Allen

September 5, 2015

Katharina and I drove down to Upper Works on a brilliant Saturday morning for a long weekend. Our plan was Allen mountain, the relaxed way, as we were intending to spend two nights and three days climbing it. We arrived at the trailhead and it was overflowing into the street, so we continued past and parked in the next parking lot where there was space. We saddled up our packs and strolled along the pavement quickly back to the crowded lot and signed in. We hiked into Lake Sally and found a nice spot on the shore for our lunch and watched a sole loon cruising around the center of the lake. We continued on and ran into another couple backpackers at the Opalescent crossing, but did not see them again. The water was very low, so I did not even bother taking my boots off and simply walked across, while Katja crossed in bare feet. A little further, we came to the remnants of the carved Allen sign post which is rapidly rotting away in the mud. I was glad to see the old Marcy sign is still mounted and intact. We started seeing the first of the fast Allen hikers on their return journey, and then we stopped at Lower Twin Brook to refill our water. The creek was almost dry, but there was enough that we could fill a little over five liters, which should be enough to camp tonight. At the low pass before Skylight Brook, we left the trail and bushwhacked north until we found a suitable place to pitch the tent. We are in a nice and open mixed forest, but the ground is fairly uneven. I am glad that we have a bright orange tent which will assist us in relocating it tomorrow as it should provide a bright beacon in the woods during the bushwhack back.

Nice bridge over the Hudson River.

Lake Jimmy bridge, not too useful these days.

No bridge at all on the Opalescent now.

Marcy still has the nice carved sign.

Allen is stuck now with this work of art.

Filling our bottles from Twin Brook.

September 6, 2015

It was a bit of a tossy turvey night as the ground underneath us was very lumpy. We got up early and cooked our breakfast in the dark, leaving the camp and getting on the trail shortly after sunrise. At Skylight brook we met a group of people camping beside the stream. We also met their annoying dog who was running around loose and barking at us, breaking the silence of our peaceful morning hike. The dog caused us to move through here quickly without studying the terrain properly and this will cause us some mischief later in the day. The climb up the rock slabs of Allen failed to disappoint with its notoriously slippery surfaces. We scrambled and slid and clawed our way up the slide and finally gained the ridge and a good trail. A short hop over to the summit had us on top by 09:00, the first group of the day. After a second breakfast while enjoying the views from the lookout, we turned back downwards. Going down the slippery slabs took even longer than coming up. At one point, I was sure I was walking down a gentle, dry grade, and suddenly found myself boot skiing and then butt sliding crab style down the next pitch. Nevertheless, we got down safely and to the gentler trails along the brook. We kept descending and following the well trodden path, and then noticed that we had gone too far somehow. We turned back and scouted several crossings of Skylight Brook, but none were where we had crossed in the morning. We continued further upwards and finally found where we had gone wrong. The crossing was much more civilized without a vicious dog attacking, and the good path had us travellling quickly back to our camp site. We decided that since it was only noon, we might as well pack up and head out instead of spending another night, so after a quick lunch we were back on the trail with full packs. Katja wanted to listen to her book for the plod out, so I sped ahead and sat down to wait up for her every few kilometers. It was getting pretty hot in the afternoon, so at the Opalescent River we stopped for a break and a swim to cool off. The rest of the hike went quickly as the trail turns into old mining roads at this point. At Lake Jimmy I sped ahead once more, dropped my pack at the parking area and then hoofed the final kilometer up the paved road to fetch the car. By the time I drove back, Katharina was also out of the woods and chatting with a woman who had just finished the hike at about twice our speed. I joked that we could not have been that slow because we were actually done a full day ahead of schedule! The first day took us 4.5 hours of hiking, and the second day was about 9.5 hours.

Leaving our camp in the woods.

Pretty waterfall along Allen Brook.

ADK forests tend to grow sideways.

Since we were first up the trail today, we volunteered for the job of clearing the cobwebs.

Climbing the slippery Allen slide.

Allen summit!

The view.

A cool dip on the hike out.

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