23: Marshall
Despite having to wake up and add layers shortly after bed time, I felt well-rested. Sunny ate his breakfast with a little ramen and broth in it. I was glad. Often, right before a hike, Sunny is too excited to eat at first and I have to re-pack it for later. He was hungry this morning, though.
There were lots of people in lean-tos or heading to them on our way out. There was a school group filling at Calamity Lean-to which had been empty on the way in. I also met a group heading to uphill Lean-to, but I was still glad we'd cut the trip a day short. Today was a gorgeous day and a wonderfully positive note to end the hike on.
Back Down Marcy Trail
After a visit to the thunderbox and packing up my own camp, Sunny and I were on our way. Our start was a bit later than I'd hoped, but I knew we had many hours of daylight ahead of us and I didn't want to rush with a lot of anxiety or nervous energy.
We were both in good spirits with the night's sleep and the sun shining. We met several friendly folks on our way back down the Marcy trail. Sunny was very happy to get a lot of pets.
The trail has some cool rock formations along the way that I missed in my malaise yesterday.
I'd used AllTrails to draw my map for this portion of the hike just the shortest distance to the Marshall trailhead. It took me on a path along the South bank of the Opalescent, past the suspension bridge crossing, and past a ton of campsites and lean-tos. There are some pretty great places to camp over there in case you find other parts of the Lake Colden area full or if you want a little privacy.
I'd been wondering how the trail would get across the river and, as it turns out, that trail fords across a wide, slow, and rocky section of the Opalescent. Looking across, it seemed just about possible to do the ford without getting wet. I rock-hopped my way to the last boulder, then took off my boots and socks and threw them over to the bank. After that, it was just a simple matter of walking through the chilly, clear water to the other side. Sunny had no problem with the crossing, of course; the water level and strength was just fine for him.
I took the opportunity to filter water, change into dry socks, and relax a bit.
There were several overgrown herd paths on the other bank which wasn't surprising since various camping areas were all nearby. I eventually located the trail which cut through a gorgeous meadow. I was absolutely expecting to slosh through mud, but the ground here was dry and the little path was easy to follow. I was really glad for this detour; it was a lovely, relaxing respite from the gloomy, muddy forest I'd been inhabiting for the past 24 hours.
Oddly enough, the path led directly to East side of the Herbert Brook lean-to. I'm glad nobody was staying there because they would certainly have been startled by me crashing out of the herd path. We took another little break here and busted out the summer sausage and cheese which I shared with Sunny.
I must say that my peanut/dried cranberry mix was doing very well keeping my energy up. I also had some of my son's GoGo Squeeze fruit packs which I did like having for a little jolt of sweetness that I didn't have to chew. I may try to find something similar but with more calories to make it worth the waste.
While we ate, many of these little guys joined us. The internet (Wikipedia, Britannica) tells me this is a White Admiral. Apparently, these butterflies partake in a lot of interesting hybridizaton with other subspecies to create a varying array of wing patterns.
My spirits officially risen, I made the final decision to have a go at Marshall.
Mount Marshall
I dropped my backpacking pack at the Henderson caern a little after 9:00am. I got us turned around a couple of times (there are several trails intersecting here), but we eventually made our way up Herbert Brook trail. I tried to keep us going at a steady and unhurried pace. I knew we had a long hike back to the trailhead after Marshall and I wanted to conserve our energy.
I immediately noticed the difference between this hike and yesterday's. Herbert Brook's Eastern exposure basked us in sun all morning long. The wilderness around us was lush and thick. I could tell that the soil was thicker as well, with a lot less mud.
The trail clambers over root and boulder following the brook dutifully pretty much the entire way. I've heard tales of the trail being difficult to follow. It is a herd path technically, but I felt it was fairly easy to stay on trail all things considered. There are a few spots where there is a path on both sides of the brook because people make mistakes, but it's fairly obvious in most places where you ought to be. In most cases, if you find yourself starting to scramble up big elevation through thick vegetation, you probably need to backtrack.
