My 46er Journey - Part 2 - Algonquin, Wright, and Marcy

At Marcy Dam on our way out

It was late August and as my typical summers go, I was miserable from the heat, but this particular summer was different.  It wasn't the hottest, or longest, or anything really, except I was struggling really bad with my depression.  I had already called off a few planned trips to Mount Mitchell and Spruce Knob.  I was struggling to get through each and every day just waiting to see my doctor.  A few weeks prior I had ventured in to the Adirondacks and the memory and serenity that it brought was still fresh in my mind.  My friend Dan and I were both going through some changes in life at the time and in a moment things just seemed to come to a breaking point for both of us.

It was a Tuesday afternoon and we decided we needed a break.  "How about Mt Mitchell?", "ehhh it's going to rain".  "Spruce Knob?  Mount Rogers?" we tossed back and forth.  "What about Marcy?" I said.  36 hours later we were in the car and heading north.  This was before we had a map of the high peaks, or a book, or any knowledge of really anything up there.  All we knew was we were heading to the Adirondack Loj and we were going to climb Marcy again.  We were probably 4 hours in to our 10 hour drive when we decided to knock of Algonquin and then head over to Marcy, still without a map.

I will take a moment to acknowledge that this was not one of our best ideas ever.  We were wildly ignorant to the wilderness and dangers that come along with Adirondack Park, we have since learned and actually bought a map and guide book, but not until after this part of my journey is completed.

Waterfall on the way up Algonquin

We landed at the Adirondack Loj parking lot around 4 am with intentions on sleeping for a few hours, but the adrenaline and excitement of being up all night and out of the Virginia heat and humidity drove us to grab our packs and hit the trails.  Less than a mile in we were at a trail junction and not sure which way to go, we guessed (again, we acknowledge our stupidity here).  We found our way and had only added about a half mile more to our trip.  We started towards Algonquin and hit a beautiful waterfall.  We took a break and snapped some photos, I fell in, but got a great shot.  Selfie, check, and on up the mountain we went.

When we arrived at the junction for Wrights Peak we decided to go ahead and do it since we were there.  Wrights was a great little climb, it was super windy and cloudy but we finally made it to the top.  We headed back down grabbed our packs and continued on to Algonquin.  The climb up Algonquin was tough, the toughest we had encountered thus far in the Adirondacks.  We slowly crept our way up to the top and promptly celebrated.  The clouds started to break and we got a few photos before heading down towards Lake Colden.  We knew the trek down was about 2 miles from a small printout we did have, but what we didn't realize was just how brutal that 2 miles was to be.  Step by step, stone by stone, we started down.  About a mile in we were gassed.  By this point we had been up since the previous morning and had nothing left.  We found a nice giant rock and nap time it was!!

Summit of Algonquin; 5 of 46

After a brief rest we carried on toward Lake Colden.  Beautiful is all I can say.  We marched around the lake and a few hours later, tired and hungry we finally found camp.  We set up the tent, made some grub, and settled in for the night.  We decided to get an early start the next morning.  Our plan was to try to make it to Marcy for sunrise, but without a map, we weren't really sure where we were or how far we had to go.  We started out around 2 am, we did know we had to head up Feldspar from our first trip and once we were there, we knew we were there.  Still tired and struggling from dehydration I was leading the way until I finally lost my balance and fell.  Dan called it at that point that we needed to rest and I needed water.  I curled up on the side of the trail and Dan pumped water from a puddle and cooked breakfast.  Around 7 am rehydrated and with a full belly we were back on our way.  We trekked our way back retracing our steps from our first hike and finally made our way up the south side of Marcy again.  There's just something about ascending that mountain that way that makes it truly magical.

Napping on our descent

It was cold on this ascent, around 30 degrees on the summit that day, though we didn't care.  We ate it up.  After about an hour we decided to head down and get back home.  We made our way out in great time.  Stopped for lunch and had great conversation.  About a mile before Marcy Dam we encountered this young couple whom we will never forget.  There we were feeling all bad ass from our trek and forgetting how unprepared we really were, these two kids walked by.  The poor girl carrying a Wal-Mart tent still in the box and the guy carrying an emoji pillow (you can't make this up).  They asked how far they were to the top and when we said they were still about 4 miles away they seemed deflated.  We carried on joking about how unprepared they were and how great of mountaineers we were (mountaineers carry maps, yes, I know this now).

We got back to the car and made our way back home.  36 hours in the woods, a great story, and we were now at 5 of 46 peaks.