Mount Colden (4715 ft), Adirondack Mountains, NY (46er)

Adirondacks State Park is our favorite park on the East Coast. Did you know that this park is 6 acres, and is as huge as Death Valley, The Grand Canyon and Yosemite National Parks all together. The park has a lot to offer, but we love the High Peak region with great mountains. It's only a 4 hour drive from New York. You can hear people speaking in French pretty often there. It means that even people from Canada like to spend time there. No wonder, there are beautiful mountains, lakes, hiking trails where you can encounter a bear, and other more popular animals.

​The 46er club is very popular, and a lot of people try to hike the highest 46 peaks. This time we decided to hike Mt. Colden. It's eleven on the list. We had late start, 10 am – what a shame! The same day we drove from New York and hiked, so there was no way to start the hike earlier. The trail head is at Adirondack Loj. There is also a campground where we decided to spend the night. It was the end of April, so temperatures could still drop at night, but we had warm tent, and sleeping bags. As soon as we get to Adirondack Loj we checked in, found our site, and we had the first visitor. A rabbit visited us!

You can hike Colden in two ways. One, is shorter and easier, the other is longer and more challenging. We decided to take both, and we hiked up the easier one, and went down the longer one. This would be a 13 mile hike. ​The first two miles were very easy. It goes to Marcy Dam from where you hike Mt. Marcy, Colden, and few other peaks.

We didn't wast our time at Marcy Dam and we hiked further. After another mile we reached the fork. The easier trail goes to the left and the longer to the right. We turned left and it was a steady steep hike up. The higher we got the more snow we got. We were sliding like a bear at the ice rink, so we put on crampons and we went to check if there were any bears. We didn't meet bears, but we met a lot of people with beards, they looked almost like bears! They definitely have to spend more than one night in those mountains.

We got to Arnold Lake (3700 ft) around 12:30 pm. We attacked the summit after a short chocolate break.
At the beginning, the trail goes on the sunny side, so there wasn't too much snow. It wasn't difficult, but quite narrow. It looks like not many people hike there. We reached a “fake” Mt. Colden, after an hour. A lot of people get confused and think that this is the real Mt. Colden peak. Especially, when the visibility is poor, because it's so easy to confuse it. Luckily, we had a nice sunny day so, we noticed that the trail goes further straight to the real summit. From this point, the trail went on the north side of the mountains, so there was a lot of snow and ice. After 30 minutes, we reached Mt. Colden peak. There was a small hollow, between fake and the real summits, but it's a standard in the Adirondacks.

Mt. Colden Summit is relatively flat with a lot of places where you can sit and relax. That's why most people spend at least a half hour there. The view is amazing and the last thing you want to do is to leave this place. Mt. Colden lies between the two highest peaks in the Adirondacks, Mt. Marcy and Alqonquin. We spent more than half an hour, relaxing, snacking and of course, planing next hikes there.

People who got up there by the second trail (the one we planned to go down) said that it's really steep there. We know the Adirondacks well enough to know that if somebody says very steep it's almost vertical!
The first few minutes weren't that bad. We were jumping on the dry rocks, surrounded by sun and great views. It was steep, but not slippery.

However, when we got to the mountain pine and then the forest, it was more fun. There was everything: leaders, ice, snow, roots, and wet, slippery rocks. Adirondacks' trails gives you great opportunities to stretch – a lot better than any Yoga class at the gym. We had to go down 2000 feet, but it took us around 2 hours. The trail wasn't easy, but definitely it was a lot of fun! It was technical.

Now, we have a new expression for those type of the trails. We called it „what a f***ing jumble”. There were trees that fell down, running water from melting snow, slippery mud mixed with icy rocks, and sharp, dry branches that were hurting our hands. Sounds like fun, right? We love the Adirondacks, but sometimes maybe a little bit less.

We made it. We got to Colden Lake, and then to Avalanche Lake. We took a break there. It was needed before going through the trail that we called „Misery Trail”. Now the real fun begins.
The trail goes, through rock rubles, on the west side of the lake. There were a lot of leaders, bridges, and other supporting elements. Sometimes there is nothing, just a big rock, and you have to figure out how to climb up and down it. I highly recommend this trail to anyone who likes to have some additional difficulties in the mountains. ​

It took us around 30 minutes to finish this trail then, we had to hike another part called Avalanche saddle (around 300 ft up). And finally, the last 4 miles was an easy run down. It was relatively an easy trial that connected the other trails. The further we hiked, the easier it was, and more people were joining us. All of the hikers were covered in mud, tired, but with a big smile on their faces. It was a beautiful day, nice, sunny, spring day!
We spent 10 hours in the mountains, and we got back to square one – our camping site. We knew that getting out of the tent the next day would not be easy (because of muscle pain), but we were happy and glad that we accomplished something. Dinner was the reward. It was our 22nd peak out of 46th Highest Peaks.