Wright - Detailed

Trip Report: Hike to Wright Peak - A Would-Be Cramp on Hike

...Here's a rare treat!  In my zaniness, I decided to bring my laptop with me so that I can type up the day's events before I even head home.  It's really not that bad since I did my typing while everyone else slept.  These are really the "detailed notes" from the trip that allow me to write a better story later.   I have no idea if I'll keep up with this practice...

Summary Info:

Date:  Saturday, January 27, 2001

Round Trip:  7 miles

Elevation:  4,580'

Hiking Party:  Mike, Joe, Allen (Teena & Rhonda stayed in Lake Placid & shopped)

Departure point:  ADK Loj

Start time:  7:15am

Summit time:  10:15am

Lunch:  10:30-10:50am

Return:  10:50am - 1:00pm.

Weather:  Generally overcast, light snow, no wind!!! The temperature was in the single digits at departure, but warmed up to the low 20's by the time we arrived back at the ADK Loj parking lot. The cloud ceiling was below 4,000', perhaps as low as 3,800'.

Summit:  Brief break - sun shone, undercast (we were ABOVE the clouds - Algonquin cone was above clouds!) Way cool… Looked mystical. Did I mention that there was no wind?

Driving:  5.5 hours from Rochester, NY to Lake Placid, NY., mileage ~248 miles. Drove Route 104W to Route 81N (~80 miles), 81N to Watertown (~40 miles), Route 3E from Watertown to Route 86 in Saranac Lake (~120 miles), Route 86 in Saranac Lake to Lake Placid (~8 miles). We stopped for a "quick" dinner at Friendly's in Oswego that turned into a 1.5 hour whine-as-you-wait sessions. So, total driving time was ~4 hours. Not bad!

Lodging: Once again, we stayed at the tried and true Woodlake Motor Lodge on Saranac Avenue in Lake Placid. It's not the Ritz, but as usual, the price is right, and the beds are clean!

Description:
Getting Started:

It was an early start after a late night before. Teena, her friend Rhonda, and I arrived in Lake Placid around 11:30pm on Friday the 26th. After about an hour of unpacking, getting things ready, and settling in, the lights went out and then so were we. Since the hiking party was departing the motor lodge at 6:30am, and my alarm clock was broken, I played with my cellular phone in the hopes of receiving a wake-up call at 6:00am.
The wake up phone call never came (out of cellular range? Analog? Who knows?), but that didn't matter as we apparently had Godzilla & King Kong in the room above us. At 5:30 am, there was a massive amount of wrestling around and noise in the room above us as the temporary tenants packed up their things wand went out to ski at Whiteface Mountain. I didn't have the heart to tell them that Whiteface was only 10 miles down the road, and that they were REALLY early, even by my standards.
Needless to say, I was up, lethargic and fatigued as I was, and getting ready for the hiking adventure ahead. I pulled out my breakfast - Hostess cupcakes, an apple pie (that I still don't remember eating), and a Snapple Lemon Iced Tea. I donned my nylon, Gore-Tex jacket, Polypropylene & polyester innerwear, my black vest, and my cool black gators (still muddy from my last adventure with Teena!).  I was ready.

The Hike:

Being one of the first to arrive provided us the wonderful opportunity of traveling through the newly fallen snow - about 2 - 4 inches fell the night before. The hike started out like most hikes do when the merry team gets started at 7:15am. S-L-O-W… But it didn't take too long for us to get moving. …And moving we did! Within no time at all, we started making the customary stops to remove layers of clothing - except for "minimalist Mike" (that's me) who decided to experiment by wearing 1 less layer at the outset.  It turned out to be a good strategy since I was feeling pretty good through most of the hike, never really getting overheated.
After ~1.5 hours, we had traveled about 2 miles. The snow was becoming a burden to the hike with the increasing slope of the terrain. At this point we donned our snowshoes to make use of the cramp-ons for better gripping power. The flotation of the snowshoes was not required since we were hiking on a packed trail surface. Cramp-ons were much better suited for this task. However, the snowshoes did the trick, providing the gripping power we needed. It wasn't long before we felt the awesome pangs of muscular exertion within our calves. We hiked for most of the next hour on the balls of our feet, using the cramp-ons to grip into the packed snow.
We pushed above tree line after ~ 1 hour of hiking in our snowshoes. Things were getting interesting as the exposed summit was icy with packets of loosely packed snow. Since we didn't have cramp-ons, we needed to keep our snow shoes on in order to traverse the technically tricky terrain. Needless to say, the "weekend warriors of daring do" made it to the summit in no time. Or that's what we thought until we heard 'Ol Mountain Joe exclaim "Shit! Shit Shit Shit Shit Shit!" False summit. After another 10 minutes, we made it to the real summit. There we took pictures, ate lunch, and admired the views.
There's no cooler feeling when hiking mountains that looking down on the clouds, and having blue skies above. We even had moments of sun. Then it happened… Suddenly, for a brief moment, the upper cone of Algonquin emerged from the clouds in a brilliant display of sunshine! It seemed to float on a bed of clouds. The moment disappeared as quickly as it arrived, but we were there to witness. We took a little time to eat our lunches before the winds picked up and the snow started to fall.
The descent was quick and fun! After a very tricky technical descent over steep & icy rock back to the tree line, we raised some eyebrows by "sledding" down the hill to the trail junction point on the heels of our snowshoes. There, we greeted a party of eight who found much humor in our hooting and hollering and all around good fun. After a brief chat, it was on to the trek and sledding. We also learned how to "ski" on our snow shoes. This technique is probably better described as sliding on the heels in a controlled descent. We had way too much fun doing this! Throughout the trip back to the Loj, we passed many hiking parties, including a group of telemark skiers. We passed them quickly as I was in the lead and, unknowingly, set a break-neck speed. I was having fun.
Once at the Loj, we spent some time at the High Peaks Information Center where I made my "obligatory" purchase (I always want to buy something so I can feel like I'm supporting the entire operation). I bought an Adirondack Mountain Club baseball cap. We fueled up on coffee, and headed back to Lake Placid.