Skylight!!!!

On Saturday the 20th of September my trail mates and myself went on a little adventure into the Flowed Lands to climb Skylight and Grey peaks in the Adirondack High Peaks. We went in at the Tahawus trailhead and planned on either staying at the Uphill lean-to or the Feldspar lean-to or in one of the campsites around these two shelters. The hike into Lake Colden was not bad, a sight steady climb, and the trail is in good shape. Near Lake Colden we passed a new Lean-to and a new designated campsite.

Lake Colden looking N, early the second day.

At this time we were noticing that all the lean-to's and campsites that we had passed were filled right up and it was at this time that I was a little worried about where we were going to stay.

Now the trail became difficult, especially with backpacks on. While difficult it was rewarding with some of the views that this route afforded us.

In fact some of the gorges were 150 feet deep in spots.

We made camp at a tent site just before the Feldspar lean-to. It was a bit off the trail and we had to move some logs to make room for our tents. We had our site set up, had lunch and headed off to climb Skylight with our light packs. Just before we reached the Four Corners we arrived at Lake Tear of the Clouds. At the outlet we found the cairin that marks the beginning of the trail to Grey Peak.

Outlet of Lake Tear of the Clouds

Skylight was just about .75 mi. ahead and we were on top of the summit before we knew it and we were greeted with spectacular views. Also, there were very few people as it seemed that Marcy had all the rest of the hikers in the region. (We found out from a ranger that most of the hikers actually went up Algonquin Mt.)

Redfield Mt???

Mt Marcy

Mt Colden and the Mac Intyre Range

When we were ready to leave we decided that we didn't have time to do Grey and headed to the camp as it was pushing 4 pm when we started off the mountain.

We arrived hungry and immediately began making dinner. During this time two parties walked up to our site and one asked if there was room and the other, well that SOB just marched right into our site and looked around and said "Well no room for us." and walked out. That pissed me off, but our more experienced hiker said that's the way it is here since the DEC is limiting where and how you can camp. In all that was the only little cloud to a literally cloudless day.

When we were getting ready to call it a night we noticed odd old scratches on the trees, which turned out to be bear claws as they climbed the tree for the bear bags. We use a bear canister. We slept, no incidents, but we slept lightly.

There were a lot of these marks on all the trees in the camp

The next day we hiked out and even though the trail up beat us up a little we had a great time. Another glorious adventure.

Day 4 The Hike Out

All that rain that we had didn't go anywhere before we hiked out. The trail was covered with water. The little dried up stream beds were now fill with 2 and 3 feet of water. My trail companions were very resourceful at keeping their feet dry. There were more industrious than a platoon of SEABEE's and could build a bridge out of thin air. After about 3 miles into our odyssey, I had enough with the high wire bridges and started to slog through the water and once my feet were wet I just marched in a straight line. Guide saw things my way and followed suit, but Trailblazer, must had walked an extra 3 miles to keep her feet out of water.

Even though the extra water made the travel more difficult, it also made the woods more beautiful. We stopped many times to gaze at the small waterfalls that were normally the providence of the spring runoff and not common in mid-August. We also stopped many times to see the huge trees, some 4 and 5 feet in diameter. I have never seen so many trees so large.

We made it out tired and footsore, but very happy. This 4 day trip into the heart of the Adirondacks was a very fulfilling experience for me. One that I will remember and repeat soon.

Day 3 17 Aug 2008 Spruce Lake

I woke up first to a beautiful morning. I really wish I had a fishing pole right at that moment as the lake was like glass and I knew it was full of hungry trout. We petty much had the same routine that we did the previous day, only I felt even better than the day before. We headed out to Spruce Lake along the NPT.

The weather was nice and the trail, though muddy at first dried out and we had an easy walk into Spruce Lake. The woods were as interesting and full of variety as the last two days and I really enjoyed the walk into the lake. Just before we reach the Spruce #3 lean-to we found a couple of boats chained to trees. We wondered how the hell some determined person got these in. We stopped and had lunch at Spruce #3, which was gorgous and would have made for a nice place to camp, but Guide and Trail Blazer wanted to go to Spruce # 1 at the S end of the lake, so we headed S. we made a quick visit to Spruce #2 to check it out and moved on to Spruce #1.

We were very disappointed when we reached Spruce #1 as the Lean-to was set far away from the lake and was built in an area that water would drain if it rained. You could tell by the way the ground looked. We had to make a decision here as we did not like the site but it was 9.5 mi from the trailhead, while not only would we have to back track ¾ mi, but we would have a 10.3 mi walk out and for my footsore companions there were not happy about either choice, but they thought it was best to go back to Spruce #2, which was a nice site, but the lean-to needed work as some of the floorboards have no support underneath. The decision proved to be the most correct one and is a reason why it is good to hike with experienced people.

We didn’t get much sleep that night as, just after dinner and right when we were settling down to a comfortable night in camp, we heard thunder and saw flashes of lightening. The first storm was the most violent and only lasted for 20 minutes, but we had straight-line winds, a lightening strike 150 feet away from the lean-to, ½ hail and torrential rain. We were dry and comfortable in our lean-to. We had a brief respite and we watched trout jumping just off shore. Oh I wish I had a damn pole. About 45 minutes later another round hit, but it was not as intense, but it rained for another 10 hours. We didn’t sleep much, but we were snug as a bug in a rug in our shelter.