Sunshine So Fine

Had this song humming through my head for most of the day last week. For the past couple of winters, despite my best efforts to “cherry pick” the good weather days, I often seem to get some sketchy weather. Not that I’m complaining – as yet I haven’t been trapped by a big dump of snow mid hike or been caught in a deluge of freezing rain. Just that the peak vistas are often inside of overcast weather. Sometimes overcast can be beautiful to be sure… inside of a cloud, umm, not so much. With that in mind, I cashed in some hiking "karma" that I had built up over the last few years and jumped all over the beautiful weather forecast for Thursday to hike the Macintyre's. The ridge is mostly above tree line with 360° views. It can be a bit of a crap shoot to get up here in winter with the exposure creating difficult conditions. Low visibility, ice or deep snow… and the potential for big winds. But that wasn’t supposed to be the case on Thursday so off I went for my predawn drive down to the Loj. The trail has a little snow blown in but the day is looking UP! It was indeed a beautiful day that started quite cold (-31°C) but pretty quickly warmed up and was -2°C by the end of my day. With the really cold temperatures I relaxed for a bit with breakfast in town, relying on the weatherman's prediction that it would start to warm noticeably and quickly. Sure enough by the time I ventured out it was -22°C and climbing fast. And climb fast is also appropriate for the climb up Algonquin which – after a brief approach hike starts to go up quickly. Passed a group of guys with full camping gear headed to lake Colden ( by the scenic route) and then another woman and found at that point I was “breaking” trail. Not a big deal at that point as there was only light snow in the track. Finally cleared tree line and was treated with endless blue sky and limitless views and only a light breeze in the open. As things opened up the track got a little blown in with a bit of ice here and there. Still lots of snow so the climb in snowshoes was pretty straightforward. Over the top I stopped for a snack and took a few dozen pics before heading down the down the south side of Algonquin which proved to be quite icy. Lots of warm sunshine and bitter cold nights had left a thick hard ice over most everything which was tricky to negotiate. I hiked down in snowshoes trying to link together the patches of snow that remained but still had a couple of (steeply sloped) "skating rinks" to cross. Crampons would have been a good choice but I didn’t bother to pull them out. Looking back to Algonquin - with a few lumps and bumps to cross Once down off Algonquin to the col over to Iroquois it was a lot of fun. The track from previous hikers had mostly blown in despite there being not much wind. In the trees I had no problems seeing the clues of where the previous hikers had walked and was able to stay on track. Getting into and out of the trees from more exposed locations was often a little more challenging. Without much clue to go on I backtracked a few times exploring options until I finally spotted something that looked obvious and most times it was right. Getting out of the trees at the final pitch up Iroquois took me the longest to find the track. I followed a few possibilities and found a few excellent spruce traps. Finally got some help as another hiker (a bit of an ADK legend no less!) caught up behind me and pointed at the most obvious route... which worked out perfectly . I had somehow decided that way looked “too good” and couldn’t possibly be right. I also never take the short line at the grocery store checkout... but maybe I should start . A hiker follows my line in the last push to the top of Iroquois The walk back was also pretty nice as the day had warmed up considerably. With most of the uphill behind me it was a fast return to the Loj. So “karma” used up now I suppose but well spent and I look forward to returning to the murky days of winter (though I’ll take some sunshine if I can find it. One last look over the surrounding countryside Posted a few pictures here.