The Two Robs ADK December Adventure

“Well this trip started with about 5 hikers but when it finally happened it was just me and Earthnsky that were not too big of WUSSIES to actually go.
ENS and I met on the NY thruway at about 4am and carpooled it the rest of the way to the ADK Loj (why do they spell it that way?). After a nice breakfast at a diner in Lake Placid we hit the trail. Weather reports form the friendly people at the Loj convinced us foolishly that we would not need snowshoes. Off we went at a blistering pace to Marcy Dam with about 2-3 inches of snow on the ground and a cloudy sky. Marcy dam is a beautiful spot but we didn't linger long on to Avalanche pass and Avalanche lake. Wow Lumberzac was right it is one great hike. The cliffs in the pass were covered in icicles and the lake was just starting to freeze. There was about 4-6 inches on the ground here. At Lake Colden outpost we stopped and chatted with the ranger who informed us that there was going to be at least 1-2 feet of snow up on Marcy and not to attempt it unless it was a clear day with no wind. I guess he didn't want to have to come find us.

The trail started to climb here and the snow started getting deeper with more falling. We made it to Uphill leanto just as darkness started to fall and decided to push on to Feldspar leanto. It is now pretty dark and snowing pretty hard.
ENS was ahead of me as we came up to the leanto, I have never seen someone look so dejected as he came back around a corner and said, "Oh man, there is a tent in the leanto". Well I knew that I was not hiking back to Uphill so I procedded up to the leanto. "Hello" I said and two people responded from the tent. This was not a small tent it streched from one side of the leanto to the other. Luckly they were two nice guys and slid their tent over and took down their vestibule so that we could move in.
We quickly set up camp and started melting snow. After a cup of hot chocolate ENS fell asleep around 7:30. I stayed up listing to the two guys play Gameboy golf until I to turned in.

That night i would guess that the temps went down to around 0*. Poor ENS had to answer the call late at night and I have never heard such shivering and moaning. I was warm in my bag but did not want to get out in the morning. The sky was crystal clear with a bright sun starting to rise over the peaks and very cold. I started heating water right away for sme breakfast as we talked about what to do for the day. Our leanto friends had tried to hike up Marcy the day before and said that the snow was way to deep without snowshoes so we loafed around the shelter for awhile. This is when trouble started. ENS got cold and couldn't get warm. Luckly we were able to get him back in his bag with mine over top of him and I made 4 hot water bottles for him. I think his feet were really close to frostbite, he had extreme pain as they were warming up.
After packing up we decided to try for Lake Tear of the Clouds, after climbing with full packs for about 1.5 hours we deicided that yes the snow was getting deep and that we were running out of time. We then headed back down and decided to head for Marcy Dam for the night.
What a long short hike that was, about half of it with headlamps in the dark with more snow falling. We arrived at an nice empty leanto and set up camp again. We weren't there 20 minutes when we were joined by two Canadians. Now when I first saw them coming up the trail I said to ENS wouldn't it be nice if they were two hot women. Well one of them was maybe the most attractive women that I have ever seen on the trail. Unfortunetly the other was her balded headed boyfriend. Both very nice people and their friendly dog that almost tried to eat me when I came back from my late night nature break.

Sunday morning we woke up to another beautiful day and hiked out to the Loj. The trip ended with a great lunch at the Noonmark.

Although we didn't bag any winter peaks it was a great winter hike.”

“hey...u had fun that's what counts.

Poor ENS, it's just not his time to hike when there is snow on the trail. LOL

Hope he is okay! Did you guys take any pics?”

“Wow! Sounds like quite an adventure. I guess poor ENS won't lose any toes, you get big adventurer points if you can manage to freeze an appendage off. Oh well, maybe next time. Now up with the pics!”

“ENS has all of the pictures. He probable won't have them up until tommorrow.
No lost body parts that I know of. I told ENS that it was luck he warmed up because I wasn't going to snuggle with him.”

“shoot, what a friend you are LtHiker!!”

“ENS and his cold feet, sounds like he had another LeConte adventure!

Does sound like a good hike though, the tough one make for the best stories once you've survived.”

“and whats wrong with bald headed dudes...remind my to slap you when we ever meet.

It is spelled Loj, because Jon Brooks was a proponent of spelling words the way they sounded. He believed the english was the most foolish of languages because of the spelling difficulties. Anywhoo...I did a few of the trails you talk about, just in June. Now snow...lots of mud though..it was the last time that my former wife ever went hiking with me...she didn't like wading through the mud and got really turned off to the entire sport.”

“Man Stik you dumped her because she wouldn't hike with you anymore. Thats cold dude!”

“Whoa ENS...that's a scary thing! It's very easy to panic when your in the middle of nowhere and can't get warm. I'm glad it turned out ok! There's no turning back from frost bite. Nice TR, where's the Pics?”

“ADK Loj (why do they spell it that way?)

You can thank Melvil Dewey for that. In addition to creating the Dewey Decimal Book Classification System, he also tried to start a new form of English writing where everything is spelled phonetically. Dewey started this and his book classification system in Lake Placid. The classification system caught on across the country, but not his new way of spelling which only exists in the Adirondacks.

