Sunny 46

After a brief chat with the ranger on duty, we were on our way by 9:30am. There's definitely something to be said for being well-rested at the start of a backpacking trip. We were in a great mood and the weather was a sunny 70 degrees Fahrenheit.

Sunny was very excited to be back on trail. He contentedly sniffed and pulled me along. Jay let us go ahead and set the pace which is really good for me because Sunny tends to pull hard when people are ahead and I kill myself trying to keep up. Jay said that we set a good pace, though, which is great to hear. 

I did worry a bit because it seemed to me that Sunny was losing gas fairly early in the hike. I honestly think he was reacting to the leash and the humidity. The air this morning was humid with the approaching weather, however we knew tomorrow would be a different story, so we didn't fret about it.

There are several lovely campsites along Calamity Brook. They look rather unused and it is pretty obvious why. This trail is mainly used by folks hiking the High Peaks. For the most part, these hikers would rather camp closer to the mountains so that their big elevation days don't include tons of flattish walking as well. Also, people not interested in hiking High Peaks and just looking for a few days in the woods would never really care to stay in these sites. What's the point of camping out for the sake of camping out if you're not allowed to have a fire? I feel like allowing responsible fire-building along Calamity Brook Trail would be a boon for keeping the woods clear of wild fire fuel and it would make these sites more appealing to everyone and possibly reduce the erosion impact on the Lake Colden area sites.

The trail crews are still very hard at work on the Calamity Brook Trail. They are really doing an amazing job here. Between that and the dry conditions, the trail was lightning fast today.

Thanks to Jay for this photo of the sweet, new bridge at the crossing near Herbert Brook Lean-to. You can also see my exceptional packing job. I may rename this bag "Handy Haversack".

We gobbled up the five miles and change with 1160' of elevation gain from the trailhead to Lake Colden in 3 hours flat. It's also easy to hike at a brisk pace when you have someone to talk to and keep your mind off the effort you're putting in

We marveled at the impressive new slides on Colden. Above, I've posted a before and after shot using a photo I took last June. There are already folks keen to ascend the new slide. I say more power to them, but no thanks from this guy!

We stayed at Lake Colden for some time playing fetch, eating lunch, and enjoying time with our backpacks off. The dam had a bit of a chemical stink to it, I guess from whatever the wood was treated with. Other than that, it was a perfect rest break before tackling the last rugged 1.5 miles and 500' or so up the Mount Marcy Trail to the lean-to. My pouch thermometer read 80 Fahrenheit. I knew that temp would be incredibly short-lived.

After the suspension bridge and the true ascent began, I let Sunny off-leash. We had many good interactions with other dogs and Sunny's recall was pretty good. His previous malaise was gone and he was once again full of piss and vinegar. We saw quite a few backpacking groups coming out and we figured the parking area was starting to empty out as we approached Uphill Lean-to.

In general, the trip in was dry. The muddy sections were squishy but not wet. Our boots were dry to the point of being dusty. The water crossings were largely a trickle, but the Opalescent was still rushing with sparkling, clean water.

We arrived at the lean-to a bit after 2:00pm, almost exactly an hour after we'd started off from Lake Colden. The place was deserted. We picked up some trash, then took our time setting up camp. Uphill Lean-to was as cold and desolate as I remembered it. I was very glad to have my friend with me tonight. My heart was also warmed by the knowledge we'd have three miles less to hike and 500' less to climb tomorrow.

There was a bit of rain, but nothing crazy. Still, the wind picked up and we were adding layers almost immediately.  We pierced the gloom with a little music from my phone and the smells of cooking food. I was excited to fire up the stove and warm my hands. I was less excited about the Mountain House Chicken Teriyaki. I give it a 4/10. 

While we listened and chatted, I took out my sewing kit and busied myself adding some patches to my bag until my hands couldn't take the cold anymore and crawled into my sleeping bag. I regretted (not for the first time or the last time) bringing the 40 degree bag... again. I felt really stupid. I put on my base layer top, an extra pair of socks, and my duff, then snuggled deep into my bag. 

I was comfortable enough to get 8 hours of sleep out of the 13 hours I spent in the bag. Sunny laid down with each of us off and on throughout the night. He seemed extremely comfortable.

I am of the strong opinion that this location could also do with allowing campfires. It is a remote campsite with lots of untouched woods surrounding it. There are plenty of opportunities to gather firewood and keep the forest clear of tinder. It would make this remote place more appealing, thus reducing the impact on the Lake Colden area and help those staying here keep warm. 

The chipmunks were making a racket and bombarding us with acorns. Sunny was alert to their activity and busied himself with monitoring the situation. Before doing the morning necessary, I did break into the one of two packs of hot hands from my emergency kit. The warmth was divine.

