Sunday, January 15, 2023
Miles: 24.33
Start/End: The Loj
Elevation gain/loss: 9583’/9593′
Peaks: Algonquin, Boundary, Iroquois, Marshall, Cliff, Redfield
Despite the big day yesterday, I decided to keep grinding away today. I priorizied refueling, rehydrating, and then sleeping. I let myself sleep in a bit more than usual to get sufficient sleep to recover, getting up at 6am and heading to Stuart’s for some coffee before parking at the Loj parking lot. I knew I’d be on the fence about hiking tomorrow, and so I decided to force my own hand – I paid for 2 days of parking at the Loj, know that I’d walk away from the $15 if I needed to but it would also encourage me to come back. I headed out around 7am, with 5-6 parties in the register ahead of me. I made very quick time on packed trails heading to Algonquin and I passed 3-4 of the groups ahead of me before I hit the summit. With more reasonable winds than last time, it felt much easier. I headed over to Boundary and Iroquois under blue sunny skies. I dropped my pack at the trail intersection and then went out and back to Boundary, meeting a few people on my way, including Brian who told me that multiple people had hiked Marshall the day before in spikes with no problem. Then I headed down to Lake Colden, and took the trail around the edge of it over toward Marshall. Along the way, I met Heather and Laura, who remembered me from Esther and Whiteface a few weeks before. We had fun chatting and then they headed off for Cliff and Redfield.
I dropped my pack at the base of the Marshall herdpath and headed up. The trail was completed packed down and quick going. I was within a stone’s throw of the summit when I was stopped by a ranger who insisted that because I didn’t have my snowshoes with me, I would have to turn around. He was resolute and refused to engage in any form of reasonable discussion. It was a herdpath; there was open rock and open water on trail; the trail was very stable and completely packed; I had at no point postholed which was why I was still wearing my spikes. I told him I’d pay the fine; he said he wouldn’t allow me to walk over to the summit sign regardless. I had a panic attack on the side of the trail and he was unable to understand that I wasn’t having an attack of anger and rage or just trying to wait him out. I tuned him out and eventually got myself together, looked at the GPS, and decided it was close enough, and walked away as quickly as my legs would take me. Later on, when I mentioned him to my hiking friends, they recognized him based solely on his behavior and demeanor and each had a very negative interaction to report.
I retrieved my pack and headed over towards Cliff. The base of Cliff and the first few icy sections seemed quite reasonable and I was thinking it would be relatively easy until I got to the long steep icy cliff section of the climb. I had very thoughtfully left my full crampons behind, so I was stuck with only my snowshoe crampons. I switched to snowshoes and made them work for me, assisted by my upper body strength and rock climbing skills. Going up was scarier than going down, thankfully, because I had some near-panic moments on the ascent. I caught up to Laura, Heather, and 3 other people just shy of the summit and then passed them again as we all descended the steep icy cliff section.
I was happy to switch back to spikes and then have normal trail to climb up towards Redfield. I pulled out my headlamp on the ascent but was still able to get some beautiful orange sunset glow from the summit. I ran into Heather and Laura on my way back down, and we chatted for a few minutes before going our separate ways. I was happy to be headed back, but going over the same terrain as the week before when my legs and mind were more tired was rough. I’d strained my left soleus/calf descending Cliff and I was starting to have pain any time I was climbing, so the climb to the base of Colden sucked. Then I tried to hustle as much as I could, while not making my calf worse. The hike out to the Loj was challenging, but I felt proud of what I’d accomplished! I made it back to the parking lot at 9:40pm.
Transcending Mountains 