Adirondacks, Upstate New York (Sep 16-20, 2017)

Part II: Great Range (Sep 17, 2017)
Gothics, Armstrong, Upper Wolfjaw

After spending my first day in the Adirondacks doing sightseeing I was ready to hit the trail. The next three days were to be spent doing dayhikes; the plan was to spend as much time as I could manage out on the trail, come back to my motel in Lake Placid for the night, and then repeat. Obviously, I anticipated that my current flatlander conditioning would take a beating with the steep ups and downs of the Adirondacks, so each successive day was scheduled to be a bit easier than the one before. I kicked off the proceedings with a partial tour of the Great Range.

The Great Range stretches like a picket fence across the eastern horizon of the Adirondacks High Peaks, and includes seven (or more, depending on which source you consult) of the 46 High Peaks. The 1-day traverse of the entire range is a grueling 25mi, 10,000ft elevation gain extravaganza. I had much more modest goals in mind and was content to settle with three of the 4,000 footers, on a 13.7mi loop.

The day before, I had taken a look at the Great Range from Whiteface Mountain's summit. So, I was fairly rubbing my hands in anticipation of walking atop it when I pulled into the Ausable Club's hiker parking lot at 6:00am. Fifteen minutes later I was on my way, walking up the dirt road that one has to endure for 0.8mi until you hit the actual trailhead. After signing the register, I finally hit the trail, and proceeded to cross over the East Branch of the Ausable River on a spiffy bridge. Immediately afterwards, I hung a left to pick up the West River Trail.



The West River Trail, sporting a beautifully soft tread, took me gently alongside the river. Serenity ruled in these early morning hours.





Eventually, things became a bit more hectic as the trail began to gain elevation in short stints of steeper grades. At 2.7mi, I passed the junction with the Wedge Brook Trail, down which I would return, to enter an extremely scenic stretch. Over the next 0.7mi I meandered through pretty woods, making frequent forays down to a much more energized, cascading Ausable River. The end of this stretch put me at the base of the misty veil of Beaver Meadows Falls. The waterfall shimmered in the sunlight, as it splashed its way down in a curtain of froth.









The next instant, my magic carpet was rudely pulled out from under me: the climb up to the Gothics-Armstrong col had begun. A ladder began the butt kicking process, helpfully boosting me up a slab of rock. The route paralleled the stream upstream of Beaver Meadow Falls for a while, alternating between good tread, tiresome roots, creek-bed style boulders, steeply angled rock slabs, ladders, stone steps, wooden steps fixed to rock slabs, and just general mayhem. The ickiest bits for me, at least initially, were the slanted rock slabs: these were frequently wet and slimy looking; however, I began to realize that despite appearances the grip my boots found on the (Anorthosite) rock was great. For a while I stayed wary of them, seeking out any veggie belay available, but I was soon able to relax somewhat and just walk up them.





As I made my way up I played leapfrog with a bunch of youngsters, that I learned later were part of the Boston College cross-country team. They would scamper past me, but I would catch up to them in my steadily plodding way as they stopped for the occasional snack break or bout of revelry. Just before the Gothics col the gradient eased up and I came upon this huge boulder, balanced acrobatically on another one. This was a glacial 'erratic', and had been artfully placed there for our amusement by some bygone ice age. The Boston College team was busy scrambling all over it!



A little bit further, and a few more scramble drills later, I crested a ridge and got my first sight of Gothics Mountain, pockmarked with exposed rock slides. An eyebrow path clinging to the far side of the ridge, festooned with yet more ladders and steeply down-sloping rock slabs, took me to Gothics col. I hung a left here, and in a final half mile push was soon standing on the summit of Gothics, 6.1 long miles from my car.



Wow, what a view! A sea of peaks eclipsed the horizon in every direction: here a Mount Marcy, there an Algonquin Peak, a Mount Colden betwixt them and a Whiteface Mountain standing aloof in the far distance. I got drunk on the mountain brew, staggering from one jaw dropping perch to the next, then wiped the froth from my mouth and retraced my steps to Gothics col. Time for more Great Range fun.








GaliWalker on Gothics

From Gothics col I headed north along the Great Range to Armstrong Mountain. The steep terrain and scrambling continued, but by now I was hitting my stride. I hummed along, a song in my heart. In a mile I was on my second great summit of the day. In one unique way the view from Armstrong was even better than Gothics: yes, it didn't offer a 360° vista, but the ridiculously steep looking Gothics bulking huge in front of me was spectacular. I went up and down that?





