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Hey guys,
I have been reading posts off this forum every now and then for a little while now, so I figured I would say hello, and post a trip report from last weekend.
We (3 friends and I) left the Loj trailhead at about 10:30am on sat. and headed south towards the MacIntyre range. The trail wasn't very difficult, and the weather was nice. This was my first overnight trip however, and I noticed the fully loaded weekend packs were slowing us down quite a bit.
We took a left towards Wright at the trail junction, and reached the summit of Wright sometime between twelve and one in the afternoon. The trail leading up to Wright was not too incredibly steep, and I remember it taking less than an hour to get to the top from the junction. After lunch and some pictures we decided against taking a "shortcut" to intersect with the trail going up to Algonquin, and headed down the way we came. Has anyone ever tried taking a straight shot towards the Algonquin trail from there? It definitely looked shorter distance-wise, but judging by how thick the forest was, it would probably take longer.
The rest of the trail up Algonquin was fairly steep, but nothing we couldn't handle. The summit was reached sometime between 2 and 3pm. Algonquin was nice because from the top my friend and I who are more familiar with the area could point out our planned route to our two other friends fairly accurately.
We headed over Algonquin towards Iroquois, but as two of us lagged behind taking pictures, the other two burned right past the trail for it and started the descent towards Lake Colden. Catching up to them and then convincing them to go back for Iroquois took some time, but we made up for it by leaving our packs on some of the Boundary rocks on the way over to Iroquois. The trail over to Iroquois was very muddy. If you are considering it anytime soon be ready to get at least a little muddy... sometimes it is hard to tell if you are about to step on a rock, or just pure mud.
We didn't stay long on Iroquois, and started our descent towards Lake Colden sometime around 5pm. This section of the trail was very steep and I would not want to descend it during wet weather. We camped for the night on the other side of Lake Colden. It was very cold that night (!!!!!).
We were on the trail a little after 9am the next morning, and heading towards Lake Tear of the Clouds / Four Corners. When we hit the lake we found the trail for Gray and headed up. This "unmarked" trail was more challenging than all of the previous day, but that's what makes it fun, right? I put "unmarked" in quotations because following this trail is not difficult at all. In fact, a small rockpile directly before the lake marks where the trail begins.
One thing I didn't mention yet was once above 3500 feet we were definitely in the frost zone. All the trees around us, and on the sides of Gray and Marcy were covered in frost... and it was already almost noon!
Once at the peak of Gray we decided to head straight for Marcy. I guess there is a small path that goes from Gray to Marcy, but we decided to go our own route across the sides of the mountains. Our plan was to intersect the trail going from Marcy to the Four Corners a little below tree line on Marcy. I would not recommend doing this unless you have plenty of time to spare (which we did), and are wearing long pants/sleeves (which we weren't). We ended up joining the trail almost exactly where we planned, however we payed the price for it with all the cuts on our shins and hands.
At this point we were pretty much headed for home. We stopped for a few pictures on the summit of Marcy, but not many (this was my third time on it). We went over the summit and headed back towards the Loj on the Van Hovenberg trail. We made the usual stops at Indian Falls and Marcy Dam for some pictures before finally getting back to the car at 6:30pm.
After stops for gas and food, we didn't get back to Cobleskill, NY until about 10pm. Then I made the drive all the way back to State College, PA... turned the car off at 3:30am. What a good weekend!
And almost forgot... here is a link to the pictures!!
I have been reading posts off this forum every now and then for a little while now, so I figured I would say hello, and post a trip report from last weekend.
We (3 friends and I) left the Loj trailhead at about 10:30am on sat. and headed south towards the MacIntyre range. The trail wasn't very difficult, and the weather was nice. This was my first overnight trip however, and I noticed the fully loaded weekend packs were slowing us down quite a bit.
We took a left towards Wright at the trail junction, and reached the summit of Wright sometime between twelve and one in the afternoon. The trail leading up to Wright was not too incredibly steep, and I remember it taking less than an hour to get to the top from the junction. After lunch and some pictures we decided against taking a "shortcut" to intersect with the trail going up to Algonquin, and headed down the way we came. Has anyone ever tried taking a straight shot towards the Algonquin trail from there? It definitely looked shorter distance-wise, but judging by how thick the forest was, it would probably take longer.
The rest of the trail up Algonquin was fairly steep, but nothing we couldn't handle. The summit was reached sometime between 2 and 3pm. Algonquin was nice because from the top my friend and I who are more familiar with the area could point out our planned route to our two other friends fairly accurately.
We headed over Algonquin towards Iroquois, but as two of us lagged behind taking pictures, the other two burned right past the trail for it and started the descent towards Lake Colden. Catching up to them and then convincing them to go back for Iroquois took some time, but we made up for it by leaving our packs on some of the Boundary rocks on the way over to Iroquois. The trail over to Iroquois was very muddy. If you are considering it anytime soon be ready to get at least a little muddy... sometimes it is hard to tell if you are about to step on a rock, or just pure mud.
We didn't stay long on Iroquois, and started our descent towards Lake Colden sometime around 5pm. This section of the trail was very steep and I would not want to descend it during wet weather. We camped for the night on the other side of Lake Colden. It was very cold that night (!!!!!).
We were on the trail a little after 9am the next morning, and heading towards Lake Tear of the Clouds / Four Corners. When we hit the lake we found the trail for Gray and headed up. This "unmarked" trail was more challenging than all of the previous day, but that's what makes it fun, right? I put "unmarked" in quotations because following this trail is not difficult at all. In fact, a small rockpile directly before the lake marks where the trail begins.
One thing I didn't mention yet was once above 3500 feet we were definitely in the frost zone. All the trees around us, and on the sides of Gray and Marcy were covered in frost... and it was already almost noon!
Once at the peak of Gray we decided to head straight for Marcy. I guess there is a small path that goes from Gray to Marcy, but we decided to go our own route across the sides of the mountains. Our plan was to intersect the trail going from Marcy to the Four Corners a little below tree line on Marcy. I would not recommend doing this unless you have plenty of time to spare (which we did), and are wearing long pants/sleeves (which we weren't). We ended up joining the trail almost exactly where we planned, however we payed the price for it with all the cuts on our shins and hands.
At this point we were pretty much headed for home. We stopped for a few pictures on the summit of Marcy, but not many (this was my third time on it). We went over the summit and headed back towards the Loj on the Van Hovenberg trail. We made the usual stops at Indian Falls and Marcy Dam for some pictures before finally getting back to the car at 6:30pm.
After stops for gas and food, we didn't get back to Cobleskill, NY until about 10pm. Then I made the drive all the way back to State College, PA... turned the car off at 3:30am. What a good weekend!
And almost forgot... here is a link to the pictures!!
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