Upper Ausable

Upper Ausable
Originally uploaded by kenmore_photos.

I drove down to the Ausable club hoping to get a late start which would let the ice melt (if there was any) off the trails. When I got to the parking lot I was stunned to see it was full (50 cars at 8:30am!). I drove down the road to another lot but it was the same deal. Upon returning to the Ausable club lot I spotted one hiker parking his car on the shoulder of the highway so I decided to do the same. I grabbed a spot in front of him (checking first for no parking signs ) and then hustled to get my gear together and head up the road to the trail head. When I returned later in the day there were many cars parked along roads clear labeled as "no parking" and they all had tickets on their windshield... but I managed to avoid that fate.

The trailhead at the Ausable club is unique in that you have to park ~ 1km away and then walk up through their private golf course and country club to the trailhead. Once signed in there is a relatively flat 3 mile walk along a gravel road(private) which gives club members access to their boathouse on the Lower Ausable lake. Foot traffic is permited on this road and finally one gets to the actual trail. I climbed up over Colvin and Blake peak today.

The summit of Colvin provides a super vista over the Upper (pictured) and Lower Ausable lakes and the great range. I enjoyed its summit under sunny skies and to my surprise mostly by myself. The walk over to Blake peak is an out and back affair (most high peaks hikers hate this part) over some fun scrambly terrain. No view on Blake (probably what irks the high peaks hikers) as the summit is in the trees so I didn't stay long but upon turning back to Colvin I started to hit the holiday crowds.

These peaks are usually pretty quiet but the beautiful weather and the long weekend brought out a lot of people and I started to feel like I needed turn signals to get in and out of the lines of hikers. The main summit of Colvin (on my return trip ) was jammed with hikers. People were forced to stand in the trail and wait their turn to get up on the summit rocks for a look at the view. This was not the wilderness experience I was looking for so I was glad to have been the "front edge" of the hiking crowd today getting my turns on the summits in relative quiet before the crowds arrived.