Flowed Lands - Cliff and Redfield

May 23, 2010

Awoke to another beautiful day around 06:00. Had a leisurely breakfast of oatmeal and coffee and then hoisted our packs and started off down the trail. Shortly after starting, Matthew complained about knee pain, so he decided to spend a leisurely day guarding the camp while the rest of us continued. We made our way around the flowed lands and met a couple guys from Montreal who were a little off track looking for the trail to Mt. Marshall. We sent them off in the right direction, and then continued on our way to Lake Colden where we crossed a large wooden bridge, accessed by ladder, and then began hiking up the Opalescent River trail. The river here is quite spectacular, cutting some deep gorges through the rock with small waterfalls and pools. Since it was fairly warm out, the pools looked very inviting for a swim but with two peaks to be climbed, we did not have time to dawdle. We found the junction to Redfield/Cliff with no difficulty and a few hundred meters further arrived at another junction for the two herd paths leading to each peak. We decided to do Cliff first. This was a very fun climb as there were lots of scrambles over short sections of steep rock. The views as we went up were also spectacular. We gained the false peak, which had a pretty good view, and then trekked over to the real peak along the ridge. The view here was not quite as good, but it was a nice spot for lunch. We then descended back down, having to down climb most of the steep sections. Wendy and I fell behind the others and ended up losing the trail near the bottom and ending back out on the DEC trail by mistake. We quickly hiked back up the herd path to the junction and re-grouped with the others. A little ways up the path to Redfield we ran into a group from the Ottawa Ramblers club and our friend Na. After a joyful hello we parted ways and continued. The trail followed a stream gorge and in several places we stuck to the stream, as the rocks were grippy even when wet and the way was easier than the trail. At one of the scrambles, Wendy lost her footing and took a tumble. She fortunately was not hurt other than a few minor scrapes and bruises, but destroyed her camera and lost her sunglasses into the rushing water. Counting our blessings that it was only easily replacable equipment and not serious injury we continued. As we neared the summit, Debbie, Hillary, and Marc sped ahead while Wendy and I took our time. I found a hat on the trail, which Wendy indentified as belonging to Debbie, so I put it on top of my hat, arriving at the summit a few minutes later to lots of laughter and congratulations all round. We had a second lunch up here, sitting on a large boulder which gave a great view of Mt. Allen. The way back was a long slog as we were tired, sore, and hungry. On the far side of the Flowed Lands we spied Matthew along the shore so we whistled to get his attention and waved. Fifteen minutes later, and eleven hours after starting, we arrived back to camp. Had supper consisting of dehydrated backpacker meals, made palatable by some fresh herbs courtesy of Debbie, and then hit the sack.

Fording the Opalescent river again.

The best hiking is had when team members have colour coordinated outfits.

Lake Colden and Mount Colden in all their splendor.

The upper part of the Opalescent River is spectacular.

The marked trail here is well maintained with bridges and stairways.

Cairn marking the Redfield/Cliff junction.

The trail up cliff is a little more rugged, though suprisingly well maintained for a "trailless peak".

One of the many scrambly bits.

View part way up Cliff.

Cliff summit.

Refilling water from Uphill Brook while climbing Redfield.

We even found a bit of snow.

Redfield summit.

View of Mt. Allen.

A couple more shots of the Opalescent river on our way down.

May 24, 2010

We slept in until at least a quarter past six, before I got up and started boiling water for coffee. Had a leisurely breakfast by the lake on another blue sky day. We packed up camp, distributing as much of Matthew's load among the rest of us since his knee was still giving trouble. He cut some sticks to use as hiking poles and we struck out for the eight km walk back to the parking lot. Hiked down the kilometer trail to the Opalescent river for the sixth time, and made the ford for the fourth time. The hike out went fairly quickly. Matthew set a brutal pace for the first half. Then things began to slow down. Near the end Marc and I decided to scoot ahead, although Marc ended up being way faster than me. As I arrived at the parking lot, Marc was ready to go back so he met the rest of the group and unloaded what remained of Matt's load. The rest of the group arrived and we packed up the cars for the drive home. We tried to have lunch at a couple places, but everything was closed on a Monday afternoon. We ended up back in Canton and ate a late, but tasty, lunch at the Best Western hotel. This trip marks my 24th Adirondack peak... a fitting number for a May 24 weekend!

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