Colden

After hiking Marcy and Algonquin last summer, there was one slide-covered mountain in the middle that we admired from both peaks. Mount Colden lies in the center of the high peaks wilderness and is clearly visible from Adirondack Loj to the north and the Newcomb park to the southwest. We decided to approach the mountain from the south and drove to Tahawus, a former mining town and a current ghost town, where we left our car at the Upper Works trail head.

Packed to the brim, we hiked the five miles into Flowed Lands, munching on blackberries along the way. We were happy to lose the packs while we set up camp near the trail intersection. Once we were set for the night, we packed supper and headed north along the flowed lands and eventually to the eastern shore of Lake Colden.

Once we saw the caretaker's cabin, we knew that we had arrived at our destination for the evening. A year earlier, we had hiked to the same spot from the Loj and by picnicking on the same dock, we had connected our trail through Avalanche Pass! After dinner, we hiked back to our campsite and went to bed early.

It was a foggy and chilly morning, we didn't move quickly but eventually sauntered out of our sleeping bags. I wrestled our bear canister out of the crook of a tree and we packed our day packs for the ascent. We started along the same trail that we had taken the previous night but took a right across the dam at the south end of Lake Colden. Slopping through the mud, we came to the Mount Colden trail which we hoped would be less muddy.

It wasn't. We continued to trudge through the muck until we arrived at a rock wall. We scrambled over it, and the trail continued as steep, bare rock for the next mile. It was a slow climb as we were constantly checking our footing with baby steps. Eventually, the pitch of the trail began to flatten and we were treated with a panoramic view of the high peaks. From the summit of Colden, we could easily see each one of the high peaks that we had climbed thus far!

After a tuna sandwich, we descended slowly over the steep, wet rocks. It was slow going but not as bad as we had anticipated on the climb. We slopped through the muck and made it back to Flowed Lands where we took down our tent and packed our overnight packs for the trek out.

On the way to Upper Works, I spotted a monument next to the river. It turned out to be the spot where David Henderson accidentally shot himself in 1845, the incident that led to the namesake of Calamity Pond, Mountain and Brook. We snapped a picture and trudged to our car, footsore and ready for malts!

The following satellite image shows our Mt. Colden hike in red which connects to our Marcy hike in blue. The other hikes shown are a hike up Algonquin and Wright in green and our hike up Phelps in orange.