Tag: ADK 46

Lower Wolf Jaws (30), Upper Wolf Jaws (29), Armstrong (22), Gothics (10), and Sawteeth (35)

8/14/25

The lower great range. I’ve been dreaming of doing this hike for a decade, and it’s finally here. I had no illusions of being able to do this as a day hike, so we repeated our strategy from Haystack (3), Basin (9), and Saddleback (17) and hiked in on a Thursday evening, did the big hike on Friday, and hiked out Saturday morning. This is gonna be a long one, so grab a cup of tea and get cozy, let’s dig in!

The plan – hike in at The Garden (pink), camp at a campsite near Wolf Jaw Lean-to (blue star), next day hike up to the ridge (light blue), over to lower WJ then back down and up to UWJ (light purple), to Armstrong (red), to Gothics (orange), down to Sawteeth (yellow) then back up over Gothics and down the Ore Bed Brook trail (dark purple) to get back to camp.

Thursday 8/14 – It begins

We got to The Garden trailhead at about 2pm, signed in and started walking at about 2:30pm. Look how cute and clean and fresh we were!

We must have been feeling good because we made it to the first junction within 10 minutes of starting, and stayed on the Phelps Trail to Marcy rather than exploring the abandoned south side trail.

It was a beautiful day and we’d hardly encountered any other hikers by the time we reached the second register, an hour and 20 minutes and 3 miles from the trailhead. We signed in and this time, instead of going towards JBL, we went left toward the Wolf Jaw Lean-to.

I’d never actually been this way before so I was excited to take this route! Just a minute from the register is this outpost for the NYSDEC headquarters.

The trail past the outpost gave me instant memories of hiking in Patagonia. The way the narrow dirt path cuts through the long grass is just the same. Remind me to write those trip reports sometime 😀

And another minute later, we were crossing Johns Brook on a swinging bridge. We had to exercise some serious self control to not stop here and go for a dip – it wasn’t the hottest day, but we were damp with sweat and the brook babbled in a way that was so enticing….but alas, we were trying to make sure we got to a camp site before anyone else did, so on we went.

Just past the bridge is yet another junction – this time we headed in the direction of the middle sign “Upper and Lower Wolfjaw Mountains”.

Another 0.1 mile stretch brought us to the last junction before the lean-to, which meets the abandoned south side trail.

We weren’t exactly sure where the designated campsites were on this trail and assumed they’d be close to the lean-to, which looked to be at about 0.8 miles up, just before the next junction. The path here is pleasant, just a bit of incline and smooth walking.

Within 10 minutes, we spotted a campsite marker! The path to the site looked pretty overgrown but the site itself was ideal – private with just one tent spot, close to the water, plenty of trees for my hammock, and smooth flat ground for the tent.

We threw the tent up in a jiffy to secure our new home for the next two nights and immediately – and I mean IMMEDIATELY – scampered down to the brook and sat on some very nice rocks to soak our feet and examine our route on the map for the next day.

By 6pm, camp was totally set up and we set about for some relaxation, playing some cards in the tent before the sun went down.

Not sure if it was the hike, the heat, or the stresses of the week, but I was soooo tired. I cozied up in my hammock a little before 8 to read until I couldn’t anymore.

Friday 8/15 – Trekking

Well, despite being so very tired, guess who was up most of the night?! I swear, my inability to sleep before a big hike must be chronic. Nevertheless, we were up and moving about by 6:30am to load our pack and eat some breakfast. Check out how masterfully I packed this bear can – can I get a round of applause please?

Can’t forget the coffee!

We may have been sleep-deprived, but we were so happy and excited for what was to come! One thing to take account for on this trek is that once you’re up on the ridge, there’s no water source. So we topped off our two nalgenes and filled our 3L water bladder with water from the brook, and packed our sawyer mini filter with us to grab more water on the way back down the range.

It turns out my sherpa is sneaky sneaky and takes pictures of me walking like a zombie. I am not an early bird, but here I was at 7:30am leaving camp to go climb an absurd number of mountains.

Within 10 minutes we passed the Wolf Jaw Lean-to. Everything was quiet and seemingly empty this morning.

I just love the long shadows and bright green in the early morning sun through the trees.

Freshly-made spider webs clung to tiny branches in the trees – which are pretty until you take one smack to the face. Perils of being the first people on the trail for the day.

Somehow it took us 20 minutes to reach the junction to the wolf jaws. So I’m thinking the campsite was really only like 0.3 miles up the trail rather than being much closer to the lean-to. We stayed on the red trail here and began the 0.9 miles up to the range!

At some point, I spotted this gorgeous green moss surrounding a cute rock and took a picture.

Which is when Gildo pointed up to literally a whole field of cute rocks surrounded by gorgeous moss.

In general, we were in very good spirits, feeling strong physically, and the trail was in great shape. We were so grateful to not be doing this in the rain like our fated HaBaSa trek 3 weeks prior, when boughs from the trees crowding the trail continually dumped water all over us. It wouldn’t be the Adirondacks however without at least a little mud!

For the most part though, the trail looked like this. Dry and wide and rocky. Can’t get away from rocks here.

40 minutes after leaving the last junction, we arrived at the top of the ridge. This junction and the next one are a little bit confusing – while this junction appears as a single dot on the map, it’s actually a bit more spread out than that. Go to the left toward Lower Wolf Jaw…

Walk down this path for literally 1 minute…

And boom! The rest of the first junction. We could see how people might get turned around here.

We thought this was a good place to take a quick break, hydrate, and have a snack for a couple of minutes.

Another 0.2 miles and we were at the next junction. This is a 3 way junction, but only 2 of them appear to be marked with a sign – the way to Lower Wolfjaw is straight up some rocks on a well-defined path but there’s no sign that I could see to indicate that.

Up until now, the trail was very walkable with few spots that needed upper body involvement. But immediately after the second junction, that all changed.

That said, it was still pleasant, the rocks were dry and easy to grip, and we enjoyed views of Upper Wolf Jaw behind us on what was turning out to be a bluebird day.

It really is a lovely hike up to Lower WJ. Interspersed with the climbing sections are spots like this – it’s definitely not a long grueling hike to the summit like some other mountains I know (looking at you Iroquois).

20 minutes and 0.3 mile past the last junction, we were sitting on a rock we decided was the summit along with another hiker, and a few others who joined while we enjoyed our break. High Peak #34 is in the books!

We were feeling fantastic at this point – we hit our first high peak of the day less than 2 hours after starting and we felt full of energy.

My poor sherpa has to put up with this all day. Send thoughts and prayers.

We didn’t linger but a minute before turning to make our way back to the junction and on over to Upper WJ. We made it back to the closer junction at 9:50am (and I saw there WAS an indicator to LWJ, I just…didn’t see it somehow on the way up?).

And to the second junction 10 minutes later. From here just 0.9 miles to Upper WJ.

After a bit of flat and a bit of down, we started some solid climbing. But again, compared to HaBaSa this really felt like a piece of cake.

Looking back we could see al the ground we’ve already covered from Lower WJ.

After hiking for 40 minutes, we saw a spur in the trail leading to a rock, from which we could see our destination. But the thing is….we weren’t sure what we were looking at? When the trail started going down again quite a bit we questioned all we knew to be true. Were we just on Upper WJ and therefore heading towards Armstrong? Did we…miss it? Seems impossible considering there’s only one way to go. Either way, we just kept on going.

After a bit more climbing, we stood upon a nice ridge looking out to the peaks in our very near future.

There was a good amount of this throughout the day – volume up to hear me complaining about it.

Upper wolf jaw
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Notice that big smile on his face? It’s because he thinks we were about to summit our THIRD peak of the day, believing we’d already gone up and over Upper WJ. Look how happy he was.