Earlier this week I finally broke down and bought packets of instant coffee. It was the best decision ever. It felt so good to get a warm beverage in my belly and some caffeine in my system. Wendy has suggested I ask for a JetBoil for Christmas one year and they do make one with a french press. I am actually pretty tempted to take her up on it despite the fact that it would take up a lot of room in my pack.

For breakfast, I cooked the Mountain House stroganoff which I know I like and will sustain me. Jay said he doesn't really rate the meal compared to others. Sunny had his usual Honest Kitchen dehydrated chicken meal, with a bit extra for good measure.

Sunny was antsy. He knew what we were doing. I was taking my time making sure I had everything I needed and was leaving enough snacks for tomorrow. I left my pants hanging from the line and left my comfy shorts on for the hike so that I could have dry long pants for sleeping in the forthcoming night. Next time I'll just be sure to have the bottom base layer no matter what.

The dilapidated nature of the Mount Marcy Trail continued along the Opalescent. Fortunately, even here and even after the schvitzing yesterday, the mud was the thicker variety. Our boots stayed dry. 

We arrived at the Lake Arnold Trail junction at about 8am. Feldspar lean-to stands across the Opalescent to the left and the climb to Mount Marcy starts off to the right. We didn't wander over to inspect the lean-to; we were on a mission.

The grueling 1000' climb from the Lake Arnold Trail junction to Lake Tear of the Clouds features standard Adirondack fare such as rock  piles...

We arrived at Lake Tear of the Clouds forty minutes later at 8:40. We slipped off our packs and enjoyed a break and the view. In my opinion, that part of the climb was the most difficult part of our day, both up and down. Sorry for the racy photo, but my sweaty shirt was chafing.

Here's a landscape photo of Lake Tear of the Clouds sans bear. What a beautiful, tranquil place. I find it really fascinating that this place is actually at an elevation higher than the peaks of twenty forty-sixers.

I'd heard about the ladder on Gray. It's actually a climb down the ladder  on the way up the mountain and a climb up the ladder on the way down the mountain which is I found funny. At any rate, when we arrived, it was clear the ladder was only there to stop humans from walking down the verge of the cliff and destroying the trees on the way down. Sunny easily found a path diagonally along the face of the slab to get down and then, later, used the roots of the trees to get back up. 

Although the trail to Gray Peak is unmarked, I would hesitate to call it a herd path. In fact, Jay and I had a bit of a conversation about this today with each other and another hiker later. All of these trails to High Peaks summits are fairly well-maintained whether they're marked or unmarked, yet the unmarked ones are still sometimes referred to as herd paths. I believe they're better described as unmarked official trails. I feel like the kind of hiker who would be climbing these trails have no need for trail markers to stay on course, so there's no need to prioritize marking them with blazes and discs. That money is better spent elsewhere. These unmarked trails are still maintained in order to reduce erosion and, secondarily, for safety (such as the cairns on Marshall). 

For this cliff, there seems to be the remains of a destroyed ladder in the path of the trail, but the ledge to the right of it is extremely passable.

Gray was easy peasy for Sunny Days and humans alike. Jay kindly remarked that I kept a good pace on the way up. I was feeling very good and I think the feeling was mutual for all three members of our party. We played piggy back with a group or two on the way up the mountain and had made small talk.

We arrived at the summit of Gray at around 9:15, 25 minutes after we'd started the climb. The views at the overlook near the summit of Gray are much nicer than advertised. Jay said that the climb and the view was much more pleasant than he remembered and Gray had redeemed itself.

It was absolutely lovely to be in the morning sun after long hours in the shadows of the mountains and trees. We soaked up the rays before stepping aside for a dad and his two sons. Dad hadn't gotten much sleep last night and they were questioning their plan to hike Cliff and Redfield. Right or wrong, all day I was encouraging people to be bold.

We finished our descent at 9:45, twenty minutes after we'd left the summit. We took a quick breather and let Sunny splash around for a bit while we checked out the petroglyph. 

On the quick quarter mile from the Gray junction to the four corners junction at the base of Marcy, there are is an absolutely perfect place to camp. Hence the very angry and very serious red no camping and no fires discs posted here.

There are some pretty cool rock formations near the bottom of Marcy on this side, but nothing very technical at all. The path starts off as a steadily steep climb through the woods.

We reached Schofield Cobble (which is at about the same elevation as Gray Peak) twenty minutes after we started the ascent. Sorry about the bear photo but it was a necessity (for now).

Immediately after the cobble, the remainder of the climb is exposed slab. There are really no technical aspects to the climb up Marcy, at least not from this side. It's just a long, steep slab. It is great to take a rest every few minutes to gaze out at the incredible views South, East, and West.

