Colvin, Blake 8/11/2013

Another nice sunny summer day. A little cooler start than most which was nice. Probably 50 at the start of the day which was 8:00AM at the St. Huberts parking lot. Went up the road to the second sign pointing toward Colvin. Not to far into the woods there was a sign for Indian Head. Ken quickly took this path knowing it would not be possible to talk the group into a detour at the end of the day. Sue quickly started talking about the possibility of retribution if the view wasn't worthy of the extra effort. Removing fingers were mentioned several times. After a few false Indian Head's, where the number of fingers to be removed increased, we got to Indian Head. A very nice view from cliffs that overlook Ausable Lake. You could see the upper and lower lakes and also Colvin. Everyone agreed Indian Head was a very nice spot and Ken was allowed to move on unharmed. The trail down from Indian Head appeared to be a steep downhill which would not be good since we would have to make up this altitude again later. Luckily once we started down the steep trail Bruce and Ken noticed that it was pretty much flat.
The trail up to Colvin was fairly long and got steep as it got near Colvin. There were a few rock scrambles near the Colvin summit that were tricky. Bruce had to be used as a human ladder at one point. This worked well except for the cut on Bruce's head but everyone agreed that wasn't a problem. There was talk of installing ladder rungs on Bruce's back for the next outing.
Colvin has great views. You can see the whole great range from Marcy to Lower Wolfjaw and even Giant. One of the best vantage points so far. The weather was warm and sunny at this point although only too warm when you were in direct sunlight. The temperature in the woods was pretty good for the most part.
It appeared there was a steep downhill and then a corresponding uphill to get to Blake. Bruce explained that they were both pretty much the same height so there really wasn't any elevation difference to contend with. As we went down into a saddle and back up again it turned out Bruce was right and everything was pretty much flat.
Blake does have some views which is more than I expected. After being at Colvin, and knowing we were returning there again, the views were not that impressive. The summit itself is basically in the woods. So, back to Colvin again and another break at the summit of Colvin to check out the views one more time. There is a long steep slide on Nippletop that can be viewed from Colvin. It looks like you would need ropes for that one.
On the way down from Colvin we took the Gill Brook trail which follows a stream for a while instead of heading out to the Ausable dirt road. This is a very nice trail! Gill Brook has numerous water falls and the trail follows the stream for a half mile or so. Carolyn went swimming in a pool next to a good sized waterfall. She managed to hike out without being stopped for illegal swimming on Ausable Club land!
Long day but a lot of variety and one of the nicer hikes so far.

Where are we?

Indian Head - looking at Ausable lake

Top of Colvin

Gray, Skylight 7/31/13

Nice summer day in the ADK's. Started at the ADK Loj, up past Lake Arnold to Lake Tear of the Clouds. I think the lake is at about 4000 feet so a lot of the climbing was done at this point. Someone said this is the start of the Hudson river. Went up Gray first which is trailless but has a well defined easy to follow path up to the top. There is also a sign at the top. Although you are in low trees at the top you can see out with good views of Marcy, which is very close, and also Wright, Algonquin, Colden and you could see the Lake Placid ski jumps.
Ran into Kevin before I got to Gray and hiked up Gray and Skylight with him. He is retired and has done a number of interesting adventures in the past few years. Biked from CA to MA. Had a long distance bike for this. A little more heavy duty and made for extra weight. He also crewed on a boat going from MA to FL. Found the boat on the Internet. The experience was good but the captain was tough to deal with. Need to look at reviews of the boat and captain before doing something like this. He is planning a trip to kayak from Newcomb to NYC.
He carries a Spot device so his wife can track him at a web page. Good for the bike trip and the boat trip since it works everywhere. Interesting.

http://www.amazon.com/SPOT-Satellite-GPS-Messenger-unit/dp/B002PHRDQU/ref=pd_sim_sg_1

Also ran into a woman on Gray and Skylight who has done "the grid". You hike each of the 46 in each month of the year. So, she has climbed each of the 46 at least 12 times. She told me that going back over Marcy was easier than returning via the Lake Arnold trail. I didn't take her advice on this one! She broke her arm on one of the hikes. 5 miles in the woods hiking by herself when it happened. Got out OK. We agreed a broken leg would be another matter.
The top of skylight is very nice. Marcy is right there and you can see many of the high peaks. I guess you are supposed to bring a rock up to the top to insure good weather. There are small rocks all over the top which is fairly big and flat. Could see Redfield and Cliff which are two peaks on the list in the area. I heard Cliff is muddy with no view. Need to combine that with something nicer when planning that one.
Could have also gone to Haystack from this area but that would make an already long day very long.

Lake Tear of the Clouds or something like that

Colden, Algonquin, Wright from top of Gray

Top of Skylight looking toward Giant in the background

Top of Skylight

Haystack in foreground

Kevin - bike x-country, kayak Hudson river, etc.

Swamp - Told by grid lady that hiking Marcy is easier than dealing with swamp and lake arnold trail (rocky)