PSYCH! We had not. That bump we went up and over was presumably Wolf Jaws Notch, something that is NOT INDICATED ON OUR DANG MAP. Humiliating. We hung a sharp right here to scramble up the rock to the summit of Upper Wolf Jaw.

What a view! We shared the rocky ledge again with a few other happy hikers, all of us in high spirits with how gorgeous the day was turning out to be. At 10:56am, we had hit summit #2 of the day, and my 35th high peak!

See that ‘little’ bump between Lower WJ and where I was standing taking the picture? That’s Wolf Jaw Notch – should be a peak in it’s own right, but it’s presumably not prominent enough.

We had a cool view of the mountains ahead of us for the day – Armstrong, Gothics, and Pyramid in view, and Haystack and Basin from 3 weeks prior. Cool to know what those look like considering we were in a cloud for each one!

We rested up for just 15 minutes before heading back down and continuing on our way to Armstrong.

Descents between mountains in a range always feel so demoralizing, but it wasn’t really getting to us this time. I think with having done HaBaSa in the rain so recently, literally everything else feels easy by comparison. After about 25 minutes of descent and plateau from Upper WJ, we started climbing up Armstrong. I love a good ladder!

We stopped to admire the moss on our way – it was so lush with the rain this summer.

It’s so hard to capture the scale of the slabs of rock you climb on these hikes, so see Gildo for comparison.

After 40 minutes and 1 more mile, we were sitting atop the 3rd summit of the day and my 36th high peak!!! Single digits left from here on out!

These views did not disappoint. It seemed like each peak we summited had better views than the last. I loved looking towards Gothics but I couldn’t help but notice that Sawteeth wasn’t even visible past Pyramid peak, and the logistics of the day started to cast doubts in my mind.

I swear my knees aren’t bulbous, those are the knee braces I wear to keep my patellas from sliding off track. If you’re a seasoned reader, feel free to skip to the next picture – if you’re new here, Hi! I have a chronic connective tissue disease called Ehlers Danlos Syndrome and it pretty much wreaks havoc on my body. So it’s a small miracle that I’m able to do these hikes at all, and it’s the reason why it’s taken me so long to hike all 46 of them. I have to be conscious of every step I take, and I have to have an almost supernatural ability to listen to my body and treat it accordingly. Thanks for following along my journey so far, I hope that brief explanation helps explain some of my weirdness!

Awww we look so cuuuuuute.

We hung out up there with the other happy hikers for 25 minutes before picking up and moving right along. We decided that we’d assess how we felt on Gothics – adding on Sawteeth is no small feat when tackling the range from this direction. We’d chosen to start at The Garden so we could camp and make the trek more manageable – but that means to get Sawteeth, we’d have to go over Gothics to Pyramid, down Pyramid and up to Sawteeth, then back up over both Pyramid and Gothics, and down the other side. So while this is a 5 High Peak day, it’s really more like 6? Not even including Pyramid.

Looking up at Gothics is very intimidating! But I’d heard so much about the view from there, they were what kept me going. We had just 0.4 mile to descend, then 0.6 back up Gothics.

At 12:30pm, after 15 minutes, we’d reached the junction between Armstrong and Gothics. Interestingly, the sign here shows 0.4 to the summit of Gothics, but my Nat Geo map says 0.6. Make of that what you will.

Just past the junction we spotted the most gorgeous little grove of moss. I contemplated taking a nap in it, but ultimately decided against it. Maybe next time.

I love trails like this so much. It’s so cool to see how this mountain is literally just a GIANT rock with a thin coating of organic stuff growing out of it.

15 minutes later, we were entering the Alpine Plant Zone! That’s always a good sign that we’re getting close!

Looking back towards Armstrong – Gothics is the tallest peak of the day. It felt so empowering to look down on all the other peaks we’d already hit.

AND WE’D MADE IT! At 12:57, just 40 minutes and 1 mile after leaving Armstrong, we were sat atop the 4th summit and my 37th High Peak!!! Not that I’m counting down or anything. We had a brilliantly clear day – no clouds or haziness from humidity or wildfires – and could see well into the mountains in Vermont. I love so much the layers and shades of blue of the mountains in the distance.

We found the marker in the rock and grabbed a mandatory shoe pic with it. Interestingly, none of the summits had an official sign marking the summit.

These cool labelled pics come from my Peakfinder app. It’s so interesting to see what all these peaks in the distance are, I’m just terrible at identifying them on my own.

We sat up there in bliss. It was remarkable. The 360 degree views of my favorite place on Earth just filled my heart. Looking down to Pyramid however kind of brought us back down to earth.

That little green bump behind and to the right of Pyramid peak in the middle? That’s Sawteeth. Waaaaaaaay down there.

So we had a decision to make. At this point, we’d been hiking for almost 6 hours. We still had plenty of water left, however we’d been subconsciously rationing what we had left knowing that there’s nowhere along the ridge to refill. We could either go back to camp and come back for Sawteeth another day….or, we could go for it. Given the title of this post, I think you know which one we chose.

The junction to Sawteeth is not right at the summit of Gothics – it’s along the ridge a little ways. We made it there at 1:18pm and went left toward Pyramid and Sawteeth.

Views were magnificent. We had fantastic views of the upper great range, with Saddleback right in front of us. It doesn’t look like so much from this angle!

We were pretty exposed up on the shoulder of Gothics so I took a minute to add a layer and my sunglasses to protect me from the sun – AND the very very hungry flies. It was about this time that my fantasy of donning a flying squirrel suit and falling with style to get off the mountain started to kick in. Ausable lake makes a tempting landing strip, IMHO.

The ridge on Gothics is stunning at every step. It was fascinating to look down into a bowl formed by the Great Range, the green valley below and Ausable Lake in the distance.

That sharp jutting rock is Pyramid Peak! While it is over 4000 feet, it’s not considered a high peak in it’s own right because it lacks prominence from Gothics. So instead it’s just a really nice place to stop on the way to Sawteeth. From here, it does look like we have to descend a TON, and like it should take a long time to get there.

We descended for probably 10 minutes on trail like the picture below, then climbed for 5 minutes up Pyramid….

And somehow, that was it! We were there! Literally just a hop and a skip from Gothics – 15 minutes was all it took.

I get the hype about this peak. You get basically all of the views you have on Gothics, PLUS Gothics itself.

We even had a great view of Indian Head and Fish Hawk Cliffs towering over the lake below. Indian head is the rocky outcropping on the left in the picture below, fish hawk cliffs is the one towards the right. We felt sentimental seeing these because we were married on top of Indian Head almost 2 years ago! Of course there’s a blog entry for that trek, check it out if you want: Indian Head.

I’ll be honest, though we’d been in high spirits all day, looking down at Sawteeth….waaaaay down…..did not feel confidence-inspiring. We’d been hiking for over 6 hours and after summitting Sawteeth we’d still have another 5.5 miles to go to get back to camp. Fortunately I was still feeling good, no unusual pains, but we started seriously considering hiking out on Lake Rd, getting a ride (somehow??) back to The Garden, and hiking back in. I really didn’t know which option was worse at this point, so I said let’s just get there and then decide what to do.

Coming down from Pyramid was STEEP. It was the first time I wasn’t totally loving the trail all day. It just. kept. goinggggg. Theoretically (based on the map, if you trust that thing) it should have only been 0.9 miles from the top of Gothics down to the col, and another 0.5 back up to Sawteeth. I tell you from experience it was at least 10 miles. Maybe even 20. The map is wrong.

There’s got to be some fancy word for the psychological phenomenon that occurs when you’re hiking down something that you know you’re just going to have to come right back up. Dread? Is that the word I’m looking for?

