SUMMARY:
Teena, Elizabeth, and I visited Lake Placid for the second time in three weeks to meet up with our friends Rick, Gordon, Andy, and Sue. "Los Amigos" planned to hike Algonquin and Iroquois on Saturday while the ladies shopped, toured, etc... Teena, still recovering from a July delivery of Baby Elizabeth, plans to make her big hiking comeback debut in October 2001.
After a rough start, three of "Los Amigos" successfully ascended Algonquin Mountain (Andy, Mike, and Rick), reaching the cloud-shrouded summit at about 11:30am. Gordon reached to within a few hundred feet of the summit before being turned back by the generally inclement weather - a fact that we will constantly remind him of. Unfortunately, the cloud cover never dissipated, meaning that Andy and Gordon had to apply their imaginations in new and creative ways to see the surrounding scenes.
Because of the lack of views, the very high winds, and because Mike knows he'll be back on Algonquin again someday, the ascent of Iroquois Peak was abandoned.
We arrived back at the Loj trail head around 4:15pm, making much better time on the way down than we did on the way up. We regrouped in Lake Placid for dinner at 7:00pm at the Lake Placid Brew Pub. There, Rick and Mike discussed plans to hike up Hurricane Mountain the next day (click here for that report).
This was Mike's 2nd successful ascent of Algonquin.
DETAILS:
Teena and I headed to Lake Placid for the second time this month. The first trip resulted in a Phelps Trip Report and a 1st Adirondack trip for young Baby Elizabeth. This time, instead of checking into the trusted Woodlake Motor Lodge, we decided to stay at Placid Bay Inn. Earlier this month, we learned that travel with a baby requires additional space. Placid Bay offered a room with a king size bed, kitchenette, and walk-in closet for ~$75.
It was a cold, wet start as we arrived at the Loj trail head and started hiking at 7:25am. Yet another major weather system went through the area overnight, unloading an extensive payload of rain on the area. Even as Rick picked us up at 6:30am, the rain was still pouring. The weather was a about 50 degrees, drizzly, and overcast when we started hiking. Like the Phelps hike a few weeks before, this wasn't exactly the type of weather you want for taking some friends on their first High Peaks hiking trip.
Each hiking trip has its own interesting side story... That story for this trip belongs to Rick. He started the trip quite "ill," fertilizing the local plant life with plenty of oats. The cause of this sudden illness - seedy, bottom of the barrel "Ubu Ale" at the Down Hill Grill, or the "love fest" in the room above him at the St. Moritz - remains unknown. Lucky for all of us, the Ale worked it's way out of his system, his lack of sleep energized him, and his terrifying memories of "squeaking" the night before provided plenty of jokes and tall tales throughout the hike! At the end of the day, Rick was arguably better off than any of us!
This first mile of the 4.2 mile ascent took us only 20 minutes, after which we stopped for a quick breather and posed for pictures at the trail junction for Marcy Dam. Somewhere in our conversations at this point, the following exchange took place: "How far is it to the summit, Mike?" "About 4+ miles." "Great... We should be there in an hour then." "Uh huh... Hold on to that spirit........" Within the first 1/4 mile, the drizzle stopped, and we were able to put away our jackets.
After the next 1/2 mile and another 20 minutes (notice the diminishing return on time?), we arrived at the Whale's Tail ski trail to Wright's summit. We stared for a few moments and wondered aloud at how hard it must be to ski uphill at such a pitch. We then hiked and rested on and off for another mile, and another hour (what happened to 20 minutes per mile rule?), hitting some increasingly steeper terrain, until we reached a beautiful waterfall. There, we stopped for 20+ minutes to climb the falls and take pictures. Once we got started again, we hiked for another 1/2 mile to the trail junction for the summit of Wright Peak. Shortly into that 1/2 mile, Gordon began to fall behind, and requested that the rest of us continue up - he would meet us at the summit.
"Remember I told you that this gets steep?" Mike chuckled... The next 1/2 mile or so to the tree line was extremely steep, but took little time to traverse as we "bulled" our way through it. Once above the tree line, we were greeted by extreme winds and powerful gusts. Above our heads, the canopy of clouds could almost be reached. At this point, we could still see the summit of Wright peak, and much of the northern regions behind us. But within a few minutes, we were in the clouds for good.
At the summit, we were kept company by constant 40mph winds, with gusts that were probably close to 60mph. One of those gusts nearly knocked Rick cleanly off the summit in his eagerness to get there. Rick, Andy, and Mike hung out at the summit for ~45 minutes, waiting for Gordon and thinking about whether or not to hike Iroquois. In the end, we decided against hiking to Iroquois because we had no views, and the weather appeared to be getting worse. Besides, we routinely saw blue skies above us, leading Mike to exclaim that there was a possibility to have "undercast" skies similar to those he experienced in January's ascent of Wright peak.
The weather began worsen with the arrival of increased winds and colder temps. As we began our descent, we began asking fellow hikers if they had seen our friend, Gordon. Surprisingly, about 1/2 said he was way back on the trail - behind the Wright Trail junction. The other 1/2 said he was only a couple hundred feet away. The latter proved true as we met up with Gordon less than 5 minutes from the summit. Due to the lack of views, Gordon decided he'd rather turn around and head back to the trailhead instead of hiking to the summit. In spite of the heckling and jabs we gave him on the way down, it's worth noting that intelligent people turn around before they've gone too far. We posed for a couple group photos and headed back.
The hike down was uneventful and quick. We stopped by the High Peaks Information Center for a quick break and some coffee. Then we went back to Lake Placid, hit the Placid Brew Pub for dinner, and told tall tales to our friends and significant others.
What will we remember from this trip? Yet ANOTHER "white out" atop a High Peak, this time being on top of Algonquin! Andy's and Gordon's first High Peaks hiking adventure. 50mph+ gales on top of Algonquin! ...And of course, Rick's adventurous start of the day!
STATS SUMMARY:
Date of Summit: 09/22/2001
Team: Mike, Rick A., Gordon P., Andy Z.
Location: Adirondack High Peaks (44.143664, -73.986536)
Summit Elevation: 5,114'
Vertical Ascent: 2,936'
Approach: ADK Loj parking lot
Trailhead to Summit: 4.8 miles
Time to summit: ~4.5 hours
Weather: Sunny, and HOT enough to melt rock!!! 91 degrees!!! The heat index was over 100 degrees!!!
Trail Difficulty: Difficult with steep terrain for the last mile of the hike to the summit.
Photo Album:
One mile into the trip... Only 20 minutes? 4.2 miles to the summit? We'll be home in time for lunch!!!
Iroquois! I can't even see the camera man! Besides... Where's Gordo?
Rick explains, while flexing his muscles, that hiking Algonquin requires a strong will, and an even stronger physique.
Gordon pauses while on Loj Road to squash all the little people still atop of Algonquin.
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