Cascade & Porter 7-19-14

After a weekend at my grandparents, I was able to take my little sister on her first hike in the Adirondacks. The quick hike of Cascade and Porter turned out to be perfect because it could be done in a half day. The overall hike would total 5.4 miles and bag two peaks. We parked along Route 73 and signed into the trail register around 1230. The hike starts by going gently uphill with some steep sections. Emma and I took plenty of breaks along the way up. Emma wanted to just keep going non-stop but I kept the pace reasonable (I think she was happy for this slower pace by the end of the hike). The trail up was not all that exciting. We came across several groups of people going up and down.

Cascade from Route 73

Emma on the way up the trail

Steeper trail section

First ledge we were able to get views from

Flat section near the trail junction

Emma next to the trail junction sign

Quick hike to either peak from here!

We reached the trail junction where the path to Porter breaks off. Porter was first on our list for the day. The trail to Porter dipped down and then climbed back up. We came across a very nice lookout before the summit of Porter that provided some amazing views. Several people were eating lunch on these rocks.

Great Range with Big Slide in the foreground from lookout on Porter

Algonquin from Porter lookout

Giant off in the distance

The summit of Porter was not far off. We reached it around 230 PM. There were more people with dogs on the summit. The time was perfect for lunch and we were hungry so we took a solid break here. 

Views from summit of Porter

Cascade from Porter

Sign marking summit of Porter

The quick .7 mile jaunt back to the trail junction was very quick and before we knew it, we were on the summit of Cascade. We took another break here. There were more people on this peak than Porter. A summit steward (teach people about the alpine vegetation and answer questions) came over and talked with us for a couple minutes. A young family even pulled out a kite and let it fly!

Sign on Cascade summit

Rock wall on our way up Cascade

Porter from Cascade

Giant from Cascade

Algonquin (right), Colden (middle), Marcy (left)

Great Range with Big Slide in the foreground

Summit disk marking Cascade's summit

Emma & I on Cascade

Path coming up Cascade

Great shot of multiple high peaks

Another angle of the exposed Cascade trail

The 1.7 mile trip back down to the car was quick. This time I set a fast pace and we were back to the car by 430. To celebrate Emma'a first two peaks and #6 & #7 for me, we got milkshakes at Stewarts in Keene.

Algonquin & Iroquois via Avalanche Pass 6-8-14

I was able to convince to buddy Rob to join me for a hike. Neither of us had ever started from the ADK Loj before, so I decided we would trek through Avalanche Pass and up to the col of Boundary Peak and Algonquin, over to Iroquois, to Algonquin and back out for an approximate 12.5 mile hike. I picked Rob up at 615 AM and we were on the trail at 9 (a tad later than I wanted). We signed in at the register and had a brief chat with the DEC rangers that were at the register. We overheard them advise a group who wanted to hike Marcy with no food or water to reconsider. The initial 2.3 miles to the Marcy Dam were quick and painless.

Easy going on this trail

Nice trail bridge

Typical stream with blowdown

More planks along the trail

If only these steps were the whole way up...

 Rob posing on a rock in a stream

Lake behind Marcy Dam

Marcy Dam

More Marcy Dam...

Stream bed along trail

Saw lots of these little guys throughout the day

We continued on past the dam to Avalanche Pass. The views from the base of Avalanche lake were very impressive. Large cliffs rose to either side of the pass. The trail skirted along the base of Northwestern side of the lake. This was my favorite part of the hike. The trail scrambled over boulders and along bridges and ladders bolted into the rock.

Avalanche Lake (trail runs along right side)

Massive cliff

Cliff on the other side

Lots of ladders and boulders through here

Lake looked so refreshing

Bridge bolted into rock face 

Really wanted to jump

More bridges

Sweet rock slide

View from the other end (still not sure which is nicer)

After progressing through the pass, we came to the trail junction at Lake Colden. After signing it at this register, we took the right path. We soon came to the junction to ascend up our trail. Up until now, our pace was solid. We made good time over the first relatively flat 5.6 miles. The trail really cranked up in intensity over the next 1.7 miles (rise of ~2000 ft) to the col of Boundary and Algonquin. We took several breaks as many sections are very vertical and rugged.

Bridge over stream

Trail junction (Blue not yellow here)

Waterfall along trail

Getting higher and higher

Another waterfall

Sign telling you that conditions can change rapidly ahead. Only proceed if you have proper gear

Mount Colden behind us

Typical trail section

Trail beginning to get more rugged

Stayed at this spot for a long rest. My new favorite spot in the world.

Difficult section of path

This doesnt even do the grade looking back justice

Getting there

After reaching the col, we hiked over Boundary to Iroquois. Boundary peak really gets no credit here, as it is too close to Algonquin to be considered its own peak, because the views from the top of Boundary are rather nice. The trek over to Iroquois was all open rock scrambles and alpine scrub shrub vegetation. We took a good solid lunch break on the top of Iroquois. The black flies and no-see-ums were out in full force. Rob and I re-DEET-ed up and they were less bothersome. While we saw plenty of people between Iroquois and Boundary, we had the peak to ourselves.

Algonquin from Boundary

Great Range

More Great Range (Colden in front, Marcy directly behind)

Iroquois from Boundary

Cairn marking Iroquois Summit

Good view of Colden's slides

Algonquin and Boundary from Iroquois

Lake Colden

Flowed Lands

After our break, Rob and I really struggled the rest of the trip. Both of our legs were shot but we managed through it. We made the hike back down and up Boundary col and down and up to Algonquin in quick bursts with many breaks thrown in. The work was well worth it! The views were gorgeous and we had the entire peak to ourselves! I guess our slow pace to the top paid off. We enjoyed the summit for a brief time and then headed back down.

Sign saying stay off vegetated areas

Algonquin survey point

Rob, on Algonquin, with Colden and Marcy in the background

Lake Placid

Looking down at Wright

Nice shot of Marcy

Cliffs of Gothics

Made it!

looking good!

Start the descent (Heart lake, our start/finish in the background)

The trek down was a steep descent on a lot of open rock and dry stream beds. We were quite slow on the way out, as both of us were basically zombie walking to the end. We got back to the parking lot around 730 PM for a total trip of 10.5 miles.

Typical trail section looking back up

Gotta refill H2O

B-E-A utiful waterfall