Tell me HOW it took us 50 minutes after leaving Pyramid Peak – a full hour and 10 minutes from Gothics – to reach the col?! Why did it take us so long?! Partway down, we were guessing that we just had a tenth or two of a mile left to go, when a kind woman coming up said she estimated we still had SIX TENTHS TO GO. What do you MEAN?!? I’m telling you….10 miles.

Eventually, we reached the col and a bit of flat ground before the climbing started again. At the junction, we met a woman who’d come up over Sawteeth who let us know the way ahead was quite steep. Oh joy.

Really, the first few tenths of a mile weren’t steep at all, just the last section was. This last 0.5 mile took us the expected 20 minutes to reach the summit, and then there we were.

And you might be thinking, ‘Oh wow! What a beautiful view though!’ Friend, THAT IS GOTHICS IN THE MIDDLE OF THAT PICTURE. That mountain seemingly 3 lightyears in the distance? We had to go BACK up and over that. Who planned this trip anyway.

Ah right, it was this chica right here. What a ding dong. A ding dong with 38 high peaks under her belt!!!!! As my sherpa would regularly remind me to try to keep my spirits up on the long slog back to camp, ‘What number are you at?!’ ‘Thirty – effing – eight 😩’.

Hand on hip, serious contemplation going on here. Of what, you might ask? Well, if it’s possible for us to bushwhack our way around Gothics, through that pass way over there. Complete with audible complaining.

At some point I decided it was best to just….not look up. 7.5h into our trek, up and over 5 high peaks, and we basically still had to summit one more – Gothics again. (Ok ok you’re probably telling me to shut up and stop my complaining at this point – I swear I’m usually pretty happy go lucky about being in the mountains – but I was really concerned about my body’s actual ability to do this without winding up in excruciating pain, and landing in a flare the next day. When I flare, I’m useless – can’t even get out of bed, let alone carry camping gear on my back and hike out 4 miles.) Ultimately though we did decide to go back over Gothics rather than face the unknown journey of Lake Rd.

We stayed for 20 minutes before continuing on our way, enjoying some snacks and water. Somehow, I completely forgot to pack our Victory Chocolate! So we agreed to eat some Victory Tuna when we made it back up Gothics. We headed back down to the col at around 3:20 and made it to the junction 20 minutes later, and started the loooooong steep climb back up Pyramid. I, a professional rock skedaddler, employed my impeccable technique for climbing up steep slides. It….looks more impressive in person.

View post on imgur.com

40 minutes later, we were back on top of Pyramid, trying to avoid eye contact with Gothics looming above us, and headed right back down the other side. There’s exactly one square foot of ground between Pyramid and Gothics between descending and ascending, so we grabbed a victory shot of that.

By now we were getting pretty exhausted. I estimate we’d gained and lost somewhere around 4000 feet in elevation and had been hiking continuously, save for a few short breaks, for nearly 9 hours. That was something I hadn’t factored in to deciding on Sawteeth – the sheer exhaustion of having to go down and back up.

10 minutes from the col between Pyramid and Gothics, and a full hour and 20 minutes after leaving Sawteeth, we were back on top of Gothics.

We really needed a break to have a snack and rest our legs and I don’t think we could have chosen a better spot. This is on the trail down to the Ore Bed Brook, on the shoulder of Gothics. We actually toyed with the idea of hanging out on Gothics until sunset, but it was only 4:50pm and the sun wouldn’t set for a few more hours and we badly needed to refill our water supply. There were no clouds anyway, so the sunset would have been disappointing (this is what I tell myself anyway).

Victory Tuna is a pretty poor substitute for Victory Chocolate, but hey, at least get got some protein!

Coming down the back side of Gothics is super cool. I felt like a proper mountaineer – all smooth slabs of rock and incredible view of the tallest peaks in the ADKs. We were heading directly towards Saddleback, where we’d been just a few weeks prior.

The features on this side of the mountain are awe-inspiring. Check out this huge crack in the rock that Gildo beckoned me to come see.

I had totally forgotten until we saw them that the cables are on this route! I was so excited to use them, and they didn’t show up a moment too soon. My legs were tired and wobbly – walking on a decline down a smooth slide is the most tiring thing in my experience, more than boulders and rocks, because there’s no way to really adjust how you step to give muscle groups a break – you just have to keep going.

My toes were getting real acquainted with the tips of my boots, so I took the opportunity to descend backwards using the heavy chains to counterbalance me. Pictures just don’t do justice for how steep this was.

“This is the slide that never ends, it goes on and on my friends…” According to the map, the slide is less than 0.5 mile long, but it felt much longer. It took us about 35 minutes, going a little more slowly because my knees were starting to tweak, to make it to the junction with Saddleback and the Ore Bed Brook.

After this point on, I didn’t take many pictures because I was using my poles. I successfully avoided using them earlier in the day to try to save my elbows – they hurt when I put weight on them – but now with my knees showing signs of distress, it was time. Ore Bed Brook is probably no ones first choice of path to descend the Lower Great Range on, it’s rocky and tricky and my dedicated sherpa turned around every few steps to lift me down steep and treacherous obstacles. If you want more pictures and descriptions, go check out my report from HaBaSa. At any rate, it took us 20 minutes from the junction to reach the most amazing stairs in all of the Adirondacks – a sight for sore eyes!

I love these stairs. I love them so much. Pay no attention to the look of focus on my face – when the knees get tweaky, I need to concentrate completely on every single step I take, and I just look grumpy.

By now it was 6pm and we were out of water minus a sip or two left in one of the bottles. We kept an eyes out for easily-accessible streams to filter some water from along the way.

At 7pm, we found water! This trail down the Ore Bed Brook is loooong and rocky, 2.5 miles in total with a lean-to marking the 1.8 mile mark. I was feeling the dehydration and moving pretty slowly. I couldn’t tell if I was experiencing my unusual pain or if my body was simply utterly exhausted, stiff, and fatigued. Gildo stayed at the stream to filter some water and sent me on my way to cover some ground at my snail’s pace, so on I went.

At 7:25pm I reached the lean-to – just a little over a mile and a half to get back to camp, and Gildo caught up with me at about that point. A nice gulp of cool water and I felt like a dried up sponge coming back to life.

At 7:52pm, 2 hours and 10 minutes after leaving the junction at the top of the Ore Bed trail, we reached the next junction. Just over 1 mile left to go – 0.8 miles back up a hill to the junction with the Wolf Jaw lean-to, the back down to camp.

By now the sun had set and we donned our headlamps. In my memory, I was moving agonizingly slowly, but in reality, we hiked that 0.8 mile stretch to the junction in just 30 minutes.

The short trod back to the camp never felt so long – Gildo went ahead to look for it while I slowly plodded on, quietly willing my body to go just a little further. I was worried we’d passed it, breaking at the possibility of having to go back up and considering just sleeping under a nice tree somewhere. But then my headlamp illuminated Gildo just ahead, next to the tree with the indicator for our camp. We’d made it just before 9pm, 13.5 hours after starting.

We wasted no time in preparing some food, cleaning up our dirt and sweat with a wet shirt (well Gildo went for a frigid dip in the stream to clean up…I did not.), and passing out.

Saturday 8/16 – Over and Out

All in all, I think most of my pain from the previous day was more or less normal, and I was just stiff and exhausted in a totally normal way! We woke up at around 8 in the morning feeling surprisingly good, ate our breakfast, and got the heck out of there at just before 10am. I was so excited to be home, take a shower, and pet my dogs. Oh, and it was my birthday!! I’m in absolute shock that I felt so good – not even sore, just a bit stiff – which was the best birthday present I could have ever asked for.

I won’t ramble on much longer – the hike out was smooth. A ranger at the outpost joked that I made Gildo carry all the camp gear, and I said Yep! I know what I’m doing! My sherpa sure is a trooper, and he does it all with a smile on his face if he knows that he’s enabling me to accomplish my dreams.

