hike of the day.
After miles and miles and more miles and the long ascent up Algonquin testing us we break through and start getting closer and really getting to see some good stuff.
Oooh, aaah
Break treeline and head up for the final push. Get to the top and it's just awesome. Great views everywhere and every mountain from here to the Himalayas can be seen. I have no idea what she was doing here... Either she wanted a kiss or something got lost in the translation.
Started down the North side of Algonquin... which was much more pleasant. Ditched our packs at the Wright intersection and headed up like bullets in the blue sky.
No surprises there, the views were excellent and the wind was in full effect.
From there on we just booted and butted our way down the trail which seemed endless.
At around 3:30 we passed a couple from Quebec heading up with very little stuff... They probably had around 1.5 miles to go - the girl made sure to tell me they had a headlamp just in case - well, I'm sure they got to use it. Those crazy Canadians and their mountain climbing superpowers...
Anyway, we got back to the Loj around 4:45 and this time the celebratory dinner was a hunk of Prime Rib with scallops...
Good times,
Doug
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