Lake Colden
On a recent Monday, son Ned and I set off on the biggest single-day hike of either of our lifetimes. We tramped from Adirondack Loj near Lake Placid to Avalanche Pass, Avalanche Lake, Lake Colden, the Opalescent River, Feldspar Brook, Lake Tear-of-the-Clouds, and the summit of Mt. Marcy, then back to our car, dropping more than three thousand feet in elevation in the process, via the long, rocky, eroded Van Hoevenberg trail. We started hiking at 7:43 a.m.. We signed out at the trail register at 10:58 p.m.. Research in advance had suggested we would be walking nearly seventeen miles, an ambitious goal. I hadn’t hiked that many miles in a day in these mountains in forty years! Ned’s GPS recorded a trek of 21.9 miles. Whichever figure is accurate, we rejoiced in, and at times suffered through, a long, hard, thrilling day on the trail.
Here’s a selection of photos from a journey we’ll long remember.
Ned arriving at Avalanche Pass and Avalanche Lake.
Avalanche Lake, looking back the way we’d come.
Lake Colden
Lake Colden, looking from the dam back the way we’d come.
Crossing the Opalescent River just upstream from Lake Colden.
Feldspar Brook, below Lake Tear-of-the-Clouds.
Arriving at Lake Tear-of-the-Clouds, source of the Hudson River. Theodore Roosevelt was sitting here having lunch on a September day in 1901 when news reached him that William McKinley was dying. In a matter of hours, the forty-two-year-old Roosevelt would be President of the United States.
Ned on the right, me on the left, at Lake Tear, with Mt. Marcy rising in the distance.
Lake Tear-of-the-Clouds, looking toward Mt. Marcy, highest peak in New York State.
Looking down to Lake Tear from high on Mt. Marcy.
Looking up toward the Mt. Marcy summit during the ascent.
View toward Mt. Haystack from high on Mt. Marcy.
View from high on Mt. Marcy, looking south and east toward Elk Lake.
Elk Lake from high on Mt. Marcy
Mt. Marcy summit (5,344 feet above sea level)
Ed and Ned just arrived on top of Mt. Marcy in late afternoon.
Mt. Marcy summit view
Ned and I begin our descent of Mt. Marcy in beautiful evening light.
This section of trail typifies the steep, rocky Van Hoevenberg Trail that serves as the most popular route up and down Mt. Marcy. Hiking one careful footstep at a time along this eroded trail on weary legs, mile after mile, some of it in the dark, posed challenges for mind as well as body.
Ned and I emerged from the pitch-black woods jubilant and weary just before 11 pm. We returned home about midnight, celebrated briefly with the rest of the household, and then collapsed in our beds. What a day!
