BE ADVISED: Those who do not know the Adirondack Mountains will find some of the following references obscure. But at least you can enjoy the pictures.
I'm going in a totally different direction for this post.
This week, my oldest son and I headed to the Adirondacks, where we hiked the MacIntyre Range. Four years ago, just before he left for college, we hiked up two of the peaks on this range, Wright Peak and Algonquin Peak, the second highest in the Adirondacks at 5,114 feet. It was an exhilarating hike, and the longest and most challenging mountain hike we had ventured to that point.
This summer, as he prepares to go to law school in Michigan, we decided to reprise that hike, but take in the entire range, all the way to the outcrops south of Iroquois Mountain. In the last four years, we’ve embarked on several hikes more strenuous than the trek up Wright and Algonquin, so we were confident that the extra leg would not over-exert us. We also determined to find the wreckage from a 1962 plane crash that still litters the north face of Wright Peak, something we had read about but failed to locate before.
What a hike! The day started out cloudy, but as it wore on, the sky cleared. We were out on the trail for 8½ hours, which included perhaps two hours lingering on and exploring the tops of the four peaks that make up the range. We went directly up Algonquin first. Since it was cold and very windy at the top, we decided to keep going after a brief snack. We made our way down the south side of Algonquin, over Boundary Peak (about 4,800 feet, but not counted as a separate peak since it is so close to two others) and up Iroquois (4,840 feet), which affords a wide open view of the central Adirondacks to the southwest, an unmatched view of Lake Colden and the Flowed Lands to the Southeast, and a partial view down into Indian Pass. Then we went back up to Algonquin (a very impressive looking peak from the south with over 600 feet of open rock face). By the time we had scrambled to the top, the clouds had lifted, and that stunning view that awed us four years ago – a 360-degree panorama that I believe is even more impressive than the view from the taller Mt. Marcy – was even more breathtaking. When we got up Wright (4,587 feet), the angle of the sun was low enough to add more color to the sky and the landscape. And we found the pieces of the plane!
The total ascent on this hike was 4,763 feet. The length of the hike was 11.6 miles.
It was a marvelous day. I never cease to be amazed at the glory of God so magnificently on display in the Adirondack Mountains.
Panoramic View from Wright Peak
Looking Southwest from Iroquois into Indian Pass
Mt. Marcy and Mt. Colden from Algonquin Peak
Breathtaking, Mark, for the eyes and for the soul. And likely for the relationship between father and son, too. Thanks for the pictures, and also for the pix of the Canada geese in an earlier blog.
Posted by: Becky West | 08/26/2010 at 02:46 PM