I love my snowshoes....

I spent the past weekend hiking, mountain climbing, snowshoeing and winter camping in the Adirondacks of New York. The adventure started a couple of weeks ago when I started to get out my camping gear and assessed what things I needed to buy or replace. It took a couple of trips to MEC ( http://www.mec.ca/ ) before I had got all the gear I would need. The main things I bought were warm socks, a thermarest air mattress, celebration mix and some straps for my snowshoes. I had hoped to buy a new sleeping bag but that sort of got put on the backburner. By Wednesday night, I had all the gear and clothing set out in a pile ready for the final packing chore. After my Thursday night lecture, I headed back and started to load the big 90 liter backpack with all my gear. I had intentionally taken more warm clothing than I needed as the weather conditions were variable. On Friday morning, I had a light breakfast and threw the final items into the bag and headed into the university. While taking the bus through the city a fellow passenger remarked that I must be desperate for a final fling of winter and I said that I was heading south to Lake Placid. Once at the university we loaded up the van with our individual gear as well as the group gear and were quickly on our way south to the border. The customs processing was a pleasant experience and the customs official were eager and friendly and wished a good trip. We stopped in Malone, NY for lunch just in time for the Friday fish and chips special. I headed over to Price Chopper to buy some Old Bay, fig newtons and oranges and bananas.

We were in Lake Placid/Adirondack Loj for mid-afternoon. By about 3:00 pm we had finished adding the group gear to our individual packs and were eager for the adventure to start. Before heading out on the trail, I filled up a one liter Nalgene bottle and a Dromedary bag. It was the first time that I have used a Dromedary bag and I'm thankful that JL introduced me to them as we used them while hiking in the Shenandoah National Park last year. Steph, our guide, gave us a couple of pointers on how to use our snowshoes and then gave everybody a pair. I had brought my own pair of Tubbs and so I was familiar with there capabilities. After taking a couple of pictures we filled out the park log book and then started our 2.3 mile hike into Marcy Dam. We were able to cover the trek in 45 minutes and then set out seeing which lean-tos were available. There is a large lean-to on the east side of Marcy Dam which we were able to grab just as the sun was starting to set. I changed into some warmer clothing and put on my booties as the remainder of the day would be sedentary. For supper we started with soup and the main course was a rice and vegetable stir fry which left everybody with a full stomach. We bedded down early as tomorrow was going to be a long day.

I slept in my booties and gators and they allowed me to have a warm and pleasant sleep with exception of the sound of somebody sawing logs nearby. Most folks slept well and we greeted by the sound of two stoves heating water for the porridge and grits. As we were heading out we talked to the ranger and he passed along a weather update. We spent the next hour snowshoeing in a southerly direction towards Avalanche Lake which gets its name from a landslide that occur a couple of years back. Before snowshoeing across the lake we stopped for a snack and a water break. As we were trekking across the lake we noticed where there had been a recent landslide which I caused a couple of trees to be broken off at there roots and pushed out into the middle of the lake. We stopped for lunch at the southern shore of Avalanche Lake. It was at this point that we left our well groomed snowshoeing trail and had to break fresh tracks for the remainder of the day. I took the lead and broke tracks along the eastern shore of Lake Colden. The large footprint of my snowshoes meant that I did sink to deep when breaking tracks. The groups caught up at the junction point where the trail starts up the side of Mt. Colden. This would be my second ascent of Mt. Colden. It is a steep climb as the approach to the summit is quite short compared with other nearby mountains. I stopped a couple of times along the way up as I could tell my heart rate was nearing anaerobic levels. I suspect that my heart rate was in the 175-182 beats per minute range. As I climbed, I added more and more layers of clothing and it was getting colder and colder as I climbed. As the ascent got steeper, I spent more and more time kick-stepping. Kick-stepping is when you kick the toe of your boot deep into the snow and make a step to hold your foot while you make a step with the other foot. The crampons on the bottom of the snowshoe help secure your foot in the step. Kicking stepping is tiring as you are spending most of the time on your fore foot. I stopped a little before the summit to put on more clothing as the wind started to whip up and it started to snow. I waited a while for the rest of the group to catch up and munched on celebration mix passing the time. At this point, Steph, took over the lead as you have to rely on yellow marker painted on the rock face to guide up across the top of the mountain. The Mt. Colden topographical map is in the gallery with the trip pictures. The wind continued to whip up so we trekked across the top of the mountain and down the other side as quickly as we could. At this point we were above the tree line and so were very exposed to the elements. We headed down as quickly as we could and took a quick break as we entered the tree line which offered us some protection.

Our descent was much faster than our ascent as we wanted to get out of the foul weather as quickly as possible. By hiking across the top of the mountain permitted us to make a circular loop which would eventually take us back to Marcy Dam by way of Lake Arnold. We reached our lean-to late in the afternoon a little knackered. While the stoves were heating up water for hot chocolate we stripped out of our wet clothing and into warm and dry clothing as the temperature started to fall. For supper we had spaghetti, sauteed vegetables and marinara sauce. As we lounged around the lean-to it started to snow which deposited about three inches of snow overnight.

On Sunday morning we had an easy start to the day as our goal was to visit Indian Falls which would involve a hike of about four hours. After re-stuffing our sleeping bags into their sacks and tidying up the lean-to we headed out for the day. We headed in a southerly direction we retraced our steps as if we were going to Avalanche Lake but headed east at a trail juncture. The next couple of hours were spent climbing up a meandering pass which got the heart rate going but not as laboring as the Mt. Colden climb. We stopped for lunch at Indian Falls which was a snow covered ice sheet but glad to have visited a notable landmark. The journey back to lean-to was a brisk one as it was downhill all the way. One funny thing happened while at Indian Falls, I was talking to a guy who was trying to call a group that was skiing ahead of him. Somehow he misdialed numbers on his cell and started talking to another friend in NJ. It was weird that he could talk to folks in NJ but the cell signal could pick up his friends further along the trail. By late afternoon, we were back at the lean-to and loading our bags for the final time and bid adieu to the lean-to. Our bags were lighter as the food we had carried in had been consumed. As dusk was setting in we reached Adirondack Loj and headed into Saranac Lake for a filling supper at Pizza Hut. We finished off three large pizzas and were given three more for the road.

It was a good trip as my snowshoes were happy for their first trip stateside, the flatware plate, utensils and Dromedary bag all worked out really great. My hiking boots and hiking gators helped to keep my feet warm and dry for most of the trip. There was one casualty on the trip. While hiking down Mt. Colden I used my hiking pole to stabilize myself when going through a rough section. At one point one of my snowshoes got caught on a root and sunk quite deep in the snow and I grabbed the pole to help myself up. The pole didn't like the force I exerted on it so it bent. I’ll have to MEC on the weekend to get a replacement. There were other elements that made for a challenging weekend but they will have to wait for a future post. I hope that I can convince JL that we should go hiking in the Adirondacks this year.

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