Iroquois and Algonquin

March 12, 2016

Katharina and I drove to the Loj from Keene Farm, hitting the trail for 07:00. It was bare booting over frozen mudholes below, while above, a stellar blue sky gave us hints of the spectacular day to come. Just before Marcy Dam, the trail got icy enough to spike up, which was sufficient footwear for most of the day. We hoped that the ice at Avalanche lake would be thick enough to cross, as this would be much easier travel than the rugged trail that navigates around the edge. When we arrived, we discovered a group of twelve were scampering across in boots without seeming to fall through so we decided to follow, albeit on snowshoes. The ice seemed remarkably thick when we could see through it, until the far side of the lake which was open water. We gave this a wide berth to get back on the trail and switch back to the microspikes. The snow gradually got deeper as we climbed up towards the Boundary col, but it remained supportive even as it began to get mushy in the warm sunshine. Katharina began to slow down for the climb, so I scooted ahead until I reached the herd, which turned out to be a university outdoors club from Ottawa, and then spent time chatting with them as they rested while Kat caught up. At about 4200' I put on my snowshoes as there was now enough snow to justify them, even though the hardpacked trail could easily be travelled via spikes. I found the heel lifters to be a great relief for the calf muscles on this steep trail though during the remainder of the climb. At the col, I switched back to spikes as the ridge towards Iroquois was a mixture of stable monorail alternating frequently with long sections of bare rock. It was windy up here, but not nearly as wild as the weather forecast had predicted, so without too much trouble we got over to the top of Iroquois. What a view! After wandering around in the buffetting wind to take photos and check out the viewpoints in all directions, we found a sheltered area on the north side for a long sit down lunch in the warm sunshine. The herd joined us, but as we departed towards Algonquin, that was the last we saw of them. The climb up Algonquin was even more blustery and done in bare boots as this stretch was bare rock. A couple of small ice patches made travel interesting without traction, but we got past these without mishap. The summit was inhospitable due to the wind so after a couple photos we began the descent into the crowds. The north face was very icy so we switched to crampons allowing us to walk down the trail. Others were travelling in microspikes or even running shoes, which worked only because the alpine grasses provide enough traction for them to survive the journey (even if the grasses did not). Crampons served us well all the way down to the Wright junction where we switched back to spikes. This was too early as there was a couple of icy pitches that proved difficult to get down, but we made it safely. At one of these pitches we had to wait for a while as a group hiking with a very nervous dog spent some time trying to coax it down. The snow got thinner as we descended, and by 2500' it was completely gone so we performed our final footwear change for the day to bare boots. The Van Ho was a muddy quagmire, so the last mile was filled with lots of slurpy sucking noises with boots in the muck. The parking lot re-appeared after ten hours of hiking, from which we scooted back to Keene Farm for supper and beers.

Frozen mud hiking in the morning.