Colvin and Blake

Saturday, May 1, 2010

Mt. Colvin
4,057 ft.  |  Ranked 39/46 in height  |  15th peak climbed  |  31 to go

Blake Peak
3,960 ft.  |  Ranked 45/46 in height  |  16th peak climbed  |  30 to go

Route:  Ausable Parking Lot to Ausable Mountain Club Gate (.77 mi.), Lake Road Trail (2.57 mi.), Yellow-marked Bypass Trail  from Lake Road to Red-marked Gill Brook Trail (0.53 mi.), Red-marked trail to junction of trail to Nippletop (1.23 mi.), stay to the right on Red trail to Colvin summit (0.79 mi.); continue on Red-marked trail over the top of Colvin, down into a col, and then back to the summit of Blace (1.03 mi.).  Return via same route, crossing back over Colvin’s summit.  Day total:  13.84 miles.

We met our friends Adam and Jen at the parking lot, walked through the Ausable Mountain Club, and signed into the trail register at about 9:10 a.m.

From there, we spent less than an hour on the very flat, almost paved, Lake Road alongside a small brook.  The walk was nice, and we chose to take the bypass trail to the Gill Brook Trail since the Lake Road Trail was as well maintained (paved) as we could ask for.

Gill Brook was raging from snowfall and made for pleasant views.  When we got higher up, we noticed a lack of snow and icepack until about 3,300 feet in elevation.  From there, though, the trail was sloppy and postholing slowed the four of us down.

After about two and a half hours we came to the Elk Pass junction, which leads to Nippletop Mountain.  From there, we had a nice walk up a creek (literally as it was frozen to the top of Colvin and stopped for lunch.

Chris and Jayme at the summit.

Adam and Jen at the top

After finding the summit marker (and being duly impressed by Adam’s knowledge of the first ascents in this part of the park, we descended the col between Colvin and Blake to start our assault on Blake Peak.  Little did we know that a 1.2 mile round trip would be marked by steep, almost technical, scrambles over exposed rock faces and trails full of sloppy snow.  It took almost three hours.

Climbing down a crack

The view from the top of Blake was hard-earned and unimpressive, but we made it up and stopped for a sock change.  We moved fast on the way out, but ran into even sloppier (and even postholier) snowpack on the way back.  Then it rained, slowing us down further.  Before we could make it to the Bypass Trail, the clouds and fading sun forced us to use headlamps.  Even better, on the way down the trail we heard what sounded like injured wild dogs or coyotes.  Adam and I were ready to skewer whatever came our way with hiking poles.

Almost all the way back to the Ausable Club gate, we saw sets of eyes in the woods on the side of the road.  Adam and I took our poles, steeled our nerves, and got in front of the girls… protecting them from a ravenous pack of deer.

We meant well anyway.

Two peaks, rain, snowy trails, and lightning outlining nearby peaks as we got in the car, but at the end of the day it was a great hike with good friends.

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