June 23, 2014
My first High Peaks hike of the year!
Finally, a weekend off and beautiful weather too...
In the past I've gone up to the Old Forge area during black fly season and paid the price. Since then, following the advice of locals, I have avoided the hills until the beginning of July. This year spring came late. When it did it was wet, making me concerned that the bug season would run late as well.
But, I couldn't wait any longer. The mountains are calling me, and I must go! (j muir)
The forecast was predicting a chilly morning with the low around 42 degrees. But in spite of the clear skies, moisture in the air and a breeze aloft prevented the nighttime inversion from deepening too much. It might have gotten down into the 50's and once moving up the trail it was very comfortable.
On adirondack.net the hike to Mt Skylight would take 15 hours round trip. Most of that is the walk to Lake Tear of the Clouds where the trail turns straight up the mountain. While I'm out there, I might as well hike Grey mountain too.
Knowing it would be a long day I kept the pace up and didn't stop for a lot of picture taking.
Arriving at Lake Arnold I meet up with a camper filling his coffee from the lake. It is still early but I have been hiking for a few hours already.
This log sort of floats and sort of rolls but I did use it to assist in passing though this muddy spot
Possibly Canada Lily?
I wish the shot included the plants' leaves
A variety of fruticose and foliose lichen
A mile or so past lake Arnold the trail has descended almost 500' and follows the Opalescent River downstream until it is joined by Feldspar Brook. I remember this area from a hike 20 years ago when my son and I took the long way back from hiking Marcy. It seemed in rough shape back then. It is worse now.
This section in particular gave me quite a bit of stress...
Beavers have built dams, raising the water levels and making for kind of a scary crossing. The water appears to be about 4 feet deep, but being crystal clear it might actually be deeper. No I wasn't worried about drowning and I guess a few hours after a swim clothes would dry. What concerned me were the several thousand dollars of electronics in the form of phone, camera and lens and a few other things.
Okay, no problem. I will just put the phone in a ziplock bad with some other electronic devices and the camera in another. Which, as I was digging through my pack, discovered it must have been taken out in the car as I rummaged though my pack in the dark. (returning to the car at the end of the day the 2 ziplock freezer bags were sitting on the passenger seat)
With camera swinging from its Black Rapid harness and a little cursing I kept low for balance and made my way across without any real problem.
A few short hops and careful balance got me through this area
Trumpet Lichen
Lake Tear of the Clouds
The trail up Grey begins just to the left of this point across the stream draining the lake.
Mt Skylight trail begins a few hundred feet along the right side of the lake. The trail up Marcy begins opposite the Skylight trail.
With this lake at over 4,000 feet, the hike to the summit of both Skylight and Grey would be less than 1,500 of vertical feet for all together.
Having seen nobody except for the camper at Arnold Lake I figured I had the peak to myself. Only a few toads hoping out of my way on the trail, this bee and quite a few Black Flies hanging out at the summit.
The trail near the summit of Mt Skylight. Marcy on the right and Grey to the left.
Me!
Panorama from Iroquois & Algonquin to the left, Marcy and Haystack to the right. Dix in the distance.
Lake Tear of the Clouds with Marcy in the distance.
This is the highest lake that feeds into the Hudson.
I headed up grey and decided that I didn't want to deal with crossing the Opalescent River on the way back. My plan was to use the unmaintained trail from Grey to Marcy then hike back to the Adirondack Loj along the much better maintained Hoevenberg Trail.
My Skylight from Grey.
The unmaintained trail down Grey was absolutely awful and impassable.
The first 20 feet weren't too bad. Beyond that I had no clue.
Spreading the thick growth to look at the ground for any sign that I was on the trail and pushing aside branches for my passage was extremely slow going.
I got scratched up, almost lost an eye to a branch. I climbed down a 4' ledge only to find a 10' ledge a little further along. That's enough. I am headed back to the top and return the way I came. There was no way to get back up if I went any further. I'm sure there is a reasonable path back to the top of Grey, but movement was so difficult that the effort to search for it would be exhausting. Continuing on to Marcy would mean covering nearly a half mile through this.
I realized that the early hikers of these hills dealt with this on every trip. They didn't even have the shaky boards across ponds that I was complaining about. No marked trail for them, no trail at all. No gps. No satellite messenger.
Now, these hikes are relatively easy.
Yes, I've been hung up for a while trying figure out how to get up a ledge. But for the most part, so far hiking the 46 has been simply long walks out and back with occasional steep sections. No special skills needed. Just determination to do it. So far I've made all these hikes and returned to an air-conditioned car, a dinner at my favorite AuSable Inn or in Placid, and a nice shower followed by a comfortable night on a air mattress in a big tent.
I think while climbing up the shorter ledge, my Fitbit was lost. Too bad, that little device had been recording my walking since the beginning of the year. This was going to be a record day with over 30,000 steps at the half way point!
I packed up my camera and headed back the way I had came. No problem crossing the pond this time, in fact I hardly broke my stride. One issue was my water supply getting low. Before the hike at the car I drank 35 ounces. I carried 2 bottles at 17 oz each and another 72 oz in my backpack bladder. (I also had a filtering straw for emergency which I didn't use.)
My water lasted to the end of the hike, but I realized that I was not drinking enough and was beginning to get dehydrated. Back at the car plenty of water and cool air. Within a short while the sluggish feelings were gone and I was headed for a nice dinner....
13 hours total.
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