MacIntyre Range.htm

Overview:
Algonquin Peak dominates the MacIntyre Range and is the second highest of the Adirondack High Peaks. The other peaks composing the MacIntyre Range are Boundary Peak (not one of the 46), Iroquois Peak, Wright Peak, and Mt Marshall. Views from the MacIntyre Range are among the very best in the Adirondacks. Note: Mt. Marshall, a part of the MacIntyre Range, is separated from the rest of the range by a steep pass and is not climbed via the route covered on this page.

Difficulty:
Ascent of the MacIntyres from Heart Lake is moderate to strenuous. As High Peaks go, however, Algonquin and Wright are among the easiest and most accessible simply due to their close proximity to their trailhead at Heart Lake. If you choose to attempt the hike from Heart Lake over Wright, Algonquin, Boundary, and Iroquois in succession, and then back, the complete hike is very strenuous, but nevertheless it makes for a popular and excellent day hike.

The individual trail segments to Algonquin's summit from Heart Lake vary from easy to moderate. Trails from Algonquin out to Iroquois Pk via Boundary Pk are easy, although the terrain can be very wet and muddy in a wet year such as 2000 was.

Views & Features:
The views from Algonquin exceed those from all but a few other peaks. Colden, seen from Algonquin, is awe-inspiring. Most, if not all, of the 46 High Peaks are visible from Algonquin's summit, as well as a unique view of the cliffs of Indian Pass.

Nutshell:
Park at the ADK parking lot at Heart Lake. The trailhead and sign-in register booth is at the far end of the parking lot that is to the left of the attendant's booth where you pay for parking. This is the start of the BLUE Van Hoevenberg Trail. Follow it only to the turn-off (marked clearly by a sign) for the YELLOW trail for Algonquin Peak. The sign is 0.41 miles from the trailhead. You will turn right.   From this point onwards the trail will be cutting across a slope. In general, uphill will be to your left and downhill to your right. Very gradually the trail will become rocky. The trail parallels MacIntyre Brook through this section.   At 3.22 miles from the trailhead and 3920 ft. elev., the side trail to Wright Peak is encountered. Continue straight ahead toward Algonquin or ascend Wright now. Note, however, that if you do not climb Wright now, you'll probably be too tired on the return trip and will pass it up. The hike up to Wright is covered at the beginning of the photo section just below.

Continuing on to Algonquin, the approaching tree-line becomes apparent about 20 minutes after passing the Wright intersection. The hiking gets much more interesting and a little more challenging from here to the tree-line. In a few spots we were looking for handholds as well as footholds. But above 4700 ft., expanses of open rock become more numerous. Soon the rounded summit of Algonquin is visible, made more attractive by alpine vegetation.

After Algonquin comes Boundary Peak, which obscures Iroquois and doesn't really count as a peak. Many hikers get to the top of Boundary only to see Iroquois yet to come. The only problem encountered was the wet, muddy ground and the cold wind.
On your return, it is worthwhile to climb Wright Peak, although as you stand on the summit of Algonquin and look down on Wright, 534 ft. below you, you may feel little inclination to do so.

Iroquois Pass From Iroquois Peak

Hiker Phil Arnold has been kind enough to share his directions on how to hike down to Iroquois Pass from Iroquois Peak

1. Follow the cairns down from IroquoisPeak toward Shepherd’s Tooth.

2. Pick up a faint herd path when the cripple bush begins. Follow it to the top of Shepherd’s Tooth.

3. Walk down from the top of Shepherd’s Tooth to the NW into the “notch,” or low area of the swale between Shepherd’s Tooth and Iroquois. Shepherd’sTooth is on your left and Iroquois is on your right, and you are on the West side of the ridge. Find a faint herd path in the dense cripple bush in the “notch” that goes toward the peak of Marshall.

4. As you go down this herd path, you will veer left of Marshall’s peak a little. The herd path is hard, unlike the soft forest floor, but it has lots of spruce tree and cripple bush overgrowth covering it. You must be sure you have good footing when you step between the spruce tree limbs covering the trail so as to avoid stepping off the cliff.

5. There will be three or four bands of cliffs near the end of the descent. You will not go over them or around them, but rather through them via some small gullies.

6. When in doubt, veer left.

7. You will come to a small opening, just before a big cliff drop-off (about a 40-foot drop). You should bushwack left about 10-15 feet to a ledge that has about a seven foot drop down. Shimmy down the ledge via two small trees. You will then see a gully on your left that you can use to take you down through more ledges.

8. Last, bushwack just a short distance to the Iroquois Pass Trail. You will come out about a quarter mile east of the cairn for the Marshall herd path.