For a while I joined forces with a lovely couple from Philadelphia, who were hiking the same route as me. The ensuing exchange of pleasantries took our minds off the up and down scrambles. One near vertical series of skinny ledges, down which we had to down-climb, culminating in the longest ladder on the hike, had me laughing at the ridiculousness of it all. The most rugged official trails - as opposed to off-trail routes - I'd ever been on previously were in New Hampshire; I think this was worse. 




The 'trail'...at the base of the cliff is a ladder



My final summit of the day was Upper Wolfjaw. The view from this was filtered and disappointing. I took this opportunity to decompress and have lunch. The interesting development that took place here was that we were joined on the summit by a young lady, who wanted me to take her photo doing a handstand! Evidently, she was a yoga instructor and her goal was to document herself doing a handstand on all 46 of the High Peaks. She was about halfway done.



I had initially toyed with tucking in Lower Wolfjaw as well, but I decided to skip it so as to conserve my strength for the coming days. As we hit the Wedge Brook Trail, I said goodbye to my fellow Pennsylvanians and dropped down, off the Great Range. A bit of steepness, but then a more normal descent feathered me back down to the West River Trail, to close my loop.

Autopilot walking had me back at the car 10.5hrs after starting, tired but grinning from ear to ear.

Hiking/photography stats: 13.7mi, 4650ft gain, 10.5hrs, numerous interesting people met

Part IV: Indian Head, Chapel Pond, Copperas Pond and departure

Sep 19: Indian Head, Chapel Pond, Copperas Pond

My final full day of hiking, and I was suffering slightly. The previous two days of steep ups and downs had left me the proud owner of chaffing burns on the front of both ankles, where the boot uppers had been given a thorough workout. This was the first time I'd ever had any issues in these spots, a testament to how unrelentingly rough and steep the travel had been. I was glad that I had scheduled a relatively easy set of hikes for this day.


(iPhone photo, taken after my return to Pittsburgh)

Indian Head and Fish Hawk Cliffs

Now that I live in Pittsburgh I seldom get to see alpine lakes. Hence, seeing the view of the Ausable Lakes from Indian Head had made the viewpoint one of my must-visit destinations. I had planned a loop hike, that would have me approach Indian Head via the Ausable River and return via Gill Brook.

I began my hike from the Ausable Club trailhead, the same one I'd used for my Great Range hike. The first 3.4mi, along the West River Trail, was familiar from my previous hike, so I was planning to zip along it. I was initially successful in this, but the Ausable River was such a pretty presence from the 2.7-3.4mi section that I just had to stop and enjoy it for a while.



From the 3.4mi mark, at the base of Beaver Meadows Falls, I continued on the West River Trail, all the way till the dam across Lower Ausable Lake. The sparkling blue waters of the lake, clear blue skies, the beginning of fall colors made for an extremely picturesque setting.







I crossed over to the other side of the Ausable River. The grade had been flat to moderately angled to this point. Now, it steepened, but nothing like the previous days, so it was smooth sailing all the way to the rocky outcrop of Indian Head. Vertical cliffs and steep slopes, glowing in the morning sun, marched down to the deep blue waters of Lower Ausable Lake. Upper Ausable Lake glinted silver, at the far end of its sister. I had the whole place to myself, so I took my time soaking it all in.







From Indian Head I dropped steeply for a short spell and then climbed back up to the nearby vista of Fish Hawk Cliffs. Another smashing spot!









From Fish Hawk Cliffs, I continued along the trail to drop down to Gill Brook. I took a left here, heading back towards the car. Gill Brook ended up being far prettier than I'd anticipated. Scenic cascades and waterfalls splashed their way down beside me. There was one secluded spot in particular, which I called the "waterfall room", that was simply amazing! Unfortunately, this late in the season Gill Brook was flowing weakly, otherwise that spot would have been supremely special.




Gill Brook waterfall room

Approximate hiking/photography stats: 10.5mi, 1800ft gain, 8hrs

Chapel Pond

With my main hike for the day over and done with, I drove over to nearby Chapel Pond, right beside the road. Some amazing cliffs there!



Copperas Pond

In my research I had selected Copperas Pond as a possible site from which to take sunset photos of Whiteface Mountain. I got to the trailhead at 5:50pm, and made short work of the surprisingly steep and rocky 0.5mi trail to the lake. I had to walk around the lake to its southern shores before I got the view I'd wanted, but get it I did.





Stats: 1.5mi, 300ft gain, 1.25hrs

Sep 20: Misty sendoff at Whiteface Mountain

I was hoping to tuck in one set of parting shots from the Adirondacks before I headed back to Pittsburgh. With this in mind I initially headed to Connery Pond, but opaque fog thwarted that plan. I decided that I might as well make one more visit to Whiteface Mountain's summit, via the road. Swirling mist made for quite different conditions from my previous visit.