Tweet
I made it to the Loj early and I was hiking by 7:30am. Didn't see anyone on the trail for a while until I ran into a group of women hiking together, passed by them while they were taking a break early on. Didn't meet anyone else until I reached the trail to Wright, then several pairs of young guys passed by me as I was climbing the rock slabs.
The trail is wet, and in most spots it's a fast running stream. It was amazing to see all the water on the trail and on every little stream, creek, and brook on the way up the trail. The waterfall(s) were awesome, and loud. The rock slabs above the Wright junction were wet ... almost like climbing a shallow waterfall in spots.
Made it to the summit by 10:15am, there were 4 people up there with me ... within a half hour about 4 more showed up, including two summit stewards. After about an hour of soaking in the scenery I decided to head over to Iroquois ... through the scrubby spruce that wanted to snag my pack and clothing (I didn't zip off my pant-legs, thank God) ... and through the mudholes (lost a basket off one of my hiking poles in one of those seemingly bottomless pits, I think a mud monster sucked it right off the pole) ... there was only one other person on Iroquois when I reached the summit. Ate lunch here, the views are awesome ... for a brief period I was alone, and I watched the summit of Algonquin start to swarm with people! After an hour here I left for the slog back to Algonquin ... rested for a bit on the summit (helped point out a few of the peaks to some college girls from syracuse ... they said that they were glad they'd decided to "hike a challenging trail") ... then started down. (by this time the summit had probably 35 people on it, and it seemed like everyone was speaking french) The rock slabs were still pretty wet (of course!) which meant for slow going ... I slipped only once ... crab walked down a few of the steepest sections. After a brief rest at the waterfall, it seemed like it took a long time to make it to the trail junction and then back to the Loj (time out in about 3 1/2 hours).
Bought a ice cold bottled lemonade at the 'store', folded the top down on the Jeep, and headed home. The usual Border checkpoint was up on the Northway by the High Peaks Rest Area ... beyond the checkpoint I saw only two cars before exiting at Pottersville ... quite a change from my last trip down the Northway at the end of July.
I'm glad I did this hike, it was well worth the effort. I didn't go up to Wright because I was getting tired after coming down the wet rock slabs ... I'll save that for another time. Anyways, the views were excellent from both peaks ... seemed like you could see forever.
The trail is wet, and in most spots it's a fast running stream. It was amazing to see all the water on the trail and on every little stream, creek, and brook on the way up the trail. The waterfall(s) were awesome, and loud. The rock slabs above the Wright junction were wet ... almost like climbing a shallow waterfall in spots.
Made it to the summit by 10:15am, there were 4 people up there with me ... within a half hour about 4 more showed up, including two summit stewards. After about an hour of soaking in the scenery I decided to head over to Iroquois ... through the scrubby spruce that wanted to snag my pack and clothing (I didn't zip off my pant-legs, thank God) ... and through the mudholes (lost a basket off one of my hiking poles in one of those seemingly bottomless pits, I think a mud monster sucked it right off the pole) ... there was only one other person on Iroquois when I reached the summit. Ate lunch here, the views are awesome ... for a brief period I was alone, and I watched the summit of Algonquin start to swarm with people! After an hour here I left for the slog back to Algonquin ... rested for a bit on the summit (helped point out a few of the peaks to some college girls from syracuse ... they said that they were glad they'd decided to "hike a challenging trail") ... then started down. (by this time the summit had probably 35 people on it, and it seemed like everyone was speaking french) The rock slabs were still pretty wet (of course!) which meant for slow going ... I slipped only once ... crab walked down a few of the steepest sections. After a brief rest at the waterfall, it seemed like it took a long time to make it to the trail junction and then back to the Loj (time out in about 3 1/2 hours).
Bought a ice cold bottled lemonade at the 'store', folded the top down on the Jeep, and headed home. The usual Border checkpoint was up on the Northway by the High Peaks Rest Area ... beyond the checkpoint I saw only two cars before exiting at Pottersville ... quite a change from my last trip down the Northway at the end of July.
I'm glad I did this hike, it was well worth the effort. I didn't go up to Wright because I was getting tired after coming down the wet rock slabs ... I'll save that for another time. Anyways, the views were excellent from both peaks ... seemed like you could see forever.
. The views were great Saturday (low haze/humidity, also made for great hiking weather).
Comment