Iroquois Pass From Iroquois Peak
Hiker Phil Arnold has been kind enough to share his directions on how to hike down to Iroquois Pass from Iroquois Peak

1. Follow the cairns down from IroquoisPeak toward Shepherd’s Tooth.

2. Pick up a faint herd path when the cripple bush begins. Follow it to the top of Shepherd’s Tooth.

3. Walk down from the top of Shepherd’s Tooth to the NW into the “notch,” or low area of the swale between Shepherd’s Tooth and Iroquois. Shepherd’sTooth is on your left and Iroquois is on your right, and you are on the West side of the ridge. Find a faint herd path in the dense cripple bush in the “notch” that goes toward the peak of Marshall.

4. As you go down this herd path, you will veer left of Marshall’s peak a little. The herd path is hard, unlike the soft forest floor, but it has lots of spruce tree and cripple bush overgrowth covering it. You must be sure you have good footing when you step between the spruce tree limbs covering the trail so as to avoid stepping off the cliff.

5. There will be three or four bands of cliffs near the end of the descent. You will not go over them or around them, but rather through them via some small gullies.

6. When in doubt, veer left.

7. You will come to a small opening, just before a big cliff drop-off (about a 40-foot drop). You should bushwack left about 10-15 feet to a ledge that has about a seven foot drop down. Shimmy down the ledge via two small trees. You will then see a gully on your left that you can use to take you down through more ledges.

8. Last, bushwack just a short distance to the Iroquois Pass Trail. You will come out about a quarter mile east of the cairn for the Marshall herd path.

Trailhead Info for this Ascent:
The trailhead is the parking lot managed by the Adirondack Mountain Club (ADK) located at Adirondack Loj (Heart Lake).

The MacIntyre Range Trail Maps
The route outbound follows the maps consecutively.

From Heart Lake to the Summit of Wright Peak (ADK #64 & 65, McM #134 & 137)
Photo courtesy of Elaine Serafini 1 2000	The hike starts at the parking lot at Heart Lake. You will start off on the very easy BLUE Hoevenberg Trail (ADK #61, McM #133), but at 0.9 miles from the trailhead take a clearly marked turn-off to the right for Algonquin Peak. Follow this route, (ADK #64, McM #134), marked which continues to be easy until you reach about 3280 feet elevation and 2.35 miles from the parking lot. Here you will cross the stream bed of this waterfall which tumbles off the north slope of Wright Peak. Until this point the trail cuts across Wright's fall-line rising at a moderate grade. The grade now becomes increasingly steeper and rockier, but without becoming difficult.	2 2000	The famous "Elvis Rock" is located on the trail to Algonquin, very close to the falls in the preceding photo. My companion, Elaine, and I found it to be a relatively accurate caricature of the famous 50's and 60's rock star who has now been eclipsed by Barry Manilow for both sexiness and flair. Note the beady eyes above the long nose. You're going to step on a lot of rocks from here on as the trail gradually becomes steeper. Watching one's step becomes tedious. This is a very heavily traveled route in remarkably good condition.
3 2000	In this photo we are well beyond the falls in the photo above. The tree line is near and the fog and mist give a preview of what's ahead. The temperature has really begun to drop at this altitude, probably about 4000 ft and the temperature here was 43 deg. F. More and more we see open rock such as in this photo, reminding you that you're not far above the base of a big mountain. The terrain is not difficult, but from time to time you are faced with ledges and steep inclines that require use of both hands and some dexterous movement. It's more interesting than difficult. The trail remains moderate, overall. The lack of difficulty probably accounts for the prevalence of "tourists", as opposed to appropriately dressed hikers on the summit of Algonquin. Coming down, Elaine and I met a very scantily dressed young Asian-American woman headed up. She wore a skin-tight body suit unsuitable for the cold she was approaching. Her shoes were ordinary low-cut sneakers. On her behalf, however, I will say that her figure was stunning and may have made many of the men on Algonquin's summit a good deal warmer than they would have been without her presence. But, sadly for her, she would eventually have to turn back, dressed as she was.
4 2003	We eventually reach a fork in the path at about 1.5 hours (roughly). To the right, the trail continues up Algonquin, but we opt for the left turn, which takes us to the summit of Wright, a very beautiful peak well worth the hike if it were the only peak we were to climb today. The Wright Trail is shown here. Shortly, it will leave the trees behind and continue on amidst moss and grass until even the moss can't hold on.	5 2003	Colden seen from Wright. Colden, one of the most majestic and dramatic of the High Peaks, is a bit more than 100 ft taller than Wright.
6 photo courtesy B. Anderson	I don't know the story behind this photo of an impromptu flag and cairn on Wright Peak, but an occasional contributor to Adirondack Journey, Bruce Anderson, contributed it. He always takes better photos than me. Great composition.	7 2003	The summit of Wright Peak, a flat piece of anorthosite doubling as a reasonably good chair. Thus far the hike has not been difficult. In fact, from the start all the way out to the summit of Iroquois one can't say that this is a difficult hike, no matter how tiring it may have been.
8 2003	A view from Wright. You may have already noticed that some of these photos are from 2000 and some from 2003. In both years the hike was taken in August, but the 2000 photos show considerable frost and ice in all the summit shots. The 2003 photos are sunny and warm. That's just the nature of weather in the higher elevations in NY, VT, NH, and ME.	9 2003	Wright summit.
10 2003	Wright summit.
Algonquin Peak Views (ADK #64, McM #137)
11 2003	From atop Algonquin, Iroquois Peak (with the little hump of Boundary just prior) is not impressive. Nevertheless, Iroquois is the third of the 4 MacIntyre Range members of the Forty-Six. Behind Iroquois and lower down is Marshall. You can get to Marshall from Iroquois, but it is a very steep pass with no clear trail. The hike to Iroquois is through dense conifers. Not a bad place for long sleeves. Also, several small bogs will cause you to hop about some.	12 2000	It is unquestionably beautiful in the MacIntyre Range. The altitude provides a profusion of plant life not found elsewhere. Perhaps the onset of Fall increases the variety of color.
13 2000	Still cold and getting colder! As we climb we begin to see the special variety of vegetation here on Algonquin. This is fragile alpine vegetation is present on only a handful of Adirondack peaks. It is beautiful, colorful, and wonderful.	14 2000	The preceding photo was taken from the same position as this one except that now we are facing SW toward Boundary and Iroquois Peaks, both invisible, but in front of us, nevertheless. We see the last cairn marking the descent from Algonquin's SW face and the start of the ridgeline trail from the Boundary-Algonquin col out to the summit of Iroquois.
15 2000	My friend and constant hiking companion, Elaine, stands at a cairn close to Algonquin's summit. I'm very fortunate to have Elaine to hike with. She sees the positive in anything and everybody. Smart, kind, wholesome and a wonderful person.	16 2000	You pretty well get the picture by now. We anticipated rain and damp, but did not expect it to be as cold as it was. Still, we were prepared. My Marmot Thunderlite jacket and Gore-tex rain pants were living up to all the claims made about them. These garments, I don't mind telling you, have lived up to some very hard treatment here, on the Santanonis, and elsewhere, but still look like new after 5 years. ...And the fleece jacket underneath was indispensable.
17 2000	Colden's slides from Algonquin. In the background, the Great Range.	18 2000	Panorama from Algonquin toward Colden.

