July 8,9,10 Colden, Marshall, Cliff, Redfield, Skylight, Gray bushwhack to Marcy.

[dom15931]

Day 1: ADK Loj to Colden, Marshall, and Cliff, then to camp.

My good friend and cousin Chad was back from New Mexico visiting family for a few weeks and we decided to do a quick run to the Adirondacks. With only 3 days off with a nine hour drive each way I knew we had a task before us.

We arrived at the Loj at about 4:00am Friday morning and hit the trail at 4:25. The sun was already creeping up a bit and the birds were chirping. Considering we both had no sleep we moved surprisingly well and got to Lake Arnold fairly quickly. At no point in this trip did we push our energy to the max. The old fable of the tortoise and the hare probably had a life lesson for this here. We were in great shape, but not trail running shape. We had daylight on our side, so why push it?

The morning views at Lake Arnold were great. I had been here once before years ago decending Colden but it was in afternoon haze. Not this time. It was more like a painting than real life with morning rays lighting up areas of the forest. We took a break here for a bit and then headed up towards Colden's false summit, gained the ridge and attained the summit somewhere in the 8:30am time frame. Bugs were not bad, trail was a bit wet, humidity was rather typical but less noticeable in the early morning. Skies were just the right level of partly cloudy. Views of the Mac's were awesome. We hung out at the summit for a half hour or so and then began our decent to lake Colden. It is a steep and slippery slide-like decent with lots of mud. Slow going especially when your are tired. It was not until we were lakeside that we saw the first other people of the day. Remarkable, though I guess it was late morning Friday yet. The lake views were really nice.

Marshall was next, a new one for us both. With some initial confusion crossing the lake at the bridge with the signs...ugh...and then realizing my edition of the ADK maps had incorrectly noted the start of the Herbert Brook herdpath we had about a half hour of confusion and a good half mile of extra walking. Marshall was getting what I thought was a surprising number of accents, about three or four other groups were encountered. The path is muddy, faint in areas and switchbacks Herbert brook to the pass between the two summits. It's path is more well defined high up, but this in not like Nye Mtn at all. Just follow the brook to its origin. The last few hundred feet are a bit steeper and some views of the "Tooth" and Iroquois are not bad at all. Two down.

We got back to where we stashed our heavier packs near a large pool early on at the brook at about 3:30pm. We decided to continue without sleep and camp near the Cliff/Redfield Uphill Brook lean-to.

The trek to this area was a slow-going two miles or so. We for both up well over 30 hours and I had a workday in there too. We were beat and the bugs were nasty. The lean to was occupied by climbers so we grabbed a tent site in the area. Our camping was bare minimum. Two hammock tents. Quick set up and with the MRE meals I had gotten off a buddy we needed no cooking materials. After eating some of these, which are not bad considering all the effort that is required, all the carbs and other stuff packed into the meals really brought our allertness back. There was only one thing to do. Bag Cliff Mountain in the evening. It was 7:30pm and we were off.

The mountain is aptly named. It's "path" is a quagmire of blowdown, swamps, and steep rock walls with rotting stumps. The mountain puts on much of it's gain in a set of quick moderate scrambles in less than perfect conditions. Definitely no need for ropes, but not total child's play. Frequent use of the hands and minor route decisions must be made. It is very wet.

Upon reaching the summit plateau there is a surprisingly long walk to the actual summit. Yeah its only probably .3 miles or so, but its your typical false summit deal. It takes a while to realize there is actually a higher point on the mountain. It began to cloud up and after a short break we realized we would be lamping down the last half of the trek to camp.

At about 10:00pm I fell asleep. Gusty winds woke me twice and I would get a whopping five hours of total sleep. End day 1.

 

[dom15931]

Day 2-3: Redfield, Skylight, Gray with Bushwack to Marcy, Indian Falls, ADK Lodge

You...Mount Redfield. You. This mountain caused me some trouble years ago from so really foolish decision making. I was trying to bushwhack it from Skylight in early May 2008 with much leftover snows solo. Dumb, just Dumb. I didn't summit it then because I I had gotten a condition known as immersion foot after I decided too bail on the summit, lost a snowshoe and getting very cold, swollen feet from the meltwater soaking and immersing my feet.

Well three years later and no snow I was back. I explained to Chad that I had been here before in dire straits. I reminded him of the trail sign back near Lake Colden that said "Adirondack Loj 6.4 mi". It made me cringe recalling my failed attempt and just how far I had to go on numb, massively swollen feet. I have never done any extensive snow condition hiking alone since and doubt I ever will.

All that said it was a beautiful morning. I think we started about 6:30am The herdpath here is better than Marshall's and has a lot of nice views of the Uphill Brook. We had no problem navigating it and the summit came sooner and easier than expected. We appeared to be the first group of the day. We enjoyed awesome views of the Santanoni's and Allen from the summit. Clouds were beginning to build around the highest summits like Colden, Marcy, and Algonquin. It would soon cloud up. We got back to camp, packed up and headed towards Lake Tear of the Clouds. The worsening weather kinda put a damper on our mood for a bit and combined with feeling tired for obvious reasons. It was slow going again. We arrived at the lake after about an hour and a half and stashed our packs behind some boulders on the Gray path.

