A while ago, a friend from my ADF days and I were talking about hiking as she had started hiking the Whites in New Hampshire, and I had already finished my 46er.  I told her that I would love to show her "my" mountains some day, whenever she wanted to.  Well, this memorial day was the time for me to show her.  My original plans were to come in from the south, backpack into the Lake Colden/Flowed Lands area and grab some peaks out of there like Marshal, Marcy, Skylight, Grey, and Colden, but the one place she had to go was Avalanche Pass/Lake.  After how I felt post Vanderwacker, I realized I was not in shape for that 4.5 mile hike in to the Flowed Lands with a full pack... it's "flat", but there still is a good hill for the last mile before the first camp sites, and my legs were not happy.  Could I have done it?  probably, but why risk it?

So we changed plans to come in from the north with hopefully car camping along Meadows Lane.  This would allow a larger tent, chairs, table, and reliable water that we just pour instead of filter/boil.  If we couldn't get one of those campsites, then we could hike in a very flat 2.5 miles along the Marcy Truck Trail into Marcy Dam, and go from there.  We got lucky, we found a lovely secluded site along Meadows Lane and set up camp quickly, then on to the first hike.

We drove the mile or so down to Loj, paid for the parking, and then headed out on the trail to do the MacIntyre range.  The first 2 miles went quick, but I realized it was going to be a slower hike than I've done before, which was a really good thing for me.  We reached the rocky part of the trail and stopped for a bit a MacIntyre falls, one of my favorite places on this hike.  We then took it slow up the scrambles and slabs to the junction with Wright.  We decide to tackle Wright first, so up the slippery slabs to the wall climb.  I show my partner how to get up it, and bam, the wind started.  The hat had to come off and it was high winds the rest of the way up.  We made it, slowly as we both needed to take our time, and we reached the top to absolutely beautiful views and high winds.  Coming back down was just as slow because of the wind, but we made it, to the wall, scootched our way down, and somehow avoided slipping on the slabs back to the junction.

Now we did Algonquin.  This is the "fun" part of the trail.  Shortly after the junction is this long, steep slab that has you zig zagging across it the whole way up as you try to follow cracks and climb little ledges.  The trail gets nice for a bit after that then you reach tree line, and the alpine plant warning.  This is the start of the scrambles up to the top, which are fun in their own way, but more difficult when you're not 6 foot tall.  We made it though.  Again, the views were amazing.  Looking back at Wright it was like, we did that? At this point we decided that Iroquois was not in the cards for the day and we headed back with many butt slides and rock hopping to have dinner at the hungry hiker then back to camp to bed.

Saturday, we set out down the Marcy Truck trail to hit Marcy.  We traverse a flooded area near the start, and then had a lovely walk along the road.  When we got to Marcy Dam, we assessed ourselves, and we determined today was not going to be Marcy, instead it was going to be Avalanche Pass and Lake.  So, we go up the Avalanche trail, followed a detour around a beaver flooded area, and out to Avalanche camp.  There is one spot on this hike that has a "bed" of moss, and my friend loves moss, so I made sure that she got a chance to lay and roll around on the bed.  Goal accomplished!   We then went past the turn off for lake arnold and started the climb up to the pass.  As always, the trail through the pass is just beautiful, although i can tell it's been re-routed again in the last few years.  Then we descend down to the lake.  I have her go first, and bam, the view of the lake is as impressive as always.  We lunch, then decide to go down the trail a little bit so she can experience the hitch up matildas.  About 1/2 way down the lake, we stop, talk to a few people relaxing there, and turn around.  The hike back was uneventful, and a great day was had.  The hiking wall was hit by my partner about 1/4 to 1/2 mile from the car.  We made the right decision not to do Marcy.

Sunday, we were going to go home.  The one must see place has been seen, so we do VanHovenberg via the east trail.  Many stairs, but what a beautiful trail it is.  We get to the top and stop at all 3 ledges and take in the views.  We couldn't have asked for a better weekend as the skies were clear and the views were amazing.  When we got back to the car, we decided that we were done hiking instead of doing something further north like Baxter or Hurricane.  Instead we take the long way home via Tupper Lake.  What a fun trip, and we will be doing more in the future, both here in the 'Daks, and in the Whites.