Buck Prep Hike
I thought it might be a good idea to loosen us up with a hike up Buck from Shelving Rock Road. The leaves are starting to turn at Lake George and the sun was shining. It proved to be a beautiful day for a leisurely hike.
Sunny had a great day.
Sunny got tons of pets at the summit.
Summit views were nice, but colors are just barely starting to change in Lake George.
Heart Lake Camping
Funny story. I've often checked the Adirondack Loj camping on the ADK website to see if there was any vacancy for campsites. It has never failed that there was zero vacancy. It only recently occurred to me that the Heart Lake Campground is a separate selection on the website from the actual Adirondack Loj selection. As it turns out, there were plenty of campsites and lean-tos available for the Sunday before our hike. Laughing at my incompetence, I booked lean-to #9; the last one on the Southern tip of the campground.
The colors were popping at Heart Lake.
We were glad to arrive a bit early to get set up and enjoy the site.
All the lean-tos seem nice, but this one is a bit more remote. The club seems to take good care of the place. The site was clean and the structure was in a good state of repair. The fire pits include a grate which is nice to have.
The Hungry Hiker is open until 7:30 on weekdays and 8:00 on weekends during fall.
Sunsets are pretty at Heart Lake, even from the Southern side of the lake.
Erica got the fire going. It sure was nice to have one this time around.
Later, the stargazing was quite nice. We were joined just after last light by the campground steward who chatted with us for a while. Then, we sat by the fire for a while before turning in quite early.
Some notes about staying at the campground
- They prefer all food, even bear cannisters be put in your car at night.
- Your car needs to be out of the lean-to loop lot by 11:AM the day after your stay, so if you plan to hike the next day, you'll have to move your car to hiker parking. You do get to use half day price.
- There are lots of amenities like showers and breakfast, though the breakfast is at 7:00 and you'll need to register for it ahead of time and at the time of this writing, the cost was $20 us.
The campground is a great option. I am certain this won't be the last time I stay there.
Algonquin
The next morning, we ended up waking up at 3:30 and couldn't return to sleep. We decided to get packed up and move the car over to hiker parking. It took us quite a while to get everything packed up and sorted. I really need to work on my closing camp routine.
We tried to take a nap in the car, but it was futile. We ate our breakfast and got going at about 6:40.
I decided to take us down the Old Marcy Dam Trail for the first time. We signed out at the register at the start of the trail and headed out.
Sunny was very excited and pulled hard!
Old Marcy Dam Trail is really pretty. It's also far less eroded than Van Ho. There are two spots with big mud, one of them a true mud pit, but nothing we couldn't handle. I was glad we took this route. Note that the "Fangorn Forest" path connects to here, about halfway down the trail.
The iconinc "Stairway to Algonquin" began immediately after Old Marcy Dam Trail.
We took our time and enjoyed nature. The autumn woods were gorgeous.
MacIntyre Falls were trickling.
Sunny was bounding up the rocks with his trademark agility. He only needed help on one cliff.
The views during the ascent were good despite the cloud cover.
Wright wasn't in the clouds, so the hikers there had some views.
This time I was struck by how many little herd paths there are criscrossing the woods just before you break through the tree line. There look to be places where people may have once camped by the looks of it. Obviously there are the herd paths avoiding the dangerous slabs when they're icy or wet, but these other paths seem to solve little purpose.
The big slab up Algonquin looks way scarier when you can actually see the bottom.
It looks like the DEC is about to remedy some of that.
"Are we there yet, Dad? I want snacks." The ascent after the treeline was a little more challenging than I remembered, but we got through it. We added layers as we went as the air cooled and the wind picked up.
Great views, as usual, from Algonquin!
It was chilly and windy on Algonquin. With our layers applied. we sat behind a boulder and ate a bunch of calories and relaxed a bit.
The descent was not remarkable except it was nice to do so in somewhat dry conditions. I found it far less challenging than last time. We enjoyed the peace of nature and the challenge as usual.
GPS tracked our distance at 9.4 miles even though the trail is supposed to just be 7 miles or so. I'm not really sure what the deal is, whether the maps don't account for the fact that we have to zigzag our way up the steep parts of the mountain or if our devices are calculating distance by steps instead of geolocation. Either way, it kind of felt like 9 miles, so we'll take it. I was really proud of my little sister's endurance and attitude on this tough challenge. 3000 feet of elevation gain, most of it over 2.5 miles, is no joke.
This was a lovely 2nd visit to Algonquin despite no views. This still won't be my last trip to this peak, so we'll just save it for another warm day in July or something.
Dry and Sunny Day at Buck Mt.gpx (317.8 KB)
Leisurely hike up Algonquin .gpx (557.16 KB)