Posts tagged Adirondacks

River crossing on the way up

Finally, Haystack

3 days ago

 

Exactly 1 year ago, day for day, I had failed to get to the top of Haystack having stopped at Little Haystack. A lack of proper equipment coupled with my courage shrivelling under the extreme winds had me going back to to the LOJ with my tail well tucked between my legs (what a horrible analogy).

 

Yesterday started pretty much the same way all my hikes begin: Leave home at 5:00AM, border crossing at 6:00, McDonalds and finally the trailhead at just before 8:00.

This time, I used the Garden trail going through JBL, Bushnell Falls and Slant Rock. The hike up to Slant Rock was easy and without anything to report. I had a few problems with my feet after this. First off, with my new boots, I could feel blisters forming on my heels. I quickly stopped and applied Duct Tape therapy to the affected region. 30 minutes later, I could feel my toes getting very cold so I stopped another time to put foot warmers in my boots. Both solutions took care of the problems and I was ok for the rest of the day.

At the bottom of Little Haystack I got ready for the 1.5km of exposition. The day was again very windy. Every step was deliberate and precise; a fall on the ice field that is now the Haystack ridge would have been unfortunate (and that’s under-representing the consequences of a fall). The descent from Little Haystack towards Haystack was nerve racking. My ice axe was useful for the first time.

The top of Haystack was reached at 1:00PM; getting back to the lodge from here was then easy and leisurely. At the JBL, I stopped about 30 minutes chatting with some nice gentlemen who were very curious about these extreme hikes we all do.

The Stats

A 30km (19 mile) hike with 4648 feet of elevation gain done in just under 10 hours. Haystack stands at 4960 feet. The Trimble Outdoors info is here.

Conditions

Snow pack is very hard on the trails. Micro-spikes up to Slant Rock, then full on crampons to the top of Haystack. I changed back into micro-spikes at the JBL. I wouldn’t recommend anything less than crampons on the Haystacks at this point in time.

The Pics

One of the 2 trails that branches off from Lake Road towards Colvin

A fever on Colvin and Blake

2 weeks ago

Not much to say … This is a pretty standard and somewhat boring hike; if it weren’t for the goal of becoming a 46er, I would have bypassed this one having heard nothing good about it.

Of note: For different reasons, I’ve been exploring the possibility of changing to doubled plastic boots for my hikes. I rented a pair of Scarpa Inverno’s at the Mountaineer this morning to see how I would fare … I didn’t; the boots hurt my soles as well as the whole of my lower leg. I’ve read great things about the Inverno’s, so I’m thinking it’s just that my foot isn’t adapted to their boot.

Other note: I was sick for this hike; very sick. I knew I should have stayed home … but didn’t. I hadn’t checked the stats for this hike and thought it was an easy one. As it turns out, without being a very hard one, it’s definitely not an easy one (being the second longest I’ve hiked in a day).

The stats

Colvin stands at 4080 feet and is 39th in the list of 46. Blake, even if below 4000 feet still counts, and stands at 3970.

A 26km (16.2 mile) hike done in just over 8h30 mins. The total elevation gain was 1296 meters (4252 feet).

The GPS data can be seen here.

The pics

The tracklog

On the way up. Cold!

Street and Nye on a cold January day

1 month ago

In bullet point form, here it is:

  • I started from Deux-Montagnes at 5:00AM and was at the trailhead by 8:15. At that time the border crossing was a breeze.
  • I missed the “Old Nye ski-trail” branch off (concentrating on some music I was listening) and didn’t realize it until I was 2.5km passed it. Add 5km to the normal Street/Nye hike because of this stupid mistake
  • I was heading back down from summiting by 12:30 and was back down at the Loj just before 3:00 PM
A cold day it was; very cold. Luckily, there were no winds to speak of at the top. The views on Street are good looking across towards the MacIntyre range from a different perspective than I was used to.

The stats

  • Street Mountain stands at 4150 feet and stands at #31 in the 46er list.
  • Nye Mountain is actually below four thousand feet at 3895 feet. You can read about why here.
  • The hike was about 20km and was done in just under 7 hours.

The photos

A view of where I'm heading up towards

A heavy and painful hike up Sawteeth

2 months ago

 

Heavy? Because I had over 50lbs on my back to try out my new pack and see if my body could take the weight on a longer hike. The good news, the pack fits well, and my body was still fully functional after the 22km (13.5m) hike.

 

Painful? I discovered that my boots hurt the hell out of my feet. I’ve been trying to find the cause of this and I’m pretty sure it’s any time I wear snowshoes or crampons for extended periods. Micro-spikes don’t seem to bother me (I hiked 30km with them on 2 weeks ago without any pain being felt). I stopped by the Mountaineer on the way out to ask for some advice and the friendly people there told me to first replace the soles in my boots for something more rigid to see if it would help.

The Hike

I left Deux-Montagnes at 5:00AM and was at the gates by 8:00AM. The hike took me 8h40 and took me up 3650 feet of elevation gain. I started at the Ausable Club, walked the road up to the dam, took the Scenic Trail up to the top of Sawteeth and came back down the other side (the trail that deposits you back at the dam).

I was considerably slowed down both by the heavy pack as well as by the painful blisters that had formed on my heels early in the hike.

A quick note about the scenic trail: I’d never read about this trail and it’s unfortunate. I believe Sawteeth probably doesn’t get much love because of that long boring walk up to it’s base. The scenic trail offers some great views and shouldn’t be missed.

The Stats

  • 22km (13.5m) hike done in 8h40 minutes
  • 3650 elevation gain
  • Sawteeth is 4150 feet and 35th highest in the Adirondacks
  • The gpx tracklog can be found here; the Trimble Outdoors page here.

The pictures

The tracklog


Some more of those beautiful early winter views

An icy nightmare on Basin and Saddleback

2 months ago

I knew this was going to be a long hike, but I didn’t expect it to be this difficult. The target was to do Basin and Saddleback, then decide from the Ore Bed Brook trail if I would continue towards Gothics, Armstrong and the Wolfjaws. Unfortunately, dangerous and unrelenting icy conditions forced me down early.

The highlights

  • The walk towards John Brook Lodge was easy and uneventful
  • I screwed up and took the big bridge leading to the North side of the river (close to John Brook Lodge). I lost 45 minutes before getting back on track on the Phelps Trail
  • The trail up to Slant Rock was also easy and relatively ice-free
  • Getting up to Basin was icy and dangerous
  • If going up to Basin was dangerous, the hike back down was completely unmanageable … I wondered why the trail was completely devoid of other hikers. This explained it. It was icy for ALL the descent, right down to the bottom of the new slide on Saddleback.
  • The somewhat scary wall of rock on Saddleback turned out to be not so scary. It is no where nearly as steep as it looks from afar.
  • The debris from the new slide was quite the sight! Ice conditions on the slide kept me in the woods and hanging onto trees.
The pace going up towards Basin and back down was so slow that it blew my chance at doing Gothics et al. .. Disappointing, but I’ll give it a shot in better conditions.

The stats

  • Basin Mountain stands at 4827 feet and is the 9th highest in the Adirondacks
  • Saddleback at 4515 stands at position 17.
  • The total distance of the hike was 29km (18 miles), done in 10h50m with an elevation gain of 1275m (4183 feet)
  • The gpx file can be found here. Note: the gpx file is here, but don’t follow it! It’s for reference only. Remember, I got lost at the Lodges.

The pictures

 

The Tracklog


Go to Top