For something different, we decided to hike Mt. Colden as part of a group hike organized by the St. Lawrence chapter of the Adirondack Mountain Club (ADK). Ian’s high school friend Pat Carroll came along too.
The hike had been described as having a pace that would be “on the slow side of moderate.” I figured it would be hard for Ian to go that slow, but for myself, I welcomed the excuse to go a little slower. When we met at the Adirondack Loj, we were a group of seven, including the leader, an older guy who was involved with his local chapter and was interested in seeing the trail improvements that had been done a while earlier.
Also, it was Memorial Day weekend, so when we got to the register to sign in, there was a crowd there. But there are a lot of trails leading out from the Loj, and there didn’t seem to be too many people heading to Colden.
When we got to Marcy Dam, we had a clear view of Mt. Colden.
Around halfway up, our hike leader made an announcement: He was tired and not feeling well, so he was going to turn back! We were free to carry on without him, which we did. Suddenly, Ian was one of the people in the lead and the pace picked up considerably! Before long, a young woman who’d been counting on the “slow side of moderate” was finding herself way behind us; when she caught up, she had decided to head back too. So now it was just Ian, Pat, me, and two others.
We stopped for a nice lunch at Lake Arnold, at about 3,800 feet, one of the highest bodies of water in the Adirondacks.
There’s a shoulder leading up to Colden, which has a great view of the peak. It seemed really far off still, but was only 10 minutes away.
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