Some parts of the trail are directly on the exposed streambed.
A few short stretches of the trail do veer into the woods to avoid narrow sections of the brook. These trails are thick, healthy soil tracks with a few mud puddles where hikers might hop down from a step or some other logical location.
Obviously, there was plenty of clean water the entire hike. Sunny and I both took advantage of it.
Every crossing of the brook are marked by a caern. Some of the caerns are easy to miss, so keep your eyes peeled. This is exacerbated by alternate herd paths veering past the caern in some places. I only missed one on the way back down, I think because I was moving faster than I was going up.
I'm having trouble finding the correct location, but I believe it's around 3700' where the terrain veers from the brook and becomes much more rugged.
The climb does become a bit relentless, but nothing truly challenging.
Sunny was cruising. I was trying to take it easy, still cognizant of the hike back to the car.
A bog stands near the final ascent just over 4000'. The herd path here widens to over 20' across as hikers attempt to avoid the mud. The problem is that the moss is no less wet than the exposed mud, so people are just destroying the moss. It's also kind of easy to get lost here since there are herd paths going along both sides of the bog. A couple who were ahead of me earlier in the hike ended up veering to the right and meeting me later as I came down from the peak.
The view up to the final ascent.
There are a couple of fun climbs up the ultimate ascent.
Every hike during this trip has had views of Marcy. However, the angle up Herbert Brook Trail to the summit features both Marcy and Whiteface. Here I re-clipped Sunny to his leash and made for the summit.
We made the summit a little after 11am, two hours after we started climbing.
I managed to miss the lower overlook, but I got some good shots from the higher one of the Southern Adirondacks with Calamity Mountain on the left, Mout Adams in the center and the Santanonis to the far right.
I messaged my family and told them I expected to be back at the trailhead no earlier than 5:00pm, allowing me about 5 and a half hours for 8 miles mostly downhill.
Heading Home
We begrudgingly left the summit and began the hike back down to the Herbert Brook caern. This descent was much easier than the other two mountains, partially because it was far less wet and partially because I had my trekking pole.
We meandered up over the last elevation gain at the top of Calamity Brook Trail and slowly around the Flowed land area and signed out at the trail register there.
I was feeling the burn by the time we got to the Henderson Memorial. Although Sunny still seemed to have a lot of energy, I was moving slowly. I really wanted to get home to see my son before bed time, so I made a conscious decision to step up the pace. I kept my water bottle and pocket of peanut/cranberry mix at hand and dug deep.
Even as I pushed myself, I took the time to enjoy the hike. The Calamity Brook Trail is quite lovely throughout.
Sunny was still going strong. It's hard to see, but he did have his leash on. I was having trouble keeping him heeled with me, I think because I was tired and carrying 30lbs. As such, I wrapped the leash around him and just called him over and grabbed it any time someone was approaching or if I wanted one of the snacks in his pack.
We made it back to the trail register at 5:00pm on the money!
Here we are at the famed Chestertown Stewart's. I have just opened his celebratory cheeseburger. He didn't even notice.
I really enjoyed the hike up Marshall. The verdant woods that the Henderson Brook Trail cuts through was a stark comparison to the desolate terrain of the day before. The views at the top weren't shabby either.
I am very glad I decided to head home on Friday. Not only was I happy to be with my family, but it allowed me to end the hike on a high note. It was warm and sunny with barely a cloud in the sky. I'm also very proud we were able to ascend Marshall and then dig deep for a reasonably early finish.
Looking at the hike on my pin board (black pins) it really puts into perspective how big this hike was.
We're halfway there! Sunny and I are probably going to try to hike the Sewards in August. We may try to get some day hikes in the mean-time. I was considering getting Saddleback as a single peak from the Orebed side because I think Sunny and I might have a hard time on the back side. I was also considering doing Seymour as a single as well, but that is still a big 15 mile day.
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