The Trap Dike starts from the opposite side of Avalanche Lake from the trail, near the western end. A faint herd path leads from the very western end of the Lake towards the base of the dike.
The Trap Dike is a formation which cuts across Mount Colden in the Adirondacks. A dike is, geologically speaking, an intrusion of igneous rock into an older, already existing body of rock. In this particular case, the Anorthosite which composes the Adirondack mountains was intruded (a large crack was forced open and magma intruded). This intrusive rock is gabbro, which is softer than the surrounding Anorthosite. As a result, it erodes more easily, resulting in a trench relative to the surrounding rock.
The dike runs from the shore of Avalanche Lake almost all the way to the summit. The climbing route, however, only goes about halfway up the dike before veering left onto one of the many open slides on the west face of Colden, and from there to the summit (see Picture #25)
The Climbing in the dike is mostly Class 3 climbing with a bit of Class 4 at one point (Pictures #37,38,39), interspersed with rocky ground and a few bushes and trees here and there. Along the way there are ever improving views of Avalanche Lake far below and of the entire MacIntyre range (Algonquin, Iroquois, and Wright).
The picture below maps some of the pictures on this page (and the next) to locations along the route.