We crested the Marcy summit by 11:00am. The air temperature was 45 degrees and the wind was whipping strong. Fortunately, the sun was also strong, but we still sought out shelter where possible between photos.

Unsurprisingly, the views from Marcy were incredible, particularly East towards Haystack. There were lots of people up there today, but we didn't have too many conversations because everyone was sheltering from the wind. Still, Sunny got lots of pets from the other hikers on the mountain, so he was happy. 

We enjoyed the summit for about 45 minutes before heading back down. 

Adirondack Kommando accidentally got left in the pack for the past couple of peaks, but he approved of the view from Marcy. Here he is, gazing towards future #46, Whiteface.

I don't have a ton of photos of the trail up Skylight. It's a relatively benign half mile of steady ascent with lovely views of Marcy most of the way up. There are rocks and slabs and all the standard fare, but nothing technical to write home about.  It only took us 30 minutes to reach the bald summit of Skylight.

We arrived at the summit at 12:45pm. The sun was shining, the temps had risen, and the wind had died down to a lovely breeze. It was a great day to be on a mountain.

This is just one example of all the love Sunny got on this adventure. There were fewer people on Skylight, but we were all able to chat because the weather conditions were far more favorable here. There were lots of folks within one or two hikes of finishing their 46 on Skylight today, so we had lots to talk shop about. 

We discussed parking at Upper works with some of the folks who'd come in that day. They said that the lot was still jammed full. On a Monday. Still, it's kind of not surprising considering the weather.

Sunny has done a great job with his training to stay off the grass up here. He was actually mainly on leash the 90% of the time on Skylight, but I let him go on the descent.

We started back down the trail at 2:15pm and were back at the four corners by 2:30. We were flying. Jay remarked that he felt like we were traveling at warp speed. I agreed. We enjoyed the sunny walk by Lake Tear of the Clouds, then descended into the shadows of the forest. 

I think it took us about the same amount of time to descend from Lake Tear to the Lake Arnold Trail junction as it had taken us to ascend it earlier. I had intentionally stepped my pace down a gear. My feet were sore and I could feel the fatigue setting in. I didn't want to make an unfortunate step and injure myself on the bouldery, rocky terrain. It was true most of the rocks were solidly entrenched in soil, but there are no guarantees in life.

As we hiked along the Opalescent River, I saw a spot where we could easily cut through to the water. I asked Jay if it would be cool to stop and filter here instead of near camp. He agreed. When we broke through to the riverbank, it was really nice to be in the sun again.

Jay caught this photo of me filtering water. Thanks so much to him for all the additional photos in this post. We hung out here for a good half an hour, soaking up the rays and enjoying the sound of the water. I got a full 4 liters because I figured I'd need it. 

We were back at camp 10 minutes later at 4:10pm. As we passed the Cliff and Redfield junction, the Dad and two sons emerged from the woods. They had finished all three mountains! Now, their grueling hike back to camp, then out to the car. We offered our congratulations and wished them luck.

Both Jay and I were feeling quite accomplished and proud of ourselves. Jay was happy that he wasn't very sore at all, meaning the workouts he'd been doing were working well to condition him for hiking. For my part, I was quite literally the opposite of how I felt the last time I finished a hike at this lean-to. Still, my feet were raw in a few places and Jay gave me some Leukotape to protect my heel tonight through tomorrow. I'll have to add it to my list.

We also found that we had neighbors tonight. That evening (a Monday, mind you) we had one person in a tent, a duo in another tent, and a person in a hammock. We got along well and chatted with everyone. Unsurprisingly, many of the folks we'd met in the area seemed to be at least hiking Cliff and Redfield and many of them also hiking Gray. The single tenter actually cooked and ate dinner with us which was awesome. My dinner was Mountain House Beef Lasagna, one of my favorites.

Meanwhile, we listened to some low music and relaxed for a bit before bed. I took the time to mend a tear on Sunny's pack until my hands got cold. Uphill Lean-to certainly didn't feel as gloomy as it did yesterday. I was super glad we decided to stay here instead of at Lake Colden; I'm sure the reduced mileage had something to do with how we felt at the end of the day.

This night, I put on my long hiking pants and my windbreaker before bed. I also cracked open the second set of Hot Hands from my emergency pack and tossed them in the bottom of my sleeping bag. 

I slept much better Monday night than I had the night before and even felt toasty a few times despite the temperatures being the same. Admittedly, the wind was much lower, so that helped. Jay remarked that Sunny was clearly pooped because he didn't get up every time he got up to use the facilities in the night. I had a rocking headache (hiker hangover) by midnight and had to stumble out of bed to find the bear canister because I'd stupidly thrown the Tylenol bag in there. I guzzled 2.4 liters of water with a Liquid IV overnight and woke up feeling better. 