The summits were cloudy. We heard tales or miserable conditions, wind, fog, not being able to see much farther than your hand from your face, etc. We headed for Skylight. It was now just after noon or about one and we noticed what would appear to be a cloud deck giving up. It was. We moved very quickly up Skylight and were treated to views. The mountains were giving up their clouded summits. Mt. Marcy appeared from here to have hoards of people at the summit, likely reveling in the clearing skies and lowering humidity. It was going to be a view-filled afternoon. I was exited to find an old Adirondack Survey marker. We took a break and headed down.

Gray Peak does seem to be a popular mountain. I guess it's just a short hoof uphill from the nearby four corners junction. I am guessing it saw no less than a dozen accents that day. We were planning to bushwhack a route described in Chad's guide book to Marcy from Gray. Curiosity and a lot of opinions on whether this route was feasible or exited at all had a wide range of opinions. Two guys we ran into said they were going to try it also as they couldn't find the route from Marcy. We would encounter them coming down all scratched and cut up from a failed attempt. Grey Peak is not too tough, but it's accent is like Cliff, but less wet and not quite so steep. It felt similar though. There are some nice distant views of Whiteface from this shoulder of Mt. Marcy. We easily got the summit.

The bushwhack. Ouch. Don't believe for a second this is more efficient than going back down Gray and taking the trail up Marcy. It is not. This was definitely tough and we nearly gave up once. The other group that tried this were in shorts, I would not recommend it ever, especially on this thick thick whack. This is a pants and long sleeves with glasses and other competent group members kinda ordeal. I did not have sun/safety glasses and didn't want to through long sleeves on (I had a fleece that would have been destoyed, but the pants helped. I really wished I had glasses because an eye injury would be all too easy here.

We surprisingly picked up a third group member right about when I was about to just throw in the towel and take the regular trail. I yelled to Chad "Hell on it" or something like that, and heard him talking to someone else!!? Quite a Hail Mary moment as with three people, one new person seemingly fully intent on seeing the route through, we functioned well at keeping each other on the faint, and I mean faint, path. I have trouble remembering names but the guy was from Albany and I believe his name was Solen (spelling?). We owe him an additional thanks for without his help I do not believe we would have completed the route.

It appears that the description in our guidebook of the trail dipping "south of the ridgeline to avoid small cliffs" is outdated. This is where I first ended up. Right at the ridgeline where there 'trail' dives south there are logs placed like an 'x'. I am thinking blowdown destroyed the old route. We followed a faint path on the ridge Chad noticed. It was a definite human route and we followed it clean to a cairn at Marcy's timerline. The is some tricky maneuvering in between the summits. Route finding is very difficult here from previous wrong turns. It gets very very thick but soon you get a glimpse of the timberline and exit at the cairn I mentioned. From here stay on the rock and attain the regular south route up Marcy. We made it, and with only a small scratch or two.

Chad did loose a Kataydin filter bottle on this route unfortunately though.

This was my third and Chad's first time on Marcy. My favorite for sure. Very low humidity for summer and not too crowded. The high peaks of the Greens were identifiable, especially Camel's Hump and Mansfield. We hung out at the summit for a good half hour before parting ways and heading down.

Quickly it would become obvious there was no point in getting out without a few hour nap, if not a whole nights sleep. I saw us getting out at about midnight with our slow pace and tired state. After looking at an evening view from Indian Falls we ate dinner and took a two hour nap in the vicinity where I believed we were under 3500'. We were tired, very tired, so if we weren't it was out of necessity. Continuing would have had no benefit and would have been foolish.

Day 3...Sorta
It ended up being a two hour hammock nap and then a 2hr 45min trek out under the stars, which were quite remarkable at Marcy Dam. The nap did us well, both body and mind. For as little sleep as we had at this point we didn't feel bad. All the adrenaline. The stars were possibly the best summertime view i have ever seen of the Milky Way east of the Rockies. We ran into another group at the bridge here at 3am who thought the same thing. I think Chad was falling asleep laying on the bridge and this groups golden retriever woke him up licking his face...haha. We arrived back at the lodge at 4:07am...less than 48hrs from our start. A trip to the Price Chopper in Lake Placid, a shower at the Loj, a better 'nap' were in order.

This was a great trip. My favorite summertime short northeastern US over-nighter for sure. The weather was great and the itinerary was challenging.


Here are some pics:

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150252426464795.343192.662784794&l=84414957ea

Note in them the interesting event that occurred with my car while in route to the NJ high point on the way home. Always make sure the tire shop tightens your wheels up!

 

[Raven]

That's hardcore.

Nice pictures - I don't get to the Adirondacks so enjoyed the variety. The cloud shelf pic toward Allen and the sunrise shots are great.

Sleep.

 

[dom15931]

Thanks Raven. I actually got to the Adirondacks with very nice weather for a change. It really was a perfect scenario for getting the back mountains in this area and getting views as well. All too often I get soaked on whenever I do something a bit more adventurous.