Bob's Mt. Marshall, ADK #29 this past weekend

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HikerAmiga

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Bob's ADK #29, Mt. Marshall (elev 4360), 9-16-07

(Posting for Bob as he's got no Internet access at present).

Wound up going to the ADK’s with Bob this past weekend. He seemed to be in a menacing mood though and teased me often telling me he was going ahead of me on the trail (even in the dark) and at times even acting as though we were lost and pulling out his map, all the while he was joking (which I thought wasn’t funny!). Anyhow, it was overall a good experience (my first time in the ADK's) as we camped out in two different locations (Friday night camped near the South Meadows trailhead in beautiful woods, hiked in 6.2 miles on Saturday AM and camped at Lake Colden, then hiked 12 miles RT on Sunday to include summiting Mt. Marshall). Bob only got 1 peak instead of the 2 he wanted as Saturday turned out to be a total washout—raining on and off all day so we just hiked in 6.2 miles and camped at Lake Colden and that was it for Saturday. On the hike in to Lake Colden, there's an interesting section and amazingly beautiful area still showing the aftermath of an 1800's avalanche to include a couple of miles between Avalanche Pass and Lake Avalanche where there are countless scrambles aided by ladders along the lake and I could see Bob not liking these—not sure why, probably because he hates PUD's as he put it. I think I read a bit about this section online where it’s described as “rough”. Unfortunately too for Bob, after dinner that night at our campsite on Lake Colden, he’d gone down to the lake to wash his hands after dinner and fell into the lake in a muddy section, getting all soaked up to his stomach to include getting his hiking boots completely wet/muddy. When I next saw him, I was just getting ready to go in the tent for the night and it was about 8pm and he came back furious at himself. He realized that getting his boots soaked and muddy was NOT conducive to having a good hike the next day. He hung up his clothes on a line and left his boots out also to dry but it rained off and on all night so in the AM, all were still soaked. I guess his concern was that it’s bear country out by Lake Colden as it’s a very popular site for camping and bears know this so he wanted to get all the cooking scents off of his hands prior to settling in. I felt badly for him and lent him my Crocs for a bit (though they hardly fit him) as he had no other boots or sandals. I think he’s sold on the Crocs now!! ;)

As I mentioned, we got to hike one peak yesterday, Mt. Marshall via a non-official trail mostly beside a brook (Herbert Brook Trail) until close to the summit. 2+ miles up and 2+ down though it seemed so much longer as the trail is not maintained and very wet and muddy and very rough. Bob said it’s rated at a 6 difficulty on a scale of 1 – 7. I found it trying as I am not used to rough trails such as that one and thanked God for maintained White Mtn trails in NH! The trail was extremely muddy in places, rocky and rooty and at times was hard to follow as it broke into and out of the brook and you’d have to walk the brook until you found the continuing trail up further again. Bob has a very good sense for finding trails, luckily! Anyhow, we made it to the summit and sat around a bit when another person summitted. We chatted and I asked him if he was on any of the forums. He didn’t answer my question as I expected but instead responded, “no, not on the forums but I know you!” (Apparently he’s a lurker) “You’re HikerAmiga and your real name is Nilsa”. Bob gasped! I laughed thinking this was funny and feeling kinda like a celebrity. Found out that this fellow was from Massachusetts and had just completed his 115 and his 46’ers on that summit yesterday! We congratulated him and chatted a bit with him!! I wished I had some goodies to share with him but we were quite low on nourishments—a lesson for me as I realized I hadn’t packed enough food for the energy required in hiking in the ADK’s!

All in all, a good backpacking weekend.
 
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