Best hiking day...ever

I've been known to throw around superlatives when it comes to various hikes (often the hike I am currently on). That said, Algonquin is my favorite mountain of any that I have hiked and Wednesday was about as perfect a weather day as one can get. It was cool (low 60s), sunny and crystal clear. A day made for hiking peaks and taking photos! I managed to talk Bryan out of going to work and joining me on a hike up Algonquin Peak instead. It is a long drive from Ottawa to the Adirondacks to day hike but the advantage is that you can cherry pick the weather.

We were approaching the border when we saw that there was a mass of clouds blanketing the Adirondacks. Luckily it was early and soon to burn off. We took some cool photos in the early morning light and stopped for break in Saranac Lake to fuel up and to sit at a favorite spot.

We hit the VanHo trail at about 8:45 from a mostly empty parking lot. The hike starts out a comfortable pace and is mostly flat for the first mile. It gets gradually steeper and rockier as it ascends. It is only a four mile hike but you do have to watch where you step on and around the rocks. We stopped at the waterfall which marks the half way point and were passed by the first of several hikers with dogs for the day. All were well behaved and gave us the opportunity to chat up their owners.

Past the cutoff to Wright there are some interesting steep slabs and once you get above Wright you start to get views to the east of Pitchoff, Cascade, Porter, Big Slide and eventually the Great Range. You really see the the full effect of Big Slide from this angle. Our pace slowed as we were taking lots of photos and videos. Above treeline the summit grass were a particularly colorful shade of gold and the views in all directions were crystal clear. I particularly enjoyed getting photos of the Santanoni and Seward ranges that I had hiked since the last time I hiked Algonquin.

We stayed on the summit for almost two hours and for such a perfect day there were not many people up there so it was nice and quiet. We took even more photos on the way down, at least until we hit tree line. It was great to stop at the falls and dunks our heads in the cool water. We met a few hikers on the way oot (out as pronounced by Canadians eh). One from the Buffalo area identified us as Canucks based on our accents. We talked photography for a while before he took off back to the LOJ as he was late for dinner.

A perfect day hiking Algonquin. It may take as long as the hike to go through all the photos!