Friday, August 14, 2026

We waited behind a car at the gate to the Adirondack LOJ lot. The attendant in the booth was on the walkie, and we were sure that we were out of luck. We were relieved when we drove up that there were still spaces available, though not in lot #1. It was another late-ish (after 8AM) start. $25 later, we secured a spot and began our day.

Despite another night of thunderstorms, we decided that we’d hike Algonquin, Iroquois, and Wright and be extra careful on any wet ledge. One thing that I noticed hiking these mountains: even though there are steep, long stretches of bare ledge, the rock is grippy, like sandpaper, and I didn’t ever feel that I was going to slip. That being said, I don’t ever want to be complacent, so I check my footing.

At some point during our hike up in the woods we came up on a woman with a large pack. She introduced herself and talked about what she did (Angela and a summit steward), then talked to us about the importance of walking on the rocks when we were above treeline to avoid damaging the alpine plants. We thank her and told her that we hike in the whites of NH and are familiar. We’re trying to continue on without being rude, but she kept going. “It’s going to be chilly on the summit, 20 mile-an-hour winds,” she says, as she eyes our packs (John was using his trail running-type bag, and I had my 22-liter pack with everything I needed for a day hike, then some). Feeling judged, I said to make sure that she tells that to the people wearing jeans, and she responds, “I’m not the Russian fashion police, there’s no judgement here.” It didn’t register at that moment; it wasn’t until we had continued on our way, and I was replaying the conversation that I realized what she said. I mean, come on, the RUSSIAN fashion police? I had to vent to John, who heard it but did not know the context of why she was saying it, as he didn’t hear what I had said. I was pretty annoyed; no, mad. It’s not about fashion, Angela, it’s about safety. I realize that her intentions were good, but it came across as obnoxious and condescending. We came up on her again as we were descending Algonquin. She was talking with a guy, and I was relieved to not have to interact with her again.

As we approached the junction where the trails diverge for Algonquin or Wright, we agreed that we would do Wright first. There were some people in front of what looked like a trail, so we assumed that was the way for Algonquin and where we would go when we returned to this spot. (I didn’t look too closely because I didn’t want the people to think I was staring at them; I shouldn’t care about that in the future.) We took the trail to the left of it, but soon discovered that we erred and should have taken the trail that was on the far left, what didn’t look like a trail to us initially. We learned that it was when we started hearing voices on our left. Instead of bushwhacking, we continued and got Algonquin and Iroquois first. It really didn’t make any difference. All three were amazing summits.

Drew was the summit steward on Wright, and he was much better than Angela. He simply thanked everyone for staying on the rocks, pointed out all of the 4,000-footers in view, and told us where we could find the plane wreckage.

This was a FUN hike and got us up to 10 of the 46. I would love to do this again (once we get all the others). We ate leftovers, showered at the campground, and returned to “our spot” to watch the sunset. A perfect day.

STATS: 11 miles; 5,000′ elevation gain; 6 hours, 21 minutes