Part of the reason packing up took so long was that I had to filter water again. This was fine because I noticed that there was a herd path to the Opalescent near the Feldspar Brook where we'd been getting our water. The herd path cuts through an impromptu campsite (with burned wood) and onto the riverbank. This was a much nicer spot to get water and it offers a place for the sun to break through the trees. I recommend all hikers using Uphill Lean-to to filter water here and get a recharge of their soul while they are at it.

We eventually said our goodbyes to the folks who were awake and headed off downhill at 8:30am. 

It was a bit overcast, but the temperatures were reasonable, so we were happy to not have the sun beating down on us. 

I'd mentioned the alternate route circumventing Colden Dam that AllTrails had taken me on accident last time which hard turned out to be a happy accident. Jay agreed to go that way this time to check it out.

Instead of crossing the suspension bridge, we passed it. A few meters down the trail, we heard a wail of despair followed by a chorus of laughter. When I popped my head out from the trees and looked upstream, I saw a man with his hands on the side of his head.

"Are you okay?" I yelled.

Someone on the opposite bank yelled, "He dropped our food in the river!" followed by another round of laughter.

They seemed fine so we moved on.

We hiked along the South bank trail past all the little, private campsites and lean-to until we came to the end and into the Opalescent riverbed, about an hour after we'd left the lean-to.

By now, my appetite had returned, so we sat and enjoyed Second Breakfast. I tried a Good To-Go meal for the first time; the Ranchero Scramble. It was very very good: eggs, beans, ranchero sauce with plantain chips you add in after rehydrating for a little crunch. I will absolutely be trying more from this company in the future. It was a little more pricey than MountainHouse, but the nutrition was good, the taste was great, and the sodium levels were much more reasonable. I know sodium isn't too much of a worry when hiking hard, but I feel like even that has limits.

Here, the Opalescent has views of Algonquin on the left and Colden on the right. I think in my last report I thought this was Marcy for some reason. At any rate, it was a beautiful day and I let Sunny run around a little bit until some people broke through the trees. 

As it turns out it was a couple from Western New York who recognized Jay (and me) from Jay's YouTube videos. "Hey! You're the guy who brought the bottle of Champagne to the peak of Sawteeth!" We had a lovely chat with them for quite some time. 

This is a really great spot for a break and I recommend the ford for anyone who wants to shave a little work off their hike home as long as the water levels are low enough. After about 45 minutes enjoying the day and the company, we packed up and followed the trail through the beautiful meadow I remembered fondly, hung a right, and came out in the yard around Herbert Brook Lean-to.

We were on our way at 10:06 and burning back down the trail. The trails were still super dry and the stepping rocks were dusty with dried mud. We had no issues whatsoever getting out, but I was getting tired and I was feeling the rawness on my toes. The Leukotape Jay had given me that morning was keeping my left heel from blistering fairly well.

I think at least Sunny and I were finally starting to fatigue as we drew towards the last couple of miles. I slowed down another gear while still trying to enjoy my surroundings. 

In the picture above you can see Sunny clearly choosing the wrong path across this mud pit. In retrospect, I wonder if there was a lot of people smell on the log as opposed to the board. 

At the last junction (Henderson Lake/Upper Works), I rolled my ankle pretty bad. Although I felt it the next day, I was able to hike out to the trailhead without issue.

I celebrated at Stewies with a double stack of Meat Lover's and Cheesy Garlic. The  first Diet Pepsi after a hike hits super hard; it was delicious.

All told we hiked over 20 miles with over 5000' of elevation gain on this adventure. It definitely helped enhance the enjoyment of our time in the woods by hiking the 8 miles into the lean-to one day, hiking mountains the second day, and hiking out the third day. It allowed us to really enjoy the summits and have conversations with members of the hiking community.

I must admit I was feeling a little mealy at the start of this trip and I was also wondering if Sunny was getting a little thick around the middle. It was clear I was just being my usual paranoid self. We had a great time and felt very good about how we handled the effort. 

I'd say that none of these mountains are particularly challenging. I'm not sure if that opinion is colored by the fact that we tackled them from a base camp or possibly because we're so deep in our 46er journey that we're kind of unfazed by the difficulty of these mountains at this point. Certainly there wasn't anything particularly technical about them, so there is that. Gray was surprisingly fun. Marcy was okay. Skylight was incredible.

Thanks so much to Jay for coming with us. I'm extra glad to know that I'll have him and other friends and family with me when we finish on Whiteface in September. As I'd been hoping, this hike felt like the final push of our total effort. Whiteface is the icing on the cake.