the tale of two peaks

    Back in January when we went up Algonquin, we were pretty much ascending into a cloud, where the visibility was about 30 feet.

     This was the drive in that day in January, between Pitchoff and Cascade Mts. As you can see there is limited visibility with increased elevation.

      It appeared clear as we started out, back in January, so not much of a contrast here at this point, with the exception of the snow.

      A couple of miles into the trail, leading from the Adirondack Loj, is a nice waterfall.  

     Obviously in the winter it is frozen, with blue hues emanating from the ice.  This is caused by the way the light enters the ice and is then either absorbed or reflected out. The reds are absorbed by the material in the block of ice, while the blues are reflected out, giving off the blue colors.

     Here is the same waterfall in an unfrozen state!!! 

     Making our way up through 4,000 and 5,000 feet!

     A series of photos illustrating the limited visibility, which is decreasing with each step up the mountain. It gets harder to see the third member of our party, who isn't that far ahead.

     These are the shots from the summer and you can clearly see how the visibility was affected that day. The shots are from similar parts of the mountain and show a direct contrast between the two days.  The exposed rock is from the same spot on the mountain, leading up to the summit of Algonquin. The snow actually makes it much easier to make it up the segment of the trail. when it is bare, one often has to crouch down into a bear crawl to stay in a safe posture.  

     Here are the infamous pictures that everyone takes of their feet up on the summit.  The gold stamp signifies the summit, and is a geological survey marker.

     

     Here are some shots from the summit looking around the mountain. There are obvious differences!!

     A few panoramas!

Riding out from the road that leads to the Loj!