For a beautiful Saturday morning, we really thought we’d see more people, but that wasn’t the case! We alternated quiet walking with happy banter, and decidedly agreed that between HaBaSa and the lower great range (at least the way we’d done it), the lower great range was harder. In my mind, I completely equate Sawteeth with Couchsachraga. I know they’re different – I know Sawteeth at least has a view, and the only way to summit Couch is up and over the Santanoni range while Sawteeth has several options. But the way we’d done it….yeah, it felt very similar. If I did this again, I would not add on Sawteeth. It took a really enjoyable day and honestly made it much more stressful, painful, and exhausting. That said, I’m very glad I did it! 38 baby!

Look at us – we reached The Garden just an hour and 40 minutes after leaving camp, covering those 4 miles at an excellent pace. I hope you enjoyed this long read, I’m looking forward to giving you just 4 more trip reports before I finally complete my 46er journey. Happy Hiking!

38 down, 8 to go.

Lower Wolf Jaw: 4175′

Upper Wolf Jaw: 4185′

Armstrong: 4400′

Gothics: 4736′

Sawteeth: 4100′

Total Duration: ~17 hours total

Total Distance: ~16 miles

All images are property of adktrailtalesandtails and may only be used with express permission.

Dix Mountain (6)

10/19/2024

Wow, it’s been a while since I was last up in the high peaks! The last time I was here was in 2022, I climbed the rest of the Dix range but had to orphan out Dix itself. This time I had my husband to accompany me and we decided to make a weekend of it by staying a couple nights in Lake Placid. I was most excited about sitting in a hot tub after the hike! At this time of year, the access road to the Elk Lake trailhead is closed, making access to the other peaks in the range pretty difficult. However it’s about the same distance to the summit of Dix from Rt 73, so that’s what we did! We reached the Round Pond trailhead at about 8:45am.

We’ve been to this trailhead before and embarrassingly, it still tripped us up. We looked around for a minute before checking with another pair of hikers to find out where the actual trailhead is.

This is just the sign for the parking area, NOT the trailhead. The actual trailhead is just a few feet down the road.

We unsurprisingly started climbing pretty much right away. Based on the map, we knew we’d have an initial climb until reaching Round Pond, then another stretch of climbing before the trail would flatten out for a good while.

Oh how optimistic and naive we were when, 7 minutes after starting, we saw this marshy clearing and started to wonder if we’d already reached Round Pond! Of course not, dummies! 😅

It always takes a good half hour to find that groove when starting a hike, when the mind overcomes the body’s desire to lie down under a nice tree and just…stay there. We moved slow and steady, and after 14 minutes from the trail head we had made it the 0.6 miles to Round Pond. Yay! Only 6.2 more miles to go to reach the summit!

What a gooooorgeous day we had! We enjoyed a few minutes to ourselves here letting two groups of people pass us.

By this point we were getting nicely warmed up as we walked around the little lake, spotting beaver sign along the way.

We missed peak foliage by about 2 weeks, but some of the trees still had beautiful bright yellow leaves, and we passed through a whole section of forest full of them. At this point I had actually mis-remembered the terrain on the map – I thought we just had to go uphill a little bit and then it would be flat, so we were kind of booking it to stay ahead of the group behind us. Then we realized it was more like a mile of uphill so why don’t we chill out a little bit and let the folks behind us just pass us up so we could take our time! Duh 😆

Eventually the climbing levelled off. It took us about 45 minutes to go the 1.7 miles from the pond to the next junction.

It’s really important to note that on the map, it looks like there are two junctions – one to Round Mountain, as the sign below shows, and one to Noonmark Mountain, but there is actually just ONE junction. Going to the right here would take us up Round Mtn, going to the left would go to Dix, and going straight (more or less) is the way to Noonmark, but it wasn’t as obvious a trail as the others.

We were really looking forward to a nice, easy 1.9 mile mostly-flat walk through the woods before the more arduous climb started. The trail here follows along a stream, weaving in and out of it along the way.

Conditions were mostly dry, though we still couldn’t escape a few muddy sections that made for some fun navigation.

As we grew nearer to the leanto on the map it became a bit difficult to make sure we stayed on trail. There’s one spot in which we crossed a little stream, and continued straight to the banks of the larger N. Fork Boquet River – it almost looks like you’re supposed to rock hop across the river, but actually the trail turns sharply to the right.

There was some blowdown near the leanto, where we spotted some signs for camping directing hikers to the leanto, but we made sure not to follow those and instead cross the river to stay on trail. This spot was particularly hard to follow; the group that had been ahead of us actually ended up behind us because they got turned around here! On the other side of the river, just before 11am (2 hours from the trailhead) we knew we’d reached the end of our easy 1.9 mile stretch and it was time to start a gradual ascent.

This section of forest was so lovely to walk through. It consisted of lots of spindly deciduous trees, some still with bright yellow leaves, so we could see farther through the wood than we usually can.

The path followed the stream for a while longer, and I couldn’t help but notice how rocky the trail is. I tend to be a powerhouse on the way up but have a hard time on the way back down the mountain, so I was already getting nervous about how rocky the trail was.

The higher we climbed, the further we moved through the seasons, with a glimpse of the conditions we’d find ourselves in at the summit.

The grade became a bit steeper with about 1.5 miles to go to the summit, following the stream closely and offering the occasional glimpse of the slide to come.

It was right about noon when we found a nice log in the sun on a little island in the stream to sit and have some lunch. We hadn’t taken a break in the 3 hours since we started so it was nice to sit for a few minutes, but we didn’t linger long due to the cold. 20 minutes of rocky muddy climbing later and we were at the base of the slide.

As we were hiking to this point, a group of 3 young men passed us going down – they were adorably enthusiastic about the day they were having, and warned us to stay to the right on the slide and exit at the cairn – the slide does not lead to the summit. They found this out the hard way, going up for sunrise and bushwhacking out of the top of the slide, then sheepishly admitting that only 1 of the 3 had brought microspikes – because of those two mistakes, they missed sunrise! Thanks to them though, we were prepared when we made it to the slide.

While I probably wouldn’t want to be on this slide in wetter conditions, we really weren’t on it for more than a few minutes before exiting at the cairn. Even so, the wind here was ROUGH! It was so cold I had to sit down and layer up right away to stay warm. Thanks to those folks coming down trail, we knew to look out for the cairn – which was great advice, because it wasn’t super obvious.

Just after re-entering the trail from the slide, we saw this no camping sign, indicating we were right at 3500′! This also meant we had a heck of a climb ahead of us.

This past spring, I spent 4 days solo trekking through mountains in Patagonia, and I was amazed at how good I felt. I had no pain, no issues at all – I loved every minute of it. So I’ve been wondering what’s different about Patagonia from the mountains here? Is it the air? The water?

No. It’s the FREAKING ROCKS. Who put all these rocks here 😭 The paths in Patagonia where I was hiking were much more level – yes, you were climbing uphill for 7 miles, but the trail itself was flat and easy to walk on. That’s the difference. But I digress. It was just before 1pm when we got our first views of the day.

And then…

More….

ROCKS. Seriously, this last half mile to the junction felt so much longer than it was, it was such slow going. We had one or two near miss incidents with slick ice before we decided it was dumb to go any further without putting on our microspikes.

Just when we were starting to feel like the climb would never end, we reached the junction! Just 0.4 miles left to the summit! Despite all my whining about the rocks, I was actually feeling so good all day. I felt strong and had so much energy on the uphill.

The third sign reads: “Beckhorn Trail Junction – 2.7miles, Lillian Brook Leanto – 3.3miles, Slide Brook Leanto – 4.7miles, Elk Lake Trailhead – 7miles”

We instantly scrambled our way up a steep icy ledge and got this view.

