Photos by trip leader Jim Luening

Our party of 8 drove up to Upper Works trailhead on Friday. From Upper Works, we hiked into our base camp at the Lake Colden Dam. The weather was cloudless but the heat took a toll so we finally set up around dusk. This area is a known bear hang out and the rangers were checking everyone for bear canisters but no sign of our furry brethren. Our plan was to climb Algonquin, Wright, Iroquois and Marshall peaks the next day. Aggressive... Yes. Achieved... No, but three out of four ain't bad.

Saturday morning, we were up bright and early, ready to climb. We ascended to the ridge line between Iroquois and Algonquin which was a good warm up challenge. From there, we quickly summited Algonquin. Then, we hiked down Algonquin and up Wright Mountain. With their beautiful vistas, both mountains were well worth the climbs.

Then, it was back over Algonquin to get to Iroquois (this took awhile). We ran across several people going both ways on Algonquin, who questioned our sanity (or perhaps there was no question). Iroquois was "trailess" which meant that there was an unmarked mud path worn through a thicket of alpine bramble but we were rewarded with another fantastic view.

It was getting late and we had summited four peaks that day, even though two were Algonquin so we headed back to camp and had to save Marshall for another trip.

Sunday morning was perfect for hiking and we made the trail head in good time. We wrapped up our trip with lunch at Long Lake and headed home.