The Unofficial ADK Buttkicker III TR

“Since Artex was not able to attend the trip, it can't really be the Buttkicker.

I got home a little while ago and am currently working on the trip report and getting pictures ready to upload.

Let me just say that the weather could not have been any better. As a group we were able to climb 8 different peaks.”

“Excellent. I appreciate you carrying the torch for this trip, Lumberzac. I couldn't have asked for a more qualified hiker to do so. Glad you guys had fun.”

“Yeah, I ran into Artex over in the White Mountains next door. The weather was absolutely spectacular there too.

Meanwhile downstate, the weather was supposedly cloudy all day yesterday. Muah ha ha ha ha ha ha!”

“Here are my pictures. I haven't gotten a chance to title them yet.


pictures
”

“My pictures are now captioned.”

“Look at all that blue sky!

NICE!

Great pics, zac. A couple wall-framers for sure. That Panorama is Ausable!!!”

“Picture perfect, as you said, Zac! Nice...”

“very nice :)”

“Awesome pics Zac! My camera crapped out halfway through the trip again, so I'm glad you came through.

Where is the trip report, oh trip leader? Here's mine: great weekend, great weather, great hiking, and great people.”

“Friday:
I arrived at the trailhead, later than planned, to meet a waiting Pennsy. I wasted little time and we were on the trail by 7:05.

The trail was muddier than the last few times I hiked it, thanks to the rains from the remnants of Hurricane Frances. This and the imposing darkness slowed our progress. Finally we reached Colden dam where Sacco was waiting for our arrival. From here we hiked over to the lean-to. At this point we noticed that we were missing a person. Where was Stoopid (Kevin on the adirondack forum)? We soon learned that he had decided to head up and climb Redfield and Cliff and hadn't returned yet. We sat at the lean-to for about a half an hour and just as we were getting ready to send out the SAR team, a very tired Kevin arrived at camp at about 10. We soon went to bed.

Saturday:
We decided to do the loop in reverse, putting the steepest section of the hike at the beginning with us ascending rather than descending. Soon we were hiking along the shore of Lake Colden and then the steep climb up the mountain with the same name. About halfway up the mountain the views opened up. The mountains to the southwest were covered with clouds with only the taller mountain summits poking up through the cloud ceiling. Just before we reached the summit 360-degree view opened up. We continued past the summit and had an early lunch before heading over to a false summit on the Northeast side where again we were given 360-degree views.

Soon we headed down the trail to Lake Arnold and then over to Indian Falls. At the top of the falls we could see the entire MacIntyre Range. At this point Pennsy split from the group to hike Tabletop and Phelps, while the rest of us head up toward Mount Marcy. About halfway up Marcy we came to a small clearing where we watched a small bird while it watched us. It was very curious as to what we were doing while I took some pictures. From there it was on to Marcy. We met several groups on there way down and were greeted by only about 10 people on the summit.

After a brief stay on the summit we headed down toward the other side of Marcy. Here Kevin split from the group to climb Gray Peak, while Sacco and myself went up Skylight. We sat on the summit for a while and soon had the mountains to our selves for a short time, before deciding that it was time to get going. We met back up with Kevin at Lake Tear of the Clouds and head down the Feldspar Brook Trail. Soon it was dark and finally we arrived back at the lean-to a little after 8 where Pennsy was waiting for us.

Sunday:
Pennsy, Sacco, and myself packed up and headed out. Kevin stayed behind to climb Mount Marshall. The hike out was uneventful and because of good company time seemed to fly by. Soon we were back at the trailhead. Our last stop as a group was at the Long Lake Diner where we had breakfast and than went our separate ways when finished.”

“once at camp fri afternoon i mostly waited at colden dam for zac and pennsy.
it was very pleasant as i watched the low clouds skim the top of mt. colden.

the DEC steward came around 6*30pm and made sure our food was hung up. he told me the bear hazing had been workin well and he'd be surpirsed if we even saw one. 15 minutes later i heard some shouting in the campsites nearby.
a bear had shown up and was bugging some campers. i walked back to our camp to double check our stuff. a different bear had just come through while our neighbors were cooking their dinner. the bear just walked up to them completely ignored their shouting, knocked their stove over, ate their half cooked dinner and then moved on down the road without so much as a thank you to them.

[moral of story: do all cooking WELL BEFORE dark - and don't believe it when they tell you the hazing is working]


SATURDAY : colden was gorgeous. so was indian falls.
on the way up marcy we met a bird who was as plucky as he was handsome.
Zac's bird pic: http://community.webshots.com/photo...186997437yHhPta

can anyone tell me what kinda bird he is? {NOTE: zac solved the mystery - Mr. Plucky = a gray jay.}

top of marcy was nice and not as populated as i expected. skylight was even better.

around 7ish on the way back to camp i was ahead of zac and kevin by about 50 yds. it was starting to get dark so i was really watching my footing. i looked up and there was a large bear with a green collar less than 20 feet away coming right down the trail at me! he immediately stopped and turned around. just as i was thinking 'wow, that was cool' i realized he had stopped again and did a U-turn. now he was coming right back at me!
i waved and shouted as my heart started pumping overtime. the bear ignored my shouting and kept coming straight at me. after a few seconds zac and kevin caught up to me and the bear disappeared.

that night we talked to a ranger who knew the bear by my desription [the green collar.] he said he weighs 450# and is a "pretty bad boy." the bear had probably smelled the food in my daypack and was trying to bully me into dropping my pack for him and running. the ranger was sad to say that he will probably have to destroy the bear.


biggest highlights of the trip for me in order of magnitude:


1- my bear encounter

2- meeting kevin and bruce [pennsy]

3- mt. colden

4- mr. plucky the bird

5- my sense of accomplishment for finishing such a tough trip”

“great trip reports guys! Anybody know how Kevin (Stoopid) made out with Marshall?”