Today, with the bad weather predicted later in the day, but high winds all day, I ended up hiking Mt. Colden as a loop from ADK Loj in order to finish up what I didn't do the previous weekend, and to finally go up the trail between Lake Colden and the peak.
Today, I went up to ADK Loj to do the MacEntyre range, and possibly add on Colden on my way out. The goal was to pick up a couple trails I haven't hiked before and get GPS traces of trails I hiked decades ago as I work on redlining the High Peaks Wilderness. I was torn between adding in the extra miles and elevation to go up Colden vs going through my favorite place in the park Avalanche Lake. Turns out the choice was made for me when I ate lunch.
September 11, 2001 was a horrible day. Many of us, myself included, have ties directly to NYC and have stories about that day and the weeks that followed. I personally was fortunate to not have lost anyone, but I know people that did. With this year being the 25th anniversary of the towers falling, a hiking friend of mine, Pamela Chiani, saw what the New Hampshire people were doing in the White mountains, and she organized the Adirondack hiking community to come together and raise flags on the 46 high peaks at 11 AM.
I guided a group of 4 up MacNaughton from Upper Works. Going in we knew this was going to be a tough hike because there is no established herd path up the mountain. We decided to go in from the south because of my experience a month or so earlier coming in from the north. Even with the longer bushwhack (1.5 miles vs 1.0 miles), the approach was shorter, easier, and more importantly drier, less boggy, and less muddy than coming in from the north.
I guided a hike up Haystack this weekend (https://h2hpguide.com/trips/haystack-2026-08-23-1253). We met at the Roostercomb parking lot, put everything into my car, and drove up to the Gardens parking lot. We found one of the few remaining spots and were on the trail shortly after 3 to backpack in to the DEC outpost area. We got lucky, there was one open marked campsite around the DEC outpost, so we took it. Apparently we should wish Julia a Happy Birthday.
I got a text from a hiking friend on Thursday asking if I wanted to go hiking this weekend, and what I thought about the forecast for Saturday. Well, yes, I'm always up for a hike if I am free, and she pointed out a hike I've been wanting to do to knock nearly 7 miles of new trail for the Red Line challenge. The weather, well, it looked to be on and off showers throughout the day with potential thunder showers in the afternoon.
In the theme of starting to hit the less used trails, and working to red-lining the map, I did a traverse from Marcy Field over Blueberry and Porter, and out via 73. This was also to scout for a possible hike a friend wants me to help him with in 2 weeks, since I've never done the Blueberry side of things.
The winter of 2025 to 2026 was a big winter for my hiking. I started the winter with big ambitions. Hike 20 peaks and get my winter 46er rocker. It was doable, I had 2 or 3 weekends more than the number of hikes I needed. I had high hopes.
I started the day out with high hopes of getting both Cliff and Redfield checked off my list on the last day of winter hiking. We started off from ADK Loj and it felt weird to be hiking in just microspikes to start the hike. The hike in to Marcy Dam was the typical quick jaunt. As we crossed the bridge to the south side, the snow made a subtle but noticeable change from the firm ice to a more slippery slightly deeper and softer snow. That is when I switched over to snowshoes and they didn't come off until I hit the car at the end of the day.
We started the day as a group of 13 to get the 3 peaks in one trip. The NOAA Mountain Point forecast told us that it was going to be very windy in the morning with some snow around noon, but calming down and clearing up later in the day. With that knowledge, we decided that it was best to go in via Lake Arnold and hit Grey first. It was the right choice.