From here on it was very icy, interspersed with deep sections of mud that threatened to pull off my boot once or twice, along a ridge with lots of nice spots to sit in the sun and enjoy the view. We continued along just until the trail was about to go down toward the beckhorn, then found our own perch to enjoy the fruits of our labor. We did it!!! Summit time – 1:45pm, 4h45m after leaving the trailhead.

Enjoy this closeup of my face.

We savored our hard-earned victory chocolate, then hubby took a nap on a rock while I took photos. Despite the snow around us and on the way up, the summit was so warm! There was no wind at all and the sun warmed us up. It was so nice to be able to rest up there without worrying about getting cold.

At 2:30pm we decided we should probably be on our way. My #1 priority now was to make it back to our motel by 8pm so we have time to soak in the hot tub! Lucky for me, I got a lift down off the tall ledges to help save my joints by this handsome guy 😊

I wasn’t joking about the deep mud from the snow and ice melting in the warmth of the sun…I was able to navigate around one of the wannabe boot-thieves, but this is the only way I could think of to get around this one.
View post on imgur.com

We were back at the junction at 3pm, ready for our steep treacherous descent back down to the slide.

The going was slooooow on the way down, as expected. I can fly up but I have to take such care on the way back down to make sure I don’t hurt my knees. Even so, the trail is so rocky it was impossible to avoid tweaking my knees and ankles at least a few times. For months, I’ve been climbing the mountain near my house 2-4 times per week, with larger more strenuous hikes on the weekend, including some of the Lake George 12ster peaks, and I’d done so without pain. I finally felt like I was gaining strength and endurance back and I didn’t want to ruin it on this hike.

It took us an hour to get back to the slide from the junction. I was relieved that we’d gotten the steepest part of the hike behind us.

It didn’t take long to reach the end of the slide and slink back into the woods along the stream filling with water from snowmelt on the summit.

Another 40 minutes after that, we were nearing the lean to. Somewhere along the way I started getting pain in my right knee again – I wholly blame the rocks. As we hiked down I remember taking about 4 steps on a flat, dirt section of trail and saying “Ah, this is nice!” and then it was over 😭 I was so grateful to be back to the 1.9 mile flat stretch.

We crossed the river towards the lean-to, and spotted the reason why people may have gotten so turned around here. Notice the arrow sign in the third picture below, obscured by branches of the fallen tree.

And just like that, our nice little flat section was over, and we were back at the downhill to Round Pond right at 5:30pm.

I was having a pretty tough time hobbling along by this point. The smallest tweaks from stepping slightly off on a rock would send pangs of lightning out from my knee, so I tried to keep it locked in place and use my hip to move my leg. All of this is doable on flat even ground, but on a rocky downhill trail? Not so much.

At 6:20 we reached Round Pond and caught the last remnants of the sun hitting the trees across the pond.

By now I had started thinking about the inevitable dilemma I have after every major hike – what should I do first when I finish? The hunger, exhaustion, need for a shower, and a soak in the hot tub all seemed equally urgent. Maybe I could eat a pizza in the hot tub? That might do the trick.

My husband had been carrying my backpack for the last couple of miles to take some weight off my knees and try to help with the pain, but I guess it must have gotten too much for him to watch me struggle because suddenly it wasn’t enough for him to carry my backpack, and he picked me up and carried me probably 3/10 of a mile down the trail. By the time he set me down and I again hobbled down the trail by the light of my headlamp, I almost cried tears of joy when I saw headlights of cars on Rt 73 in front of me – I was about 15 feet from the trail register and had no idea.

We made it back right at 7pm! We ordered some food from our favorite local brewery in Lake Placid, picked it up on our way to the motel, ate in the car, then hopped in the hot tub. On the map and trail signs, it says this hike is 13.6 miles, but both of our phones clocked it in at about 14.9 miles.

30 down, 16 to go! Happy Hiking!

Dix Mountain: 4,857′, elevation gain: 3,725′

Total Duration: 10 hours

Total Distance: Either 13.6 or 14.88 miles 🤷‍♀️

All images are property of adktrailtalesandtails and may only be used with express permission.

Macomb (21) + South Dix (37) + Grace (42) + Hough(23)

5/29/2022

Memorial day weekend. Weather was nice and the snow and ice were finally gone from the peaks, so I decided it’s now or never. I knew there was no chance I’d get a parking spot with having to drive 3 hours from home to get to the trailhead at Elk Lake, so instead I drove up Saturday and made it to the primary lot at 10pm. I’m glad I did, because there were only 3 open spots in that lot when I arrived. Presumably the lot was full of campers’ cars. The next closest parking area is 2 miles down the road, which is for sure where I would have ended up had I not gone the night before! I set up in the back of the car and had a fitful nights sleep listening to the sounds of the loons on nearby Elk Lake.

My route would ideally cover the whole Dix Range, starting with Macomb (1, in blue, below), then to South Dix aka Carson (2, in purple), then to East Dix aka Grace (3, in green), back up South Dix, over to Hough (4, in yellow), and finally to Dix (5, in red), then down the Beckhorn trail. I knew it was unlikely that I would manage to do the whole range successfully in a day, so I also planned an “emergency exit” down Lillian Brook (in white) in case I had to bail. At minimum I absolutely wanted to meet Grace, and not orphan it out, so that was my goal.

At 4:00am my alarm went off and I promptly ignored it. I decided it’d be a good idea to let another hiker go first down the trail to scare off any bears, so I closed my eyes for another few minutes while the first hikers showed up. Eventually I didn’t have any excuses not to get started anymore, as by 4:45am I signed myself in at the trailhead and started along the path.

I trod along the path with my headlamp for just 5 minutes before deeming it unnecessary, and within 15 minutes the sun had lit the trail, the forest was alive with the sounds of the birds, and I was already ready to shed my outer layer despite the brisk temperature.

The path started off smooth but rocky and I made quick progress without much effort along the first 2.3 miles of trail.

At 5:40am I reached a nice bridge over a stream with a beautiful little waterfall, and I knew I must be getting close to the campsites and thus the junction to go up the Macomb Slide.

The trail got a little muddy here and there but nothing unmanageable, especially given the recent rain. Until now I hadn’t seen a single person on the trail.

There were several small stream crossings with VERY helpful ‘bridges’ to get across them, but I didn’t mind the challenge even though it wasn’t even 6am yet!

Just a minute after crossing the last stream, I saw the signs indicating campsite, and a cairn marking the start of the herd path up to Macomb. You can see above the camping sign on the right is a yellow marker with “Macomb ->” written on it.

I turned right at the cairn and walked…..straight into a campsite, with some folks up preparing their coffee and breakfast. I looked around and couldn’t help but feel that I was just utterly barging in on their camping, until a nice man pointed me towards the really quite obvious pair of cairns marking the start of the herd path. Time / distance from trailhead: 1h15m / 2.3 miles.

This path started off quite pleasantly. I enjoyed the sounds of the stream nearby and the trillium flowers dotting the forest floor.

After 30 minutes, I decided to stop on a nice log above the stream to have some breakfast, and take a selfie of myself while I still looked clean and presentable :D. While I sat there, 2 different pairs of hikers passed me by on their way up.

For a so-called “trailless”, unmaintained peak, this path was really not in bad shape at all. It wasn’t particularly muddy, not particularly narrow, and not particularly steep. Not bad at all for a Sunday stroll!

At about 7:00am I got my first glimpse of Macomb, and the notorious slide that I’d be climbing up. Check it out below, by the purple arrow.

