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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| Rocky trail |
We got to a few small steeper sections and were having fun with it.
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| 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.
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| Pretty waterfall next to the trail |
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| Chad climbing up near the summit |
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| 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.
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| Success! |
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| 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.
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| Views towards Lake Placid |
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| Iroquois |
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| Me and the Captain |
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| Colden with the Great Range in the background |
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| Me with Colden and Marcy |
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| Lower section of Roaring Brook Falls |
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| 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.
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| Paddling on the Chubb River |
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| 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
