Wright, Algonquin, Iroquois 10/20/13

It isn't summer any more...

                                         Waterfall on way to Wright

                                         Top of Wright

                                         Bruce uses transporter to materialize on top of Algonquin

                                         Hillary step. A few people used up their O2 waiting.

                                         Heading down Algonquin. Looking at Iraquois.

                                         Colden and Marcy

Macomb, South Dix (3 times), East Dix, Hough, Dix 10/10/2013

This one was at the edge of my limits. OK, it was over. Started out cool (32) and dark. 6:30 start in October which means no light. Found the trail going to Macomb which turns into a big slide. The slide has great views of Elk Lake and surrounding mountains and gets you to the top in a hurry. I was thinking the hike would not be that long after getting to the top of Macomb at 8:30. Next was South Dix which has views toward Dix and Hough and has a number of rocky view points. Just before getting to South Dix there was a cairn and a Y. One way went to South Dix which was clear since you could see the mountain. The other way went North and I assumed toward Hough and Dix. These are "trail-less peaks which means there is a trail or trails where people have walked before but no signs. I made a mental note that the other side of the Y must go to Hough and Dix and went on to South Dix. East Dix is east of South Dix. Good name. You take a trail from South to East and then go back up South Dix. So now I have been up South Dix twice. East Dix was pretty nice. Views of Lake Champlain and Vermont and an interesting angle on Giant and Rocky. You could see Juniper island in Lake Champlain. Then I headed down to the Y and happily went toward Hough. Or so I thought. Hough is higher than South Dix and you could see that I should have been going up. This trail kept going down, and then it started going West. I went down pretty far which means I had to go up again. About an hour diversion and another run up South Dix. I noticed another trail just after the South Dix that I previously thought was a lookout. Turned out that was the right way to Hough. At this point I was getting worried that I may be on the wrong trail again and may have to climb South Dix again but this trail started to go up quickly and was going the right way (North). The hike up Hough and Dix was pretty steep and there is a pretty good drop between Hough and Dix. Dix has great views of Marcy, and some of the great range, Giant, and all the mountains I had climbed today. The Beckhorn has a big table rock with a big wall. I will include a picture below. This was my third time up Dix. I went up from the other side two other times. One time in the winter which was interesting since I went up the slide and missed the turn onto the trail at the bottom of the slide. I will try and find a picture from that hike and include it. At the top of Dix I was tired. Dix is close to 5000 feet so I still had 3000+ of downhill and about 8 miles to go at this point. I looped down from the Beckhorn so didn't have to go over South Dix again! Nice trail down with views of the many slides that are on the Dix range. The day was 6:30 to 4:00. Drove a little further down the road once I got out of the woods. Checked out the Elk Lake Lodge which is very nice. Right on the lake with a sandy beach and all kinds of small boats to play with. Pictures to follow.

                                         Macomb slide

                                         Macomb slide with Elk Lake

                                          Elk Lake

                                          Dix

                                         Beckhorn looking toward great range

                                          East Dix

                                          Elk Lake - end of day

                                          April 6 2012 - Dix from round pond

                                          Missed trail at bottom and ended up going up slide.
                                          Steep ice slide.

                                          Dix as seen from Noonmark

Mt Marshall 9/9/2013

Started out on the Tawanas side. Went past the furnace and what is left of the old town on the way to the trail. The town has just about had it. Changed a lot since last time I saw it. Walked into the flowed lands and had good views of Colden. Cool in the morning turning into another sunny summer day in the afternoon. Marshall is a pretty nice hike. I didn't see anyone the whole time I was on the trail to and from Marshall. The trail follows a stream for half the way up. Pretty rough in spots with mud, roots, rocks, etc. The top of Marshall has better views than I thought. You can walk beyond the summit and see Marcy and a view down toward the flowed lands. Going back down there are some nice views of Colden and Iraquois (sp?). Another nice day in the ADK's.
Two movies after the pictures. Experimenting!

Stream on the way up Marshall

                                              View of Colden from flowed lands

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