On the map, you can tell exactly where the slide begins because the map shows an absolutely straight section leading up the mountain. Before that, the trail deviates from the stream for 1/4 – 1/2 of a mile, so I knew I was getting close when I couldn’t hear the sounds of Slide Brook anymore.

A bit more of climbing and within 10 minutes I was standing at the base of an impressive, long, scrambly, rocky slide with tiny little dots of people skittering up the slope.

A cairn and a rusted iron…thing mark the opening to the trail I’d just come from for those brave enough to come down the slide. This slide is the product of a hurricane in September of 1999, and has now become the main route of Macomb mountain.

Looking back from the slide was a real treat with stunning views of Elk Lake. I stood there for a minute wondering if there are any amazing little campsites on those islands in the lake before continuing up.

The slide is LONG. The first photo doesn’t do it justice, unless you zoom in to see the tiny little dots near the top and realize those are people. Let’s just say….I would NOT want to come down this slide. Though I bet it’d be a quick trip down, given that I’d most certainly just be tumbling my way from the top. The earth here consists of loose rock and sandy dirt, and almost nothing is stable. I tried to look for patches of dirt, because even though my feet sink into it and it moves a bit like sand on a beach, I had more confidence in the dirt than in the rocks. I mostly stayed towards the left side of the slide, until close to the top where the stone becomes flat and dark, and slick from the rain. When I got to this point I stayed to the right. A tip for climbing this slide with friends – give a good amount of space between you and the person in front of you! I dislodged more than a few rocks while I was climbing that could have whacked someone if they’d been behind me!

At the very top of the slide, you have two options – go left or go right. Both paths take you to the same place, though the Left one is the more popular of the two. I turned back just before leaving the slide for one last look at the views.

Things got interesting when I left the slide. The path left leads you almost immediately to a very large boulder / cliff. So here’s the thing. There is a CLEAR AND OBVIOUS PATH AROUND TO THE LEFT OF THE BOULDER. Did I take it? Nooooooo. Why? I don’t knooooooow.

So here I am, literally going straight up the side of this boulder cliff, wondering how I got here, but I was already committed so I just kept on moving my way up and towards the right. Ugh. Don’t do what I did, folks. Just go around the dang thing.

All three paths then converged at the top of the boulder – the path from the left that normal people take, the path from the right that adventurous people take, and the path from the boulder that idiots take. From here it’s hard to tell on the map how close I was to the summit, but I was sure I was almost there.

Sure enough, less than 15 minutes later I was standing at the top of Macomb Mountain!

A nice lady offered to take a photo of me after I took some of her and her family, and I happily obliged. Friends….Look at me 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 Oh how the tables had turned since I’d had breakfast almost 2 hours earlier! Lookin gooooood! Anywaaay, I had made it here at 8:15am, 3.5h and roughly 4.5 miles from the trailhead.

I took a 5 minute break, stretched my legs, and took the obligatory picture with the summit sign, and set off toward South Dix (aka Carson) promptly.

On the map, it looks like the distance to South Dix from Macomb is maybe 1 mile. I always dread the downhill (and uphill, if we’re being honest with ourselves) on these trailless peaks because it’s usually a pretty brutal vertical descent (I’m looking at you, Couch). However the path down from Macomb wasn’t bad at all! I don’t recall any tricky or technical sections that I had to navigate, just a bit of mud here and there, which is completely expected in the ADKs.

If you look at the map, there is what looks to be a shortcut going from below the summit of South Dix over to Lillian Brook, intersecting when the trail down Lillian Brook has passed all of the steepest sections already. So when I passed this little cairn on the left on my way toward S Dix, I assumed that’s what it was. (Note that I did NOT see the other end of this trail when I was on Lillian Brook later in the day).

Just before 9am, 30 minutes since leaving Macomb, I arrived at the base of some rocky business and looked around for an obvious way up it. There was none, so I approached this like a choose-your-own-adventure game. There were some cairns sporadically scattered about but they weren’t particularly helpful to me.

I reached the top to find a handful of people milling about near a boulder seated on top. We talked for a minute to get our bearings and figure out where exactly we were. What we were standing on was the false summit to Dix, but a glorious false summit it was. The actual summit is in the trees, so I took a few minutes to enjoy the scenery while everyone else continued on.

Looking back to the summit of Macomb

The peak all the way on the right is Hough, while the sharp one to the left of Hough is the Beckhorn. Dix itself is hidden by the Beckhorn from this angle.

From my Peakfinder app – always making me feel so clever when people ask what mountains we’re looking at

I headed back to the trail at 9:15am, passed by the junction with a small cairn marking the way to Hough, and 10 minutes later I was standing on the true summit of South Dix, which is marked by a little yellow disk.

If you continue just past the summit there is a nice outcropping to the right for some views. I’d had my fill at the false summit though and continued straight down the path towards my next target: Grace (aka East Dix).

Yet again I was pleased to discover the gentleness of this path leading to Grace. This one descended very gradually, given that it is essentially on the ridge straight to Grace from S Dix. It wasn’t overgrown at all; a bit muddy in some places but nothing unmanageable.

I was a bit surprised however by how long it was taking me to get to the next mountain. I’d expected another 30 minute jaunt but for some reason it felt much longer than that. After 20 or 30 minutes of descent, a man came from the opposite direction and we chatted a bit. It’s nice to meet other solo hikers on the trail when you’re out there alone! He let me know that I only had another 20 minutes to go, and asked me if HE only had another 10 to go. I replied that I really had no idea because I’m agonizingly slow on the trail, and felt like I’d been descending for an hour 🤣 How helpful I am!

Sure enough, the trail did eventually start to climb up….

Until I popped out onto the bare rock of the summit, 45 minutes after leaving S Dix. (I swear it felt like hours though).

I climbed onto the rock that is officially the summit, though there’s no indicator of it being so besides being a high rock, and took some shots of the mountains I’ve come from, and those I’ve yet to do. And I’ve got to say…..Dix looks like it’s a hundred miles away. It might as well be across an ocean. It’s true that they’re never as far away as they look, but at this point in my hike I had a decision to make. I’d been having a growing pain in my left hip flexor and in my left elbow, making it impossible for me to put any weight on my elbow and making it very very difficult to lift my left leg to climb, which was troublesome because literally half of the hike is climbing up. I know these pains are of course coming from my Ehlers Danlos Syndrome and my brittle, stretchy collagen, but still it’s so frustrating to not be able to do anything about it. I’d worn my knee braces in the hopes that my knees would be OK, and so far they were, but I just wasn’t sure if I’d be able to make it up any more mountains. I decided to head back to S Dix before making any final decisions however.

I stayed on the stunning summit of Grace for 45 minutes, enjoying conversation with other hikers and some much-needed snacks, before heading back to S Dix. This time, it seemed like time flew by and 45 minutes later I was back on the summit at 11:50am. I passed by the summit and reached the junction to Hough a minute later.

I decided at this point that I had to head this way regardless of whether I could make it up Hough or not, since Lillian Brook was in the same direction and that was my emergency exit. I was super thrilled to have made it up Grace, but at the same time Hough was right there and it would be really painful to have to just wave at it as I descended Lillian Brook.

After a bit of descent, again very gentle and surprisingly easy, the path began weaving it’s way uphill again. This little mountain between S Dix and Hough is unofficially dubbed “Pough”, pronounced like “Puff”, as in, “you’ll Huff and Puff your way up these mountains”. I reached this summit only 20 minutes after leaving the junction on S Dix, at 12:10pm.

As I stood atop Pough, and looked to my right…..My God. There is Hough. Ahhhhh why is it so far away! I decided in that moment that I probably couldn’t make it up to the summit, and definitely wouldn’t be making it to the summit of Dix, so I continued down the trail to descend Pough.