Traverse of the ridgeline from Algonquin Peak, over Boundary Peak, out to Iroquois Peak and back (ADK #66, McM #135 )
19 2000	The hike from Algonquin's summit to Iroquois is a piece of cake except for the mud in the cols between each of the summits. Note that this mud in 2000 is nasty and deep and the trail is narrow. Boots with Gore-Tex liners will not handle it. Plus it's hard to detour due to the cripplebush. However, 2000 was a very, very wet summer. When I was up here in the 1960's it was no problem. And in 2003, it was muddy, but not over your boot.	20 2003	This photo of Iroquois is taken just on the Algonquin side of the Algonquin-Iroquois saddle. The trail continues from this cairn out to Iroquois' summit via Boundary Peak, the little hump that comes before Iroquois. At the saddle there is a trail junction: the YELLOW trail to Iroquois (ADK #66, McM #136) goes straight ahead; the YELLOW trail down to Lake Colden (ADK #71, McM #141) breaks left and steeply down to the lake. A good estimate of the time from here near the saddle out to Iroquois would be 30 minutes. Note that we are not fast hikers.
21 2000	In this photo we've left the Algonquin-Boundary col and are climbing Boundary Peak. The cloud level was very low and we seldom caught views of Boundary, which is no more than a hill. In fact, at no time on the route from Algonquin's summit to Iroquois' summit do you face any steep climbs.	22 2000	As it became late morning the clouds began to lift. One of our first views while Elaine and I were well on our way to Iroquois Peak was this glimpse down into the Indian Pass valley.
23 2000	We continued on over Boundary Peak and into the Boundary-Iroquois col. Looking back Boundary Pk is not far behind us, while Algonquin looms in the distance. The skies are beginning to clear and the wind has dropped, but the temperature is still below freezing.	24 2000	The trail along the summits of the MacIntyre Range that we are on parallels the trail that runs from Heart Lake to Indian Pass and beyond. Between Iroquois and Boundary Peaks an excellent view looking down into Indian Pass offers itself. I was not expecting to see this humungous vertical cleft in the east face of Wallface Mtn.
25 2000	This is Iroquois in the background. A hill sometimes called Boundary II is in the foreground. We are standing between Boundary Peak proper and Boundary II.	26 2000	The weather to the west had cleared although the clouds hang low. As you can see from the preceding photo the west slope of Iroquois slopes gradually. This is obvious now as we ascend Iroquois itself. A very easy climb. At the summit of Iroquois there was nothing whatsoever to be seen; the clouds had returned. The summit itself is just smooth bare rock. We walked over to the point where it descends to the SW into Iroquois Pass which separates Iroquois from Mt. Marshall... nothing but gray clouds.
27 2000	View from Iroquois	28 2000	Algonquin's summit taken from Boundary Peak
29 photo courtesy Elaine Serafini 2003	This is the summit of Boundary Pk with Iroquois Pk behind it, and yet to go.	30 photo courtesy Elaine Serafini 2003	A terrific shot of Colden from atop Iroquois. Note the entire Great Range is visible center rear. Also, that is Marcy directly behind Colden. I never noticed is before but the peaks of Iroquois, Marcy, and Haystack are in a straight line.
31 photo courtesy Elaine Serafini 2003	On Iroquois with Algonquin behind Elaine and me.	32 2003 photo courtesy Elaine Serafini	View W from Iroquois summit.
33 2003 photo courtesy Elaine Serafini	David and Elaine on Iroquois	34 2000	The round trip from the summit of Algonquin out to Iroquois Peak took about an hour and a half. The only impediments were the quagmires on the trail. Given the density of the low cripplebush and spruce, it was hard to work our way around the mud. Now we're on our way back up Algonquin in this photo and the clouds to the SW are gone. Indian Pass is visible behind Boundary Peak's north slope.

