Upon arrival, we found a great tent site and set up camp which lightened our packs considerably. We repacked and headed south on the Avalanche Pass trail. It took us through some rocky terrain to the northern shore of Avalanche Lake. Both Lisa and I had a deja vu moment as we remembered an etching in Seneca Ray Stoddard's book from the same vantage point.
We decided to carry on to Lake Colden, about a mile further south. However, we weren't prepared for the trail along the western shore of Avalanche Lake. With a sheer cliff on one side and a lake on the other, we found ourselves shimmying over and around gigantic boulders. The trail gave us a great view of Mt. Colden's famous trap dyke:
After reaching Lake Colden, we turned around and headed back to camp with a short picnic on the way. We slept well and despite quite a bit of bear activity at Marcy Dam lately, we had no problems.
The next morning was chilly and we awoke excited to hike Mount Marcy, the tallest of the high peaks. We headed out right after breakfast and made our way up the trail, eventually getting glimpses of the summit along the way.
When we arrived at the top we were happy to have such a clear day where we could see as far as the Green Mountains on the eastern side. We recognized many of the high peaks, including Cascade and Porter which we hiked the other day. We gawked and ate peanut butter sandwiches and after many pictures decided to descend.
Lisa in front of Mt. Haystack:
Algonquin and Colden from Marcy:
The trail seemed longer on the way down, which technically it was since we had to pack our gear and hike back out to Adirondack Loj. We made it with no serious ankle twists and went to Stewarts in Keene for well deserved vanilla malts. According to the GPS, we hiked 24.3 miles in the two days!
For dinner it was pizza night at the Dogwood Bakery in Wadhams. It was busy but well worth the wait for delicious buffalo pizza - yum.
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