Hiking NY: First Time Backpacking in the Adirondacks

**LOTS OF PICTURES**

On Tuesday morning Jessica and I packed up our gear and headed east on a 6hr roadtrip to the Adirondacks for a 3nt/4d backpacking excursion! We had an itinerary (which quickly went by the wayside) and a can-do attitude that got us through thick and thin!

Route we ended up doing:
Day 1: Loj ----> camp at Marcy Dam
Day 2: Marcy Dam ---->Tabletop Mt and down ----> camp at Lake Arnold
Day 3: Lake Arnold ----> up east side of Mt Colden and down west side ----> camp at Lake Colden (ish...)
Day 4: Lake Colden ----> Avalanche Lake ----> Avalanche Pass ----> Loj

Day 1

Day 2

The unmarked trail up to Tabletop mountain was pretty muddy and rocky, so we had the brilliant idea to shed our heavy (40+ lb!) backpacks and just hike the summit with our daypacks.

Shots at the summit!! First 46er

Unfortunately time got away from us that day due to the difficulty of the climb, so we ended up hiking for 2hr in the dark to get to camp at Lake Arnold.....

Day 3

There is a false summit at Mt Colden that is at about 4400ft (the actual summit is 4700) but there are amazing views and a nice clearing to take a break and enjoy the scenery.

 Mt Marcy in the background--tallest peak in NY state!

 At the actual summit of Mt Colden! 2nd 46er

 Looking down on Lake Colden, our destination for the night

 This picture does not do justice to the sheer steepness of the rock faces we had to climb down on the "trail".....

Due to the INSANE difficulty of the hike down, we again got stuck hiking in the dark and actually had to make an emergency shelter on the trail. By the time we got the trail junction to head to the campsite, we were too physically exhausted to continue on the climb. We tucked into our emergency tarp and sleeping bags, and tied ourselves to a tree with paracord for good measure since we were on a steep incline....We survived!

 See the small flattish area to the left of the boulders above? That's where we slept on night 3! The rocks were the trail.

Day 4

In summary, it was a very challenging and enlightening adventure that we went on! We may have been naive....but we were prepared for all emergencies!! We did not see or hear any animal activity the entire time, despite reports of high bear activity in some areas. Since this was our first backpacking outing, we did not have "ultralight" gear at this time. However, we know what gear we want to upgrade for next time! Most of our equipment was amazing, and a couple things broke (*ahem* Sawyer water filter...) and are being reviewed accordingly!

My next post will be a summary of the alcohol stove that I made for this trip, as well as the meal ideas I researched and put together for our food. Enjoy!