4/16/16

Parking: Adk Loj
Group: Emily, Shawn, Murphy

Our new backpacking camping gear arrived and we were itching to get out and use it!  I really wanted to camp out at Lake Colden, and Shawn still needed Cliff & Redfield, so we decided to hike in from the Loj through Avalanche Pass (we hadn’t been there yet!) and stay in one of the Beaver Point lean-tos.

Because we were staying overnight, we didn’t feel too rushed Saturday morning and didn’t leave Albany until 7am.  After stopping to grab the Camelback from my mom, making a pit-stop at the rest area to walk Murph, and then getting my Stewart’s breakfast sandwich, we finallyyy pulled in to the Loj at 10am.

We hit the trail twenty minutes later, and were at the Dam by 11:15am.

We met a pretty huge dog at the trail register, who proceeded to jump  up on to me and chase after Murphy…pleaseee as a common courtesy, don’t let your dog run around free if he’s going to jump on people and eat their food.  Thanks 🙂

We turned right on the Yellow trail and headed towards Avalanche Lake.  After the next junction, we put our crampons on and continued up the icy path.  By 12:45pm, we were at Avalanche Lake!  Plenty of other people were out enjoying the first weekend of warm weather.  We sat and had our lunch for a half hour before continuing on our hike.

Crampons on, crampons off, crampons on, crampons off

As we had never been through the Pass before, we didn’t know how many ladders and rock ledges there would be.  Luckily, Murphy only weighs 45lbs and we can pick him up pretty easily with his harness, but we probably won’t be back this way with him anytime soon.  It’s not the most ‘dog friendly’ trail, especially with overnight bags.

Okay, maybe this part was “dog-friendly”…as long as your dog isn’t afraid of bridges

An hour an a half after starting our hike through the Pass, we reached the end of Lake Colden (below).

We had been planning to leave our bags at the Opalescent lean-to, but we couldn’t find it and didn’t want to waste time hiking or backtracking, so we continued on to the Uphill lean-to and left our bags there (45 minutes past Lake Colden).

Yeah….he’s really not a fan of the suspension bridges

Even though I was keeping a keen eye for the trailhead, it was hard to spot with all the snowcover (who am I kidding, it’s hard to find in the summer, too).  As we walked along, we kept trying to determine which mountains were the ones we would be hiking and wondering why the trail was so flat… Then we got to an unexpected junction, took out the map, and realized we had traveled a half mile too far.

So, we turned around, hiked the half mile back, and found the trail head WHICH FOR ANYONE WONDERING is DIRECTLY ACROSS from the Uphill lean to.  Please don’t overshoot it and make the same mistake I did.  By this time, it was after 4pm and we were getting a little tired.

THE MOST UNRECOGNIZABLE TRAIL HEAD EVER

We started the hike up Cliff, which – contrary to other reports I read- IS NOT DOG FRIENDLY.  Cliff is a cliff, which is why it is named such and why I swore I would never hike it again after the first time I did it back in 2014.

There is a false summit, and you have to go down a bit before you head back up to the top.  I almost stopped early, but Shawn was persistent and insisted that we had to keep going.  He was right, this time, and we reached the summit of Cliff at 5pm, an hour after starting the ascent.

It took  a little over an hour down, and by the time we got back to the junction we were all wondering if/why we had to do Redfield next.  I was really hoping we could get back to Lake Colden before it was dark and any chillier than it was already, and luckily Shawn was thinking the same thing.  We’ll (he’ll) have to come back another day to visit Redfield.

Forty minutes after leaving the Uphill lean to we were at Lake Colden, and 10 minutes after that we arrived at the Cedar Point lean-to.

Boots off: 9 hours after leaving the Loj, at 7:20pm.

The most perfect home for the night

Lean-to humor.  But seriously….is there wifi?

It got pretty chilly in the wee hours of the night, but our new gear kept us warm and comfy, and it was so awesome to wake up looking directly on to the lake.

It got so cold, in fact, that my sweaty socks were frozen solid in the morning.

We left the lean to around 7am, passed by the Interior Outpost and chatted with the friendly Ranger for a few, and then went back out the Pass.

About four hours after our lean to departure, we were back at the Loj; happy, and ready to head home to celebrate my dad’s and brother’s birthdays.  It was a successful first backpacking camp out!  It was our first real Adk hiking trip where we were just enjoying the outdoors and not so focused on checking a number off a list.  It was great!

Back in the car with happy and tired faces

This pup earned himself an ice cream!

 

See you out there!