4/23/16

Parking: Adk Loj
Group: Mom, Carol, Kelly, Dan, Stephanie, Andrew, Shawn, Emily, and Murphy

We had a big group with us for our first trip up Colden!  Since we were coming from a few different (some far-off) directions, and the sun wasn’t suppose to come out from behind the clouds until 1pm, we set our meeting time at the Loj for 10am.  By 10:30am we were off and headed for Marcy Dam.

After a quick stop at the Dam, we signed in at the next trail register and took the Yellow trail towards the Avalanche Pass junction (we almost missed the turn by staying straight on the Blue trail, which goes towards Phelps.  Make sure you turn right and head down the Yellow trail).

Since Shawn and I had just been through Avalanche Pass a week earlier, and we didn’t know what our timing would be like, we decided that for this hike we would take the trail to Lake Arnold and then up to the summit of Colden from there.  So, once we got to the junction (40 minutes after leaving the Dam) we switched back to Blue trail markers.  This is also about the time we decided we better put on our crampons.  We were all glad we brought them!!

Murphy wishing he had crampons too ^^

This is what you get when Shawn makes the GORP…a nice little mix of everything that he found in the cupboard

On our way up to the Lake we saw a few people who were already heading back down from Colden.  They told us that their time on the summit had been completely socked in with no views 🙁  We kept our hopes up that the clouds would move before we got there.  And, just as we arrived to Lake Arnold, our wishes came true!

I have to say, the first time I was at Lake Arnold I didn’t really think much of it.  This time though, I was blown away by how gorgeous it was.  Maybe it was a combination of the snow-tipped trees, the sun glistening on the ice, and the group I was with…but I could not stop soaking in the amazingness of it all (and taking a million pictures).

We hung out at the Lake for about 20 minutes and had our lunches, and then decided it was time to start our ascent up to Colden.  Time since the Loj: 3 hours 20 mins.

On our way up, we were passed (again) by one of the people we saw heading down early.  The clouds were gone and he wanted to get back up to see the view he had come for!  Props to him; I hope he drank plenty of beer to make up for his calorie deficit that night.

The false summit tricked us for a minute, and boy was it beautiful.  But we kept trekking over to the ACTUAL mountain (on the left in the pic below) which always looks so much further than it really is!!

And the summit was all it was talked up to be.  There are plenty of different lookouts; we could see the trail we took just a couple of hours before, and got a gorgeous view of Lake Colden.  After at least an hour of soaking in the sun and the views on top, we decided we needed to head back home.

The trip back to the Loj wasn’t bad, and we enjoyed the company and laughter.

Overall, it was an awesome 9 hour day!  It could definitely be done faster if you wanted to get in and get out, but I would recommend doing this one on a good weather day when you have time to enjoy the views and the people you’re with.

Thanks for joining us, everyone! xx