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Adk. Loj parking to beginning of Trap Dike: good condition, the odd muddy bit. Top of Colden to Lake Arnold, much mud, many puddles, slippery rocks, and generally unpleasant. Lake Arnold back to parking, quite good, especially after the unpleasant part.
As for the Dike: The last time we had been there was about 6 years ago. Irene wiped it clean and there are no trees. This probably makes it more difficult, less things to grab on to. In fact we'd done it twice before and it must have been unseasonably dry both times because I didn't even remember a crux. However today there was some water flowing (not a lot) and at the crux, the second waterfall, I stayed slightly to the right of the water and had to make a tricky move or two, but was fine. My partner went slightly right of me, and ended up taking a bit of time getting himself out of a predicament. This is the same area that someone fell and died a couple years ago, so shouldn't be taken lightly.
Post-Irene slide: Can't miss it, unlike the older slide. We started on the left hand side. There's a steeper bit about 1/4 of the way up that was wet at the left, so we moved right and went up around the middle. After that the angle eases for quite awhile. Near the top there is a large band of mud that stretches across the whole slide. We went up the middle, but care needed to be taken as it was slippery. After that the slope steepens. Again it was awkward due to the rock being wet and some mud. We stayed left, gingerly holding on to some not very solid bushes. At the top it took about 1 minute to get to the trail, and about 1 more minute from there to get to the summit.
We wore rock climbing shoes as we weren't sure what to expect. We were glad to have them as it made the non muddy bits very easy. Although they are certainly not necessary as there was a group of 8 senior students from a local boarding school that came up behind us and they were all wearing running shoes, and the 2 teachers with them had hiking boots. Also, it could be that we had more trouble on the muddy bits due to our climbing shoes. However we didn't discuss this with them.
Fabulous weather, no bugs, trees starting to take on their fall colors, wonderful day.
As for the Dike: The last time we had been there was about 6 years ago. Irene wiped it clean and there are no trees. This probably makes it more difficult, less things to grab on to. In fact we'd done it twice before and it must have been unseasonably dry both times because I didn't even remember a crux. However today there was some water flowing (not a lot) and at the crux, the second waterfall, I stayed slightly to the right of the water and had to make a tricky move or two, but was fine. My partner went slightly right of me, and ended up taking a bit of time getting himself out of a predicament. This is the same area that someone fell and died a couple years ago, so shouldn't be taken lightly.
Post-Irene slide: Can't miss it, unlike the older slide. We started on the left hand side. There's a steeper bit about 1/4 of the way up that was wet at the left, so we moved right and went up around the middle. After that the angle eases for quite awhile. Near the top there is a large band of mud that stretches across the whole slide. We went up the middle, but care needed to be taken as it was slippery. After that the slope steepens. Again it was awkward due to the rock being wet and some mud. We stayed left, gingerly holding on to some not very solid bushes. At the top it took about 1 minute to get to the trail, and about 1 more minute from there to get to the summit.
We wore rock climbing shoes as we weren't sure what to expect. We were glad to have them as it made the non muddy bits very easy. Although they are certainly not necessary as there was a group of 8 senior students from a local boarding school that came up behind us and they were all wearing running shoes, and the 2 teachers with them had hiking boots. Also, it could be that we had more trouble on the muddy bits due to our climbing shoes. However we didn't discuss this with them.
Fabulous weather, no bugs, trees starting to take on their fall colors, wonderful day.
