The May 2005 hiking trip was by far the most memorable and painful hiking trip of my young life. It all started when 3 of my friends and I decided to take a 3-4 day hiking trip in the High Peaks. The plan was to hike the first mountain, Mt. Algonquin with a full pack, 65 pounds. Neither of us have ever hiked with that much gear, nor distance. But it turned out to be very exciting indeed. We parked in the South Meadow Parking Area and decided to bushwhack our way to the trailhead of Algonquin. Shortly into our adventure we came across a good size brook that we couldn't cross without getting really wet. We decided that getting wet this early into our trip was a bad idea and so we began building a dam from fallen logs. We even used a manual chain saw to cut shorter logs. I regret not taking a photo of our creation. But it worked and we all crossed without getting wet.
We found the trailhead a short distance up trail from the Adirondack Loj. It was a gradual incline to the base of Wright Mountain. This marked the official start of the "Endurance Test". We quickly realized that resting was a necessity every 30 minutes or so. Our fuel the entire way was Beef Jerky and water with an occasional trail mix. We had to refill our water bladders twice, using a filtered manual water pump. The worst part of the hike was just beyond the trailhead to Wright. Andrey and I began to develop muscle cramps in our quads. Nearing the top, they were so bad that it was impossible to walk. Taking a break was no longer relaxing but it was a time period during which you hoped that the cramp would let up. The summit couldn't come soon enough.
All the pain, sweat, and almost tears were worth it when we got to the summit. Nobody disagreed to a prolonged break and stay at the summit. After a change of clothing, a nice snack, and a short nap we broke camp. The summit photos will be forever the most memorable. Amongst ourselves, we call the photo posted on the home page of my blog our "famous photo."
On a side note, we meet a seasoned hiker who is a ADK 46er twice over and he shared an interesting fact. He commended our ambitions to full pack hiking in our young years but he also recommended that it should repeated again. He told us that he has only hiked with a full pack once or twice. He suggested using a day pack may prolong our hiking days and make them more enjoyable.
In retrospect, we never hiked Mt. Wright nor Mt. Iroquois when it would have been a wise decision to do so since they were only less than a mile off course. But at the same time it was something to look forward to doing in the future.
The fact was that the ascent really took most of our energy, the descent was not a pleasant journey either. The quads, knees, and soles of the feet burned twice as much. Thankfully we didn't have any major injuries except for a few minor scraps, bruises, and blisters. We set up a base camp at one of the Beaver Point lean-to's right on Lake Colden. The first night we didn't enjoy the views because we were to exhausted.
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