20 minutes later I was standing at the junction to Lillian Brook, feeling very torn. The summit to Hough was sooooo close, but my hip was really in immense pain, and I couldn’t even help it along with my poles because my left elbow was out of commission as well. I couldn’t help but laugh a little because of all of the things I was worried about hurting on this day, these were none of them. Lately my lower back, right SI joint, right elbow, and neck had all been giving me problems. I was especially concerned before my hike that the weight of the backpack would not be ideal for these reasons. And yet….all of those things were absolutely fine! At the end, I thought, what the hell. I’m already planning on having to come back for Dix, and probably coming from rt 73 to do so, and I reallllllllllly don’t want to have to climb up and over Dix, down and up to Hough, then back down and up over Dix and back down to 73. Just….no. So instead I gave myself a little pep talk and passed by the cairn to Lillian Brook to go up up and up.

Some mud was present as always, but also this luscious green mossy stuff on either side that looked like it was straight out of a fairy tale.

The climb up was expectedly very difficult, slow, and painful for me. I had to stop a few times to sit and stretch on a rock while questioning my life choices. I finally mustered up the strength to continue on up, and before I knew it I was at this notorious cool rock ledge that leads to a sort of false summit on Hough. If you have the energy (and ideally, functioning hip flexors and elbows) you can climb right up the side of this, but I chose to go around.

I had to sneak through this cool gap in the rocks, up some more rocky ledges, and I found myself at the false summit of Hough with some pretty fantastic views – no shortage of those in this range!

I could see the true summit from here and didn’t linger. (See the peak on the right in the photo below).

45 minutes after leaving the junction with Lillian Brook, I was standing on the summit of Hough, taking a selfie with it’s little yellow disk!

Ah was I ever happy to have made the decision to come up here! I was feeling so proud of myself, and on top of that I’d had the most perfect weather imaginable. Though for anyone feeling concerned about the black flies this time of year, don’t worry! They are alive and well and ready to welcome you into the mountains 🤣 Fortunately though I’d treated my shirt and hat with permethrin at the start of the season, so I just lowered the bug net contained within my hat when I wanted some peace on the summits.

So here I am. Imagine you are me, standing on the summit from which the photo below is taken, and looking to the right to see….the Beckhorn, approximately 96 miles away. There was no debate this time, just an absolutely nope from me on making it up to Dix today, and I was ok with that. Not only was it not exactly close, but you have to go allllllllll the way down just to go alllllll the way back up. Nope nope nope. I don’t hate myself that much.

Visibility was just spectacular. I could see all the way to the Green Mountains in Vermont with ease.

I’m not sure what time I left to go back down. I was really not concerned with timing at this point, having given up on Dix for the day. I calculated the distance I’d have to go to get back to the trailhead at between 6 and 7 miles, and was hoping I could make it there by 6pm.

I reached the junction back at Lillian Brook at 2:20pm. I was again nervous that the trail would be very rugged. I could see on the map though that it would be clearly steep for the first 1/2 mile or so, and it should be pleasant walking after that. So off I went.

And yes, the path was a bit steep at the top, but it was also BEAUTIFUL.

Unfortunately, before too long, a familiar pain began in my right knee, and my stomach dropped. Of all the pains I get with EDS, there has only been one so far that I absolutely cannot handle – the knee pain that happens when my outer quad muscles get too tight from climbing and pull my patellas off track during the descent. And it was happening, despite wearing my magical braces that had always worked to prevent the pain until now. I presumed it was happening because my right leg bore the bulk of my weight during the climb up every mountain except Macomb since my right hip was hurting so much. So the quad must have gotten extra tight. I steeled myself for the pain, and moved at a snail’s pace to baby that knee and keep the pain minimal for as long as possible. Which wasn’t easy when the trail was steep, wet, and full of rocks, but I managed.

Did I mention that this trail is BEAUTIFUL? Despite the pain, I was in heaven here. The colors, the sounds, the smells….I felt like I was home.

I knew when I reached the Lillian Brook that the steepest part was over, judging from the map, and I had a much easier time navigating while trying not to bend my right knee too much on the smoother, flatter ground.

The upside of going so dang slow is that you have lots (and I mean LOTS) of time to observe things around you, like….

MR SLUG YOU ARE VERY LARGE

I didn’t want to dawdle because I was already moving pretty slowly, but at some point I couldn’t resist sitting by the stream and pouring some fresh, cold water over my face. I swear I felt a half-inch of grime wash away from my skin.

View post on imgur.com
*** Sound ON ***

Along the way down this trail, I kept hearing things that I thought were people talking far away. Sometimes it was the brook babbling away, sometimes it was a particularly large fly buzzing around, so when I was rockhopping and yet again thought I heard people talking, I dismissed it. Until I looked up and saw two women that I’d run into a few times earlier in the day. They asked “Are you coming down Lillian Brook?” I said, “I am! Are you on the real trail??”, they said “we are!” and I rejoiced to be back in the land of maintained trails with trail markers at 4:15pm! Do note that the trail up Lillian brook is not easy to spot from the main trail in. If you’re coming from the Slide Brook leanto though, you’ll cross one small stream only before coming to a larger wider stream, which is basically the start of the Lillian Brook Trail.

30 minutes later, I’d gone the 1.3 miles from Lillian Brook to the Slide Brook Lean-to and campsites. Only 2.3 more miles to go.

The ground here was blessedly flat. Unfortunately though, by this time my feet were feeling every tiny pebble, stick, bug under my boots if I was stepping on anything not dirt. It was so achy that I started purposely going through mud even if there were rocks to hop across because the mud felt great! I was grateful however that my technique of babying my right knee and going soooo slooooow had paid off, because it really wasn’t bothering me on the flat section. I did stop at the bridge after Slide Brook to sit and rest a bit. Then I thought I could lie on my back and rest a bit. Then I thought, maybe I could just close my eyes a bit? After a few minutes I thought this was a good way to accidentally camp on the trail overnight, so I hauled my aching self to my feet and carried on.

That said….This portion of trail, after 12 hours of hiking in the incredibly stunning but exhausting Dix range, was just. so. BORING. I eventually resorted to counting my steps – not as a mental escape from the pain as I’d done previously in other treks but just for something to DO.

Imagine how pleased I was when, 1,900 steps later, I reached the trailhead….EXACTLY AT 6pm! Which was my goal time I’d calculated up on Hough!

I hopped in the car and took a solid 20 minutes just trying to wrestle my knee braces off, then started the 3 hour drive home. 29 down, 17 to go. Happy hiking!

Macomb Mountain: 4,405′, elevation gain: 2,400′

South Dix: 4,060′, elevation gain: +260′

East Dix: 4,012′, elevation gain: +350′ (+400′ back to South Dix)

Hough Peak: 4,400′, elevation gain: +630′

Total Duration: 13 hours 15 minutes (including maybe ~2h mulling around the summits)

Total Distance: ~14 miles

All images are property of adktrailtalesandtails and may only be used with express permission.

Panther Peak (18)

3/5/2022

My first REAL winter high peak! I’ve hiked plenty in the shoulder seasons, and as much as I enjoy it, I’ve always secretly thought the people who say “Winter hiking is the best hiking!” were a few peas short of a casserole….. So here I find myself up at 4:30am, driving 3 hours to the trailhead, and sitting in the car looking at the “4°F” on the dash, wondering whyyyyyy are we doing this??

After half an hour of donning all of my layers, knee braces, and snow shoes (LITERALLY. 30 minutes to do this.), we signed in at the very broken register at 8:30am, and started the 1.8 mile walk up the gravel road.

We’d been here back in November just when winter was first dusting the mountains – we started in the dark, and finished in the dark after only summiting Santanoni and Couchsachraga. So we’d never actually SEEN this road! And it was beautiful – a thick layer of snow covering the ground, with a perfectly packed path broken out ahead of us.

