Algonquin 9/19/14

Since I’ve started hiking in the High Peaks, my dad always seemed to think I was just going on a nice, leisurely stroll through the woods that ended on a summit. Even though I tried to explain it to him, he didn’t quite understand the challenges the Adirondack trails have to offer. So, I told him I was going to bring him on one of my trips to show him what hiking a High Peak is really like. He was not too keen on coming on my trip last March, way too cold he said, so we settled on a fall hike. My brother, who wasn’t afraid of the cold and accompanied me on my March hike, also joined us on our quest to hike Algonquin this past weekend.

Thursday 9/18 my dad and my brother drove from Buffalo to pick me up in Rochester after work. From there we headed up to Lake Placid to spend the night at the Town House Lodge. We arrived right around 11pm, checked in, prepared our gear for the morning, and then went to bed with our alarms set for 6:30am.

The weather was supposed to be absolutely beautiful on Friday, sunny clear skies with a high in the mid-50s. We woke up, finished packing up, and drove to the Loj trailhead.

Our objective for the day, Algonquin!

There was still plenty of parking when we arrived at the Loj around 7:45ish. After one final “pit stop,” we hit the trail at 8am. The weather was cold and crisp so we started with gloves and fleeces. After hiking the first mile to the split to Algonquin/Marcy Dam in 20 minutes, I was quite toasty and stopped to delayer down to my t-shirt.

At the trail junction

Moving on, my dad learned that the trail was going to be a bit more challenging than he had expected. He was not too happy with all the rocks and kept asking why someone couldn’t just move the trail 10 feet to the right or left into the woods where it was nice and flat.

Rocky trail

We got to a few small steeper sections and were having fun with it.

Dad and Chad making their way up a steeper section

We arrived at the waterfall by 9:30 and stopped to take a short snack and photo break.

Pretty waterfall next to the trail

Me and the waterfall

We then continued trudging up the rocky trail until the trail turned slightly left and there was a short scramble. My dad looked around and said, “Where’d the trail go?” I said, “Up!” to which he responded with a couple expletives.

We made our way over the step and had our first sightings of ice on the trail. Around 10:15am we arrived at the junction with the spur trail to Wright. We again stopped to take a snack break and watch a very fat, grey mouse scurry around.

Junction to the trail up Wright

Past here is where things started to get much steeper. We had some ice to deal with but we were able to work around it without much of an issue. We slowly made our way up the steeper slab portions taking many short breaks along the way to enjoy the views behind us and rest our legs. My dad kept wondering why I chose to take him up the hardest mountain on his first hike.

Heading up a steep section. It's a lot steeper than it looks in the picture

As we reached treeline, we were tiring out so our pace stayed nice and slow while we enjoyed the views and made our way up past the cairns and yellow lines marking the trail.

Chad climbing up near the summit

I told him he was going the wrong way but he didn't believe me!

We reached the summit at about 11:30am and dropped our packs.

Success!

We made it!

We explored around the summit for a bit, taking pictures and soaking in the stunning views, before sitting down to eat lunch. The weather was absolutely perfect. Bright blue skies, very little wind, not too hot, and cool enough to only warrant a sweatshirt. I was thrilled we had all successfully made it to the top. My dad kept asking when the helicopter was going to come by to take us back down.

Views towards Lake Placid

Iroquois

Me and the Captain

Colden with the Great Range in the background

Me with Colden and Marcy

Looking small among some large mountains

We hung out on the summit for about an hour soaking it all in and talking with some others. There were about 20 or so people hanging out as well and some others had passed by to continue on to Iroquois. We made the decision that Iroquois was not happening today and started packing up for the hike back down. I could have easily stayed up there all day.

Heading back down

On the way back down, my dad kept commenting that he could not believe we had climbed up all the steep spots. The slabs did seem much steeper going back down.

How the hell did we get up this on the way up?

There were a few slips, one resulting in my brother’s thumb bleeding that a quick band-aid application fixed up. There were a few small groups of people that passed us going down. Back down at the junction to the trail to Wright, we stopped to discuss whether Wright was in our sights for today. My brother was all for it being the youngest in the group at 20 years old. My dad, being of an older vintage at 59, has had knee issues for years and he was starting to feel them on the way down so he said it was up to me if we would continue on to Wright. I was recovering from a knee injury 4 weeks earlier and decided that it would probably be best to quit while we’re ahead and continue our hike down to the trailhead. Wright should be an easy one to come back to.

We continued rock hopping down the trail which we all agreed was easier than rock hopping up it. We were back to the waterfall by 2:30 and stopped to take a 15 minute break to refuel.

Back down to the waterfall

From here it seemed like it took forever to get back to the junction with the Van Hoevenberg trail. We were passed by a young couple who had passed us earlier and must have gone up Wright before catching back up and passing us again. My dad was very grateful on the descent that I had borrowed my friend’s trekking poles for him to use. He said he might not have been able to make it back down without them.

We finally got to the junction at 3:50pm.

Back to the trail junction. 1 mile to go!

From here it was easy going the rest of the way and we were back to the trailhead by 4:10pm successfully completing peak #8 for me, the second peak for my brother, and the first peak (and he says last) for my dad.

We made it! 8 hours on the trail

After a great dinner at the Black Bear in Lake Placid, we hung out a bit and played a round of cards before heading to bed pretty early. We were all a little worn out from our day. My dad said he has never worked out 8 hours straight and does not plan on ever doing it again.

Saturday morning we grabbed some breakfast at the Saranac Sourdough which has awesome breakfast sandwiches! We were going to do a quick hike up to the falls on Cascade Mountain but saw as we were driving by that they looked to be pretty dry. Instead we drove down past Keene Valley and hiked (limped) to the base of Roaring Brook Falls.

Lower section of Roaring Brook Falls

Chad doing some rock climbing

It was nice but overcast that day but all the trailheads we went by were packed. After a stop at the Mountaineer we headed back to the hotel to grab my memory card I had forgotten to put back in my camera and then drove to do some kayaking on the Chubb River. We had a nice paddle to the carry and back and managed to see some blue skies for a bit.

Paddling on the Chubb River

Paddling on the Chubb River

Saturday evening was spent wandering around Lake Placid doing some shopping and sampling some beers. I always have to have an Ubu when I’m there but I absolutely loved the Great Adirondack Brewing Company’s Irish Red Ale. While drinking our beers at the bar at Great Adirondack Steak and Seafood, we started talking to an older gentleman sitting at the bar. We got talking about hiking and he said he had completed his 46 on Algonquin years ago and that his number is 365. We had a great discussion with him about the peaks and hiking. Later, I looked up his number on the 46er roster and discovered he finished in 1966 and his last name is Lamb. Any relation to the Lamb sisters on the forum? I cannot imagine how different the trails probably were back then, especially the herd paths which might not have even existed yet. After we finished our beers and left the bar, we concluded our evening at Delta Blue. Their chicken and sausage gumbo was incredible!

Sunday morning we packed up and hit the road after stopping for breakfast sandwiches at Saranac Sourdough again. The drive home was nice since we hadn’t seen the views on the way up because it was dark. The leaves along the road had started to change and looked gorgeous. We had an awesome trip and although my dad said he probably won’t be doing any more High Peaks, he said he might be open to a canoe camping trip. Despite all his jokes about helicopters and working out for 8 hours straight, he did have a great trip and was very happy he was able to join me for a hike up a High Peak.

The rest of my pictures from our hike up Algonquin

The rest of my pictures from the remainder of our trip

Video of a short climb on our way up Algonquin