king tut
New member
After finishing up my hike of HaBaSa on friday night around 8'ish, I drove up to my friend's house out on the hillside of Keene Valley. Luckily for me there were cold beers waiting for me, with a shower, and a dinner to follow. I would have liked to meet some people friday night at the gathering, but I would be a fool to pass up food, cleanliness, and a nice comfy bed after hiking 18 miles that day. There was also some chafing and blisters, but this is a family website, so i will skip those details...
My next day began around 6 in the morning with a knock on the door, and i slowly climbed out of bed and determined that my knees and joints were surprisingly not too stiff. We made a quick stop in Keene Valley to pick up breakfast and off to the lodge we went. We got hiking around 7:30 in the morning and went up to Marcy Dam and then over to Lake Arnold before ascending Mt Colden. The climb from ADK lodge was a pretty gentle 6 mile or so climb and we got to the top right after 11 in the morning. We sat on top for about 30 minutes and then decided to head down towards the Avalanche Lake side of the mountain.
It took us a good 45 minutes or so to descend the first mile coming down from Colden as the trail was STEEP with lots of roots, sheer wet rocks, and just insane crap in the way of the trail. The only thing that made the descent not so bad was seeing the sheer look of exhaustion from everyone climbing up that side of the mountain, and we realized that we did not have it so bad. The rest of the hike back was pleasant with some nice views of the Trap Dike and we completed the hike sometime around 3:30 or so in the afternoon. Number 18 of the 46'ers for me!
A few pix.
View of Colden from Marcy Dam
A failed attempt to scare the climbers in the Trap Dike
My next day began around 6 in the morning with a knock on the door, and i slowly climbed out of bed and determined that my knees and joints were surprisingly not too stiff. We made a quick stop in Keene Valley to pick up breakfast and off to the lodge we went. We got hiking around 7:30 in the morning and went up to Marcy Dam and then over to Lake Arnold before ascending Mt Colden. The climb from ADK lodge was a pretty gentle 6 mile or so climb and we got to the top right after 11 in the morning. We sat on top for about 30 minutes and then decided to head down towards the Avalanche Lake side of the mountain.
It took us a good 45 minutes or so to descend the first mile coming down from Colden as the trail was STEEP with lots of roots, sheer wet rocks, and just insane crap in the way of the trail. The only thing that made the descent not so bad was seeing the sheer look of exhaustion from everyone climbing up that side of the mountain, and we realized that we did not have it so bad. The rest of the hike back was pleasant with some nice views of the Trap Dike and we completed the hike sometime around 3:30 or so in the afternoon. Number 18 of the 46'ers for me!
A few pix.
View of Colden from Marcy Dam
A failed attempt to scare the climbers in the Trap Dike