The tent in the lean-to thing is a big no no and it's a good thing the ranger didn't see those guys.

Sorry you didn't make it to the summit, but Mount Marcy will still be there for the next time.”

“I be home. Just rolled in. I'll see if I can get pics up tonight. And I'll probably write a full report tomorrow night.

Here is a short one.

If we had snow shoes we would have had gotten Marcy and Skylight I am sure. Hindsight is 20/20 anyway, but I wish the folks at the Loj didn't talk us out of 'em.

Marcy Dam, Avalanche Pass and Lake Colden were amazing.

When I saw that tent in the Leanto (completely against the ADK rules) I was pretty mad. But the dudes were good guys and made with some room. Camp friday night was a good time while I lasted. I was pretty beat from the alnight roadtrip.

Getting up to "answer the call" in zero degrees sucks. Luckily I only had to do it once Friday night, up on Mt. LeConte I had to go atleast 4 times. It took me a good half to warm back up after that. I fell back to sleep though and when the sun came up so did I. We got up around 730 and hung out in the leanto talking to the two tent dudes we were camping with and swapping stories. I was relatively warm until I put on my boots. My boots weren't frozen but they were cold and when I put them on I lost my heat very quickly. My feet went numb and that scared me. So I got back in my bag and warmed up. Lt was a big help. Thanks. After that I was warm and the two guys headed off. We told them to go back thru Avalanche Pass, but I reckon they went back the way them came in, past Lake Arnold.

Lake Arnold was our chosen route out as well. Our original goal was to bag a few peaks prior to leaving Feldspar, but we got a slow start Saturday morning because after talking to the ranger and plus the tent dudes told us that they tried to make Marcy the day before and had to turn back because the snow was 3 foot deep with drifts up to thier thighs it seemed better to just skip the peak bags. Anyhow we packed up and started off on the trail and saw a sign for Marcy that said 2 miles and 2000 feet of elevation. I looked at Lt and asked if he wanted to go for Marcy and he said sure. It was already pushing 1pm at this point. It was clear with beautiful blue skies though.

Well we got a mile up and about 4200 feet, just shy of Lake Tear and saw nasty looking clouds heading towards us from the west and it took us more than an hour to get to that point. We decided to head back down. It took us 10 minutes to get back down despite a blow down right over a creek crossing.

We got back to Feldspar and had lunch. I had my first enertia meal, very good. I'm sold. Screw mountain house!

We took our time and didn't get going till around 330. We decided to go back over by Lake Arnold
since it was 4 miles to Marcy Dam.

We hiked up into the pass by Mt. Colden with it getting increasingly dark. I think we were both surpized by how much of a climb it was. When we got to Lake Arnold it was completely dark and we had to get out our headlamps. Seems like a trend these days, hike into camp in the dark. Started with the Dix trip.

We got to camp around 7. Stayed up till 9. LT is right, the girl was a hottie! Dang, where do they come from and again, with a guy. Ugggg!

Any way, we got up around 9 this morning and hit the trail around 11. Last night was a much warmer night than the night before.

We had a short 3 mile hike back to the Loj. It was a nice day today. Had lunch at the Noonmark diner and hit the road.”

“makes me wanna get a cold weather bag night in now!”

“Woah, sounds pretty krazy if you ask me, but it also sounds like y'all had fun. Marcy is a pretty treacherous peak in the middle of the summer when the trail rock slabs are dry, let alone a foot of snow.

Avalanche Pass is an awesome place with the trail on wooden planks over the lake along the side of the cliff. Sounds like even more of an adventure with snow and ice on it. Heh heh...

Anyway, the peaks ain't going nowhere. Maybe next time...”

“Sounds like a nice trip, but a shame you were given bad advice about needing snowshoes. ENS, how was that new sleeping bag? I'm just wondering because I was considering switching to a synthetic bag. If you got that cold I may change my mind. Booties are essential though for standing around in the winter.”

“the bew sleeping bag was great. It packed a little big and took up a lot of room in my pack, but it kept me warm.”

“pictures??? helllooooooo?? don't tell me you have better things to do then uploading the pictures??”

“ahhhh, i see the link.... ahhh picture!!
thank you verrry much

uhhh, it did look like you guys where freezing. lol. nice pics though.
last edited: 12/06/04 8:05:03 AM”

“What link? What pictures Gem? WHERE are the pics?”

“yeah, the little dork didn't pst the link:
http://community.webshots.com/album/227952477JSomWQ/0

i had to check his profile”

“Alright, I found them on ENS's webshots, here's a link:

ADK pics

oops, thanks anyway Gem.
last edited: 12/06/04 8:07:06 AM”

“I haven't gone thru them yet”

“Good report.

Sorry about the feet and snow.



I always carry some toe warmers for the early morning frozen boot thing.


Get up, dry socks, toe warmer, loosely tied boot to allow circulation, stomp fee a lot.”

