5 days in the MUDDY woods

Drove to Newcomb from Raquette. Took us about 90 minutes to get to the Overlook Parking Area. A ranger was there checking to make sure that everyone had Bear canisters to store their food. The High Peaks Wilderness Area has a high bear population. We signed the registry and headed out on the MUDDY trail. It was slow hiking. At one point we had to cross a raging creek/river and the bridge was basically hanging on by a thread. Greg went first. And then I mustered up enough strength to cross it as well. It was terrifying!!

 



Our first viewpoint of the trip was awesome.

It took us all day to reach the Beaver Lean to which overlooked Lake Colden. It was a beautiful spot and we had it all to ourselves.

 

 

The next day we decided to leave our stuff in the Lean-To and just pack up the necessities in the day bag. (Water, map, food, first aid kit etc) We hit the MUDDY trail again, this time going up the Algonquin Trail, which is on the way up to one of the High Peaks. I think it’s the Second highest peak. (According to Greg) The trail was steep and rocky, but the waterfalls along the way were AMAZING!!

 

At one point the trail went straight along the creek boulders.

It was like walking on a street going uphill. It was so cool! We reached an amazing watering hole with a waterfall and stopped to have lunch. That’s when the skies darkened and the rain began. We decided at that point to throw on the rain gear and stand under a Cedar tree to see if it was just a passing storm……. no such luck.

So we headed back down the trail which was a little trickier because of the wet rocks. When we arrived back at the Lean To, there sat a young lady apologizing about “crashing the party” but that she would be spending the night. Soon after a family of 3 showed up and another single hiker. That’s when we packed up and headed out. Way too many people for us. We come into the woods for solitude. So we hiked another 2 miles, crossed another creek and found a nice camping spot over by The Lake Colden Dam.

The next day we left our stuff set up at the campground in the hopes that it would dry off as it had rained pretty hard that night. We packed up the daybag again and headed to Avalanche Lake. It’s so beautiful there. unfortunately we couldn’t take too many photos because it was raining. (Again)

 

We stopped at the rangers cabin to have lunch and then headed back to the camp spot to pack up and head out.

Our stuff was dry but within 10 minutes, it started raining AGAIN!! We packed up as quickly as we could and hit the MUDDY trail to our next destination, past the flowed lands, across another very large river/creek crossing to the Livingston Point Lean to. The trail to this Lean To was overgrown, but well worth it.

 

The next day we packed up and headed to see the Hanging Spear Falls. We left our packs in the woods and continued to the Falls.  They were amazing!!

 

After the Falls, we had to cross over a very large river by the Flowed Lands Dam.  I really hate water crossings of any kind but this one was huge.

Our last night in the woods was at a very nice camping spot.  We had Pasta Fazool for dinner and slept like babies.  It rained all morning and all day for our hike out to the car.

All in all our 5 days in the woods was wet, muddy and GREAT!!