In November 2020, some friends and I traveled to the Adirondack Mountains, to challenge myself to a backpacking trip.
Adirondack Mountains Lodging
Rather than the usual hotel stay, a tent and the great outdoors served as my lodging. To get to the trail, we parked at the High Peaks Information Center, and payed a small fee to park each night. We camped on the Van Hoevenberg Trail just east of the information center, near Marcy Dam. You are able to sleep on the trail if under the alpine zone, there are also a few shelters near the Marcy Dam. Here is some more information on the High Peaks Information Center.
Route
We began our Adirondack Mountains trek on Friday night on the Van Hoevenberg Trail, and followed that until the Marcy Dam, where we camped on Friday night. This was a small two mile trip to make Saturday’s trip a bit shorter. We set up camp in the dark, and cooked a meal, and slept.
After waking up and breaking down camp at day break, we were back on the trail. The previous night, we believed were close to lean-to structures, but decided to pitch a tent instead. A few minutes into the hike we realized how close we were to the existing lean-to structures. The crisp November air was just the right amount of cold at the base of the mountain however, the temperature would quickly fall as elevation increased. In November, the daylight lasted only from about 6:30 am-4:30 pm, and the sun began to set around 2:45 pm in the mountains. To take full advantage of daylight, we opted not to cook any trail meals until after our hike was done for the day, we opted to eat clif bars instead.
Hazards of the Adirondack Mountains
As we continued our journey through the Adirondack Mountains, snow began to fall more, and the rocks changed from wet to icy. We quickly realized our goal of reaching the summit of Mt. Marcy would likely be impossible without crampons. Despite numerous hikers advising us to wear crampons, we continued our trek til nearly half a mile from the summit. At that point, we were slipping too much and could not gain any footing on the ice, and we realized we had to turn around. As someone with a competitive personality, I felt very disappointed in myself for not reaching the summit, but I knew it was only due to my lack of proper equipment. There were still some positives though, as we had reached a higher elevation than most mountains in the Adirondacks(we reached approximately 4,750 ft elevation), and we captured some amazing photos.
After we turned around, we hiked as fast as we could, as we would soon lose daylight. We made it within a mile of Marcy Dam before the sunset. We slept at the lean-to structure near Marcy Dam, then hiked the last two miles the following morning.
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Reflections
This trip was very enjoyable, but full of learning opportunities. The biggest take-away was that crampons were needed, probably anytime from Nov-April in the ADK Region. Bears were not a problem on this trip, but as a precaution all food and scented items(deodorant ,lotion etc.) should be stored in a bear bag, tied from a tree branch, and a bear resistant canister. This was my first backpacking trip that I had led, all my previous experiences were when I was a Scout. Scouting gave me a decent background in backpacking, and taught me many lessons about the outdoors, that were valuable on this trip. The Adirondack Mountains were much more rugged than most of the terrain I have hiked before. In whole, this trip was about 15 miles, and probably moderately difficult for the average hiker. The feeling of defeat put a damper on this trip, so I will be reattempting this hike in the future. Next time I will bring adequate supplies.
