This cascade, right at the Gill Brook trailhead, gives a preview of the many to come

We opted to bypass Indian Head (even though we were all eager to see this spot), and hit it on our way back, when we’d be more confident about the time (good move!). We hit the junction with Elk Pass at 10:21 a.m., making great time. The hike up Colvin was quite nice. It was a moderate hike, although we did encounter a lot of mud on the trails, as expected with all the recent rain. This hike was truly becoming a mud slog. As we approached the summit, the going got much tougher, with a bunch of very steep rock scrambles.

We were all glad we had gaiters on with this muddy trail

We hit the summit at 11:43 a.m., and it was beautiful. Great views of Lower Ausable Lake, the Great Range, Nippletop, and Giant. The fall foliage was starting, but not as far along as I’d hoped. It was mostly still green, with interspersed reds and yellows. The top was a smallish area, and had some steep drop offs. I was actually very nervous up here, and had trouble (as usual) watching Alex roam the area. We decided to have half of our lunches, since we were very hungry, and left the summit at 12:00 p.m.

Just past the summit, there was another great view spot, this one looking out over Upper Ausable Lake. The descent of Colvin was very gentle at first - more like a ridge walk. We had a nice view of our target (Blake Peak), at one point. The hike became substantially steeper, and included a couple of long ladders. We encountered a few people all along the hike today, but the trails were not at all crowded. The people we passed on the way down all honestly indicated that the trail ahead was very steep and muddy. The hike was exactly that—a difficult, steep slog through mud, and pulling ourselves over rocks and roots, down 600’, then back up 600’. It took us 2 hours to cover this one mile into the col, then back up. We’d considered ditching it, and doing it another time from the other direction, but soldiered on. Getting close to the summit, I was determined, and single mindedly had a mission to just get to the top already. Finally relieved to see signs with distances, we figured we were at the summit. Then we checked AllTrails and realized that the summit was still just a bit further on, so we trudged the extra distance for the “real” summit, with less formal signs, then I begrudgingly went back to the original point we stopped, to grab the gear I’d left there, and returned to the rock at the summit for our second lunch. The summit was treed and had no views, and we were all exhausted. The weather even changed to welcome us to Blake, with gray skies, wind, and a misty rain. We decided to give Blake the finger, and get out. From that point on, we’d only refer to this mountain as “F*ck Blake”.

Our goal of Blake Peak lies ahead!

There actually were some nice hints of views of Elk Lake to the southwest, along this summit ridge, filtered through trees, so it wasn’t a complete loss. The hike down and back up Colvin was a real bear, as we’d expected. Lots more mud and steep rocks, but the sun came back out as soon as we left Blake (so appropriate!). We rested atop Colvin again, then descended the way we came up, which was surprisingly more difficult than we’d expected. Though it seemed somewhat easy on the ascent, the descent was very slow and cautious. We realized we were quickly losing daylight, and had to drop Indian Head from our plans, when we got to the junction just before sunset. We took the cut-off trail to get back to the road as quickly as possible, and moved fast. We did the 0.4 miles in about 15 minutes, and were relieved to get to the Lake Road just as it got dark, shortly before 7. We then moved very fast, and basically speed-walked the whole road in the dark (comforted by our headlamps, and the sounds and lights from other hikers around us). Occasionally, we’d spy a string of lights on the trail above us to the right. Ironically, we signed out at 7:46 p.m., exactly 12 hours after signing in, and got back to the car at 8:00 p.m., thoroughly exhausted. We had a meal at Noonmark Diner and drove home, arriving back around 11 p.m.

Some bits of views on the way back down Blake, but notice the steepness of the trail from Alex descending it backwards at the rightmost edge of the photo