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)