After a little under an hour of walking, we reached the junction with the trail at 9:20am.

We trudged along in our snowshoes – they take me an hour or two to get used to – and when we looked to our left coming down a small hill, we saw written in the snow with a pole “MOOSE TRACKS”! And sure enough, we looked around and spotted them! No moose, but that’s the closest I’ve ever been to seeing a wild Adirondack moose! I didn’t stop to take any photos though, and 10 minutes after the junction we were at the bridge.

Shortly after the bridge, we began following a stream steadily uphill for the next ~1.3 miles. As we started to gain some elevation, we caught some glimpses of the massive Santanoni looming through the trees, covered in snow and almost blending into the sky.

We only met a handful of people turning back towards the trailhead as we climbed. I was super envious when two guys on skis came smoothly gliding down the trail – it looked so fun and must be so fast to get back to the trailhead!

At some point we stopped a few minutes to have a snack and I spotted this cute little tree with a snow hat, and couldn’t resist giving him a face with my pole – now he’s just happy to see ya!

20 minutes later, we came to the viewpoint on the left on a rocky outcropping in the brook between a line of cascades.

200 yards later and we were at the junction with the express trail up Santanoni. The cairn marking the junction was completely buried in snow, which left me wondering – how did the people who broke the trail know to turn there?? It looked almost no different than any other patch of forest, so kudos to them!

After the junction, the trail leveled out a bit for the next mile until we reached the trail up to Times Square 20 minutes later.

We were going to turn left to head up the ridge, buuuut of course I wanted to see the Duck Hole Lean-to and have lunch there, so we continued straight ahead. On the map it looks like the lean-to is right there. So first we climbed one hill. Then another one. Aaaand another one. Until I got pissed at adding unnecessary mileage to our trip and turned around 😆

So there we were back at the junction….again….We walked down a small hill and onto a clearing which is presumably a small pond when it’s not frozen, and had lunch in the sun. And I got to use my little inflatable cushion! One of the toughest things for me in the winter is staying warm when I stop to take a break, especially when I’m sitting directly on the snow and ice.

It worked so well! I sat all bundled up, enjoying my cream cheese and jam sandwich with a waaaaarm butt. Life is good.

After a nice break, we hit the trail again. For a while there was little elevation gain, but then it got very steep very fast as we passed Bradley Pond on the left. After a few minutes of steep climbing, we found ourselves perched on a boulder with a glimpse of the mountains.

It seems like every hike and every mountain we’d climbed since the beginning of winter had been during a blizzard and required not only that we break trail, but had us dealing with wind and snow buffeting our faces, and no views from the summits. I forgot what it was like to hike in such beautiful weather – and the sun?! And we passed these amazing rock cliffs to our right that were just dripping in huge icicles.

An hour after brunch the climbing briefly stopped and we slid on our butts under this tree until we reached Panther Brook shortly after.

I was actually pretty nervous about this section of trail based on what I remembered when we were here in November. We hiked down from Times Square in the dark, directly in Panther Brook, climbing over large icy boulders the whole way, and I even took a rough fall at some point. So here I was ready with my microspikes, my crampons, and revenge, but the trail was pristine so far – no rocks, no mud, no ice, not NOTHIN. Just snow.

From the bottom of the brook until the top of the ridge at times square, the trail climbs steadily and steeply. It seemed to go on and on and on, but we kept our spirits high by calling out “heeeeere kitty kitty kitty *smooch smooch smooch sounds*”….because we were climbing PANTHER…..We were sleep deprived and exhausted and this was hilarious to us. I do wonder what other hikers must have thought if they’d heard us! The nice thing though was the trail was so steep that every time we turned around, we had gorgeous views.

Peep how steep the trail was there….It was like that the WHOLE TIME. It was hard work – obviously – but all we could think about was how we were clearly going to be sliding down this entire mountain on our butts and it was going to be EPIC.

With the thoughts of butt sliding to energize us, the steepness got even steepier and I knew we were almost there – I even identified the spot I fell at last time. Then, 2 hours and 20 minutes after leaving the junction, we reached Times Square!

It shouldn’t even have to be said that the first thing I did was blow up my inflatable cushion, sit down, and scarf down some lunch and niiiiice salty chips. This was as close to Panther as we got the last time – it killed me at the time, but I was in so much pain that there was no way I could have made it up Panther and back. This time though, I was in great shape, feeling pain-free and energized as we trotted down the herd path towards Panther. After about 5 minutes, I caught a glimpse of the summit through the trees and my goodness it looked like it might as well be in Ohio. Nevertheless, 5 minutes of nearly-flat walking later and we reached a lookout just before the summit.

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The only difficult section of trail lie directly ahead of us – a huge ice-coated boulder with just a very narrow ledge we could walk on.

Instead we took an alternate path someone before us had forged to the right, and we popped right out on the summit!

We explored the off-shooting trails to find some beautiful lookouts, and the summit sign. There was so much snow up here that we had to kneel to be at the same level as the sign!

And of course – victory chocolate!

We wandered back to the larger open area to soak in the views. Weather couldn’t have been more perfect – temperature was hovering right around freezing, the sun had been out and now was unfortunately hiding behind some clouds, but there was NO WIND. None.

That littttttttle bump is Couchsachraga….Still don’t know how that one’s a high peak!

And played with my Peakfinder app!

At 2:50pm, we made our move to head back to Times Square.

The trees up here were caked in crusted snow – it was a winter wonderland. And this time we were wearing the right clothes so we stayed completely dry! Yaaaaay dry feet! It’s the simple things.

We made it back to Times Square in literally 15 minutes, met a few other groups of hikers finishing up from Santanoni and Couch, and headed back the way we came up with our sights set on BUTT SLIDING our way down the mountain. We’d apparently gone 18,000 steps by that point – I was so optimistic at our butt sliding prowess that I thought we wouldn’t get any more steps in until we were at the bottom. You can probably sense where this is going….And you know, we tried. We really really reallllly tried. But when butt sliding somehow becomes more exhausting that just walking – using arms and legs and core to drag yourself through the snow – what even is the point?

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My friends, it DID NOT GO WELL. After a while we pretty much gave up and just walked down the mountain – until we got to the steep section near Bradley Pond and I just couldn’t resist. Naturally Gildo followed after me with….less success…..

For reference, that’s the trail on his right. He is not in any way on the trail. At this point, the trail was more on him. We got ourselves back on our feet and reached the junction just before 5pm – 2 hours after leaving the summit of Panther.

I was determined at this point to make it the ~4.5 miles back to the trailhead before 7pm, so we pretty much booked it. Unfortunately, I’d forgotten to bring my own trekking poles with me on this trip, so I’d been using a pair of Gildo’s ski poles that were in the back of the car, but they were about 8 inches too tall for me, and the trail was narrow enough that they really got in the way more than anything. So on the walk back, rather than bothering to carry them or use them, I started just dragging them behind me. I even gave them names, as if I was walking my two long skinny dogs – Rover and Grover, of course.

At 6pm we were crossing the bridge again and looking for moose tracks shortly after, and by 6:10pm we were back on the ‘gravel’ road.

We put our headlamps on with 3/4 of a mile to go, and by 6:50pm we had reached the trailhead and signed out at the register.

This was hands down the best hiking day I’ve had in ages. Nothing hurt! My knee braces did the trick, and kept my body from having a flare all day. Plus the weather and trail conditions were just perfect. That said, it still felt amazing to get into the car and peel off so many layers of clothing that I’d been wearing all day. 25 down! Marshall, I’m coming for you next 🤩 Happy Hiking!

Panther Peak: 4442′

Total Duration: 10.5 hours of hiking

Round Trip Distance: ~13-14 miles

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