Northeast 115 Journey
#9 Mt Colden in The Adirondacks.
Once again we are journeying up to the Adirondacks for another adventure. The goal for this trip was to simply hike and if possible summit Mt Colden.
We started early morning at the trail register after signing in. The winter hadn’t been too bad and there was little to no snow at lower elevations on the trail. We made great time to iconic Marcy Dam, greeted by a great view of Colden and Algonquin in the distance. Even though it wasn’t a sunny day the cloudy skies made for a nice backdrop. There was a slight breeze with a slight chill while we stopped. We continued to make our way up the trail, we passed several lean-tos packed with campers and gear. We exchanged simple chats with some of the campers tWe noticed the trail was beginning to get very nice so we donned our microspikes/traction devices and kept on going.
We made our way to Lake colden trail were blown away by how beautiful it was. This was also my first time here on colden. We kept working our way on the .As we went up in elevation the more snow appeared in sections of the trail. When we reached the false summit we were hit by gusts of windy and a sheer blanket of clouds blocked our view. We waited above treeline for a bit and soon the clouds disappeared and we were greeted by amazing views. We then made our way up the ice covered path to the true summit where we were caked in more cloud cover. The air temperature was mild but cool. We were the only ones up there enjoying the summit and hearing the wind blow through the air.
We began to make our way down. We began to encounter lots of ice. We passed a group of 5 hikers, 3 out of the 5 had proper traction. We met up with the rest of their group and found out that one of them had taken a fall and had injured their shoulder. We attempted to offer first aid a couple times but they kept refusing. We offered one last time and then we were on our way back down the trail. The temperature was warming up as we were going down in elevation. As we continued our way down the lake Colden trail it started to slowly snow which was a amazing thing to see at lake Colden. We continued our way on the lightly snow covered path, where we encountered avalanche pass for the first time. It was a moment I will cherish for the rest of my life. The scene and image was something right out of a movie. The glistening snow was reflecting off of the water and the sky was somewhat clear. We continued onward back pass Marcy dam and soon the Loj.
