Adk_dib
New member
started from LOJ at 6:30 am and went by way of avalanch pass/lake. Arrived at the colden dam at 9:30 am. The sites are pretty cool going that way with the trees stacked up like matchsticks and all bridges and ladders. It takes a little extra time to navigate around avalanch lake becasue you dont want to slip on the rocks and ladders and break an ankle. It takes more time going this way instead of lake arnold pass but it is worht it to see the sites. Once at the dam, it is about 700 feet to the cairne. It is easy climbing with a couple of falls to check out for rest stops. Once you see the cairne if you eed water just continue for a few minutes to the river to fill up. I started the trip from the parking lot with only 2 liters in my camelback to save weight. When I got to the dam to save more weight I only filled one of my bottle halfway. I put gatoraid powder in both my bottles again to save weight. When I reached the cairne I continued onto the river to fill both my bottles. Good place to stop and have a snack. I ate my power bar here. Back at the cairne I turned left and in no time reached the marker for CLIFF. It has a couple of pieces of sheet metal in it to mrk the spot. I continued onto redfield. The trail was very easy to follow for the most part. It follows the river for the lower part. A couple of places I did not know weather to continue up the river or go follow at definate path to the right. I decided to follow the path and as it turned out, it came back to the river a short ways up. Good idea to stay with the path becasue you dont know if the trail will turn to goto redfield and you are going up the river, literally. The trail has a few steep sections but the are short. Easy to follow and the views were better than I expected. I decided to go back over lake arnold. A little more elevation gain but the distance was shorter. Going back that way there are plenty of spots to fill your water bottles back up so drink away. Thewhole trip is about 17 miles and 3500 feet of elevation gain. Boy were my feet barking. I stopped and soaked them just before I got to marcy dam. That last hour from the dam to the LOJ is really long
.
.
