Colden Mtn.

On Saturday Sept 4, 2004 we set out to climb Mount Colden, our original intent was to stay at the Marcy Brook lean-to, however we could not, our climbing companions (Mark and Chris) had hiked into that lean-to the previous day and spent the night, we met up with them this morning.We left my apartment in Peru at 430am, it was my son Derek, our friend Justin, and I. We arrived at the ADK Loj parking lot at 6 am, did our stretching and set off for Marcy Dam. It was an overcast morning of heavy fog, kind of cool looking. Arriving at Marcy Dam at 7am, we were met by a few hungry hikers cooking their breakfast. We donned some bug dope and took a few pictures that turned out awesome because of the mist in the air; it looked like halos around our heads, kind of ironic, anyways...We signed into the interior and continued towards Marcy Brook lean-to, I honestly do not care for this lean-to, your front and center to the trail, no privacy, but I guess would serve the purpose for a tired hiker. We arrived at the lean-to at 8am and awoke our sleeping party (Mark and Chris), they actually heard us coming, we were laughing to loudly after waking up the wrong people at the Kagel lean-to, this is a nice one on the river, private too.After a quick bite, and breakfast, we set off towards Lake Arnold at about 9am, I liked this trail; it’s a nice gradual accent which is good for warming up. And it continued to get warm and not from the day sun, I started to feel feverish around Lake Arnold, and it got progressively worse. By the time we hit the second false peak I was in a full blown fever, shivering like crazy. We arrived the summit of Colden at 1pm, sat around had lunch, took pictures, and waited for the light to change, this peak was packed with people, seems like there was about 20 of us up there, no room for solitary serenity. The views of Algonquin, Iroquois, Wright were awesome, seems like a nicer view from Colden then looking from Iroquois, or Algonquin. I was the only one on the peak fully dressed, with coat and pants, everyone else was in shorts and tees. I couldn’t regulate my fever, I was hating it, and I even had my friends blocking the wind for me.I’m not sure what time we left the summit, but we returned back to the Marcy Brook lean-to at 7pm, had a quick bite and set off for the Adirondack Loj, arriving at 910pm. I awoke Sunday morning and made a trip to the emergency room where I was diagnosed with pneumonia, and spent the next week kicking that, I am still surprised how quick it came on, but alas, life is good!