“Great pics ENS, quite a winter wonderland up there, Makes me wish I had the equipment to join you guys.”

“Nice pics and good reports. Glad the frost bite didn't nip ya any worse. Great B&W shots, BTW...”

“those are actually color shots but they look bw because of the snow and dark color of the trees and grey skies.”

“Really? I would have sworn that you used a black and white setting.”

“Pictures came out really nice ENS. I'm glad you brought your camera.”

“Nice pics! I love how the sky is blue but you can tell the snow clouds are coming in this picture:

http://image20.webshots.com/21/6/33/6/227963306oVzAoD_fs.jpg”

“I think that was in Avalanche pass, the clouds were actually breaking up for short periods and then filling back in.”

“When is the revenge trip?”

“how come there is NO pic of the hot female backpacker.....damn ENS you must get your priorities straight.”

“her boyfriend was 7 times my size and he was a french speaking canadian with an outragious accent. I was worried I'd get farmstock thrown at me (holy grail).

BTW... she stripped right in front of us both Saturday night and Sunday morning.
last edited: 12/06/04 4:14:11 PM”

“That is the truth!!!! I swear! I saw it with my own eyes, not that I was looking or anything.”

“was it nippy that night and morning”

“Hey, in a few years, there will digital cameras so small that you'll never know if people are taking pictures of you or not.

So, cheer up, guys....”

“Lz, this summer Lt and I were talking about doing a trip in and bagging all the peaks in that area. Spend like 4-5 days there and just base camp and bag peaks. "The Adk Peak Bagging MoFo Bonanza 2K5" or something like that!”

“Post your January Catskills trip! I want to start planning for that!

Lt had a good idea for a winter Catskills trip in the southwest sector that does not involve the Slide loop or the Devils Path. Lil' change of pace.”

“ENS that might not be a good trip for winter. It was 30+ miles, I'll try to come up with something shorter with leantos for a winter hike.”

“30+ miles would be all but impossible in the winter, bummer. A January trip to the Catskills would be awesome though.”

““Lz, this summer Lt and I were talking about doing a trip in and bagging all the peaks in that area. Spend like 4-5 days there and just base camp and bag peaks. "The Adk Peak Bagging MoFo Bonanza 2K5" or something like that!”
EarthNsky
4:37:57 PM
12/06/04
ignore this user

Sounds good. I'm hoping to do a repeat backpack over the Great Range this summer.”

“Glad you're ok EnS. Could have been nasty there.”

“I just had cold feet and needed to warm up. It was similar to experiences when I was a little kid and sledding. The thawing process was painful. I was ok. When I started to get cold, I got back into my bag.

-

Lz, I want to do the ADK range trail. I was just looking at some pics of Pennsy's and that looks awesome. Looks like you can bag alot of peaks on that trail. The Gothics looks awesome.”

“...must I do ALL the work around here? Possible Catskills winter hike:

Neversink-Hardenburgh Trail from Black Bear Road to Beaverkill Road. Total Distance: about 11 miles. Leanto 6.5 miles into the trek.

The skinny: You would need 2 cars for this trip, as it would be a one-way along the Neversink-Hardenburgh Trail. Start at the south end on Black Bear Road, near Claryville. The end would be at Beaverkill Road at Hardenburgh and Quaker Clearing. See NY/NJ Trail Conference Map #43 for details.

The only potential problem that I see is that both trailheads are...how you say....remote. So you'd/we'd have to pray for not getting snowed in...”

“In Delaware County: The Trout Pond and Mud Pond Trails.

Start at the Campbell Mountain Road Trailhead off of NY-206 between Roscoe and Pepacton Reservoir. Hike about 4 miles to the 2 leantos at Trout Pond (complete with a marked water source on the map -- but I'm not sure how that will work in January...) and spend the night there.

On the next day, hike 3.85 miles on the Mud Pond Trail to the parking area on Russel Brook Road.

Again, the both trailheads are significantly remote, and things could get hairy with cars getting snowed in if there is significant snowfall during the hike.

The entire hike has minimal elevation change, as the entire Western Catskills region resembles more rolling hills than its Northeastern counterpart. See NY/NJ Trail Conference map #44 for details.
last edited: 12/06/04 9:16:52 PM”

“Nice pics ENS. Still looked cold. The icycles are pretty cool. Hard to tell how big they were.”

“they made the mountain sides look like they had giant teeth!!!”

“Nice pictures. I'm glad to hear the sleeping bag worked out for you.”

“Wow, what an adventure! ENS - I'm glad your digits came out intact. I was thinking about you guys this weekend. While watching the weather, I saw that it was near 0 Friday night in the valley. You probably got sub zero temps in camp. It's good you bought a warm bag.

I read a VFTT trail report Sunday morning and saw that there was a bunch of snow up by Lake Tear. I was hoping you guys got a report and packed snowshoes, but alas. Bummer that the Loj people didn't know.

Nice pics! and Marcy will still be there when you return.”

“Pennsy, wanna do the ADK trail this summer? I know you did it already, but it looks like one of those trails that are fun to do over again.”