The terrain on these mountains is insane!
I am new to the east coast, and just did my first hike out here (Algonquin/Iroquois Peak).
I grew up hiking in the PNW Cascades range, and totally underestimated the mountains here! The rockiness and constant scrambling was intense, and the rugged straight shot trails were tough. I was definitely humbled a bit, as the elevation gain and mileage didn’t seem like much, but the terrain was tough! The descents too were very sketchy for me, not being used to the rock sheets
Out west, we do have a lot of hikes with solid elevation gain, but they’re all smooth, graded dirt switchbacks. You really don’t need much more than fitness and willpower to get to some summits. Even some of our volcanos are like that, Adam’s and St Helens in particular. Either that, or some of the peaks in the north cascades end up being straight up mountaineering. There’s not much of a middle ground.
I definitely have a new respect for the mountains of the east! I’ll be back, it was a beautiful area.