Views from the Summit of Algonquin Peak
34 2000	Cairns mark the trail over Algonquin. Elaine marks the cairns.	35 2000	Lake Colden in the center. Flowed Land to the right. Cliff and Redfield behind Lake Colden. Allen Mtn in the distance at right.
36 2000	The most stunning view from Algonquin is that of Mt Colden directly SE, and the High Peaks to the E and SE including The Great Range, Marcy, Skylight, Redfield, etc.	37 2000	Street & Nye Mtns from Algonquin
38 2000	Algonquin summit at about 35 deg. F.	39 2000	At this point in the day, Elaine and I have been out to Iroquois and back to Algonquin and have spent a lot of time on Algonquin's summit. It is early afternoon, it has warmed considerably, the ice is melting, and, as you can see, it has cleared. The temperature has risen from the 30's to about 50 degrees. Wright Peak is seen here below us to the North. It is a side hike from the route we will follow back to Heart Lake---the same route we took to get here. Wright is worth the trip. You can find the crashed B-47 bomber remnants although few seem to recall it or know about it. Go to the bomber.
40 2000	Finally! After return from Iroquois to Algonquin, the fog lifts and we finally get to see Boundary and Iroquois. It is now a sunny early afternoon even though a little haze remains out toward Iroquois. This photo from the summit of Algonquin shows Boundary as just a hill en route to Iroquois. Iroquois is listed by the ADK High Peaks guide as 4840 ft. elev. Boundary is at about 4720 ft. The col between Algonquin and Boundary is 4640 ft. The col between Boundary and Iroquois is also at 4640 ft.	Photo courtesy Elaine Serafini 41	Wallface from Algonquin.
42	Panorama shot. This is the most terrific view from Algonquin, even though my photography is very low-tech. I taped 4 photos together and scanned them in. The High Peaks from left to right on the horizon are as follows: The Great Range begins with a very rugged series of peaks starting at the Wolf Jaws. The elevation jumps up and you see a flat mountain with a tiny peak at its right end; this is Armstrong. On to Gothics with all the slides then Saddleback, Basin, and Haystack. To the right of Haystack (in the seam of the 1st and 2nd photos) and way, way back there is Dix and Hough. Now jumping way forward on the horizon in the second photo, summit in the clouds, it's... Marcy, of course, then Gray and then Skylight (the only peak in the third photo). In the final photo on the far right, there is a mess of mountains. I can't pick them all out, but Redfield and Gray are in there. At the extreme right of the same photo, in the middle distance with a little knob is Allen, although its summit is just out of the photo..	43	Wright peak as seen from Algonquin. Note the slide. This is hikeable. The trail starts at the Kagel lean-to located on the trail from Marcy Dam to Avalanche Lake