Drove up to upper works from Rochester early Friday, had breakfast at a little place just on the east side of Newcomb before heading out on the trail. Got started at about 10:40 and my wife and I hiked into Lake Colden in about 4 1/2 hours. We set up camp in a nice site on the south side of the opalecant and relaxed for the afternoon, cooking dinner at the dam. It was a little colder than I expected but some nice veiws of Colden with the clouds going by. A group of asian guys came in and shared our site pretty late - around 8pm. One of them got was sick and puking all over the place (thankfully away from camp 
) Anyways it rained all night and we woke up a little wet, turns out my new groundtarp didn't work to well and I missed one of the stake points on the rainfly. Becase of that and since it was a pretty miserable day - rain and low clouds - we deceided to skip the peaks and hike out. Made the hike back to the car in 3 hours and drove home. Turned out good cause we made it in time to celebrate my grandma's 94th birthday with everyone (something we were planning on missing), so that was nice.
Overall a great training trip as I haven't been hiking in a long time and it was only her second trip. Last year we made it 3/4 of the way up Dix and turned back for several reasons Sad . So a good training trip and her longest hike with paks. She still hasn't made a peak yet but hopefully we'll get one in on a dayhike before the snow flies - looking at either Giant or Cascade and Porter for that.
) Anyways it rained all night and we woke up a little wet, turns out my new groundtarp didn't work to well and I missed one of the stake points on the rainfly. Becase of that and since it was a pretty miserable day - rain and low clouds - we deceided to skip the peaks and hike out. Made the hike back to the car in 3 hours and drove home. Turned out good cause we made it in time to celebrate my grandma's 94th birthday with everyone (something we were planning on missing), so that was nice.Overall a great training trip as I haven't been hiking in a long time and it was only her second trip. Last year we made it 3/4 of the way up Dix and turned back for several reasons Sad . So a good training trip and her longest hike with paks. She still hasn't made a peak yet but hopefully we'll get one in on a dayhike before the snow flies - looking at either Giant or Cascade and Porter for that.