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.
A while ago, a friend from my ADF days and I were talking about hiking as she had started hiking the Whites in New Hampshire, and I had already finished my 46er. I told her that I would love to show her "my" mountains some day, whenever she wanted to. Well, this memorial day was the time for me to show her. My original plans were to come in from the south, backpack into the Lake Colden/Flowed Lands area and grab some peaks out of there like Marshal, Marcy, Skylight, Grey, and Colden, but the one place she had to go was Avalanche Pass/Lake.