Adventurous
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7/5 - backpacked in to Bradley Pond lean-to. The blue trail is no longer dry and easy to navigate. There was significant water and mud to navigate due to the rain on the 4th. I had a hard time believing that we were on a maintained trail it was so bad. Also, I was under the impression that this was a flat trail...not the case. You're gradually/moderately ascending for most of the 4.8 miles and 2.5 hours to the lean-to. We were pleasantly surprised to find the lean-to empty.
7/6 - I've read trips reports that referred to the Santanoni's as Hell...I now know why they said that. The sky was a little cloudy when we started and it seemed to be clearing up. The herd path is very easy to find - there is a large boulder on the left side of the trail at a clearing before you reach the lean-to. There is an obvious herd path behind the boulder that leads towards water. The herd path up to times square is easy to follow. You'll pass a large campsite at the base of some cliffs - this is about 30 minutes from the blue trail. It's a great spot to camp if the lean-to is full. There's plenty of room for a large group and there's already a fire pit set up. Continuing past the campsite, the trail soon reaches Panther Brook. You'll cross over the brook several times before having to hike the remainder of the way in the brook. Shortly before times square, the dark clouds rolled in and the rain started coming down. Times Square is not as straight forward as I thought. For those that haven't hiked it, at the end of the Panther Brook herd path, you'll reach an area that has quite a few rocks, herd paths going in all 4 directions and some letters carved in the trees. The start of the herd path to Panther begins at this spot...there is a P carved in a tree and the path goes off to the right. I didn't take the trail to the left so I don't know where it goes. I took the path straight ahead. It turns out that there are several large boulders with herd paths behind them. The correct one is in a large clearing which took us a while to find because of the multitude of herd paths up there...the boulder also has a small cairn next to it. The paths behind the other boulders don't lead anywhere and they don't have cairns. So, our intent was to hike Couchie first. It was raining really hard so we missed the path and ended up hiking Santanoni first. The path to Santanoni is behind the boulder heading left and Couchie heads to the right but you don't have to go behind the boulder to get to it. We didn't have any problem following the Santanoni trail. It was wet and muddy but still better than the blue trail. After you cross the ridge, you will begin ascending. We left the poles at the start of the steep rocky ascent. We ascended 3 false summits before reaching the real one with the Santanoni sign. This was #44 in the ADK's and #59 in the Northeast for me. It was no longer raining and we had fairly good views. We hiked back to times square where we easily found the herd path to couchie. The path to Couchie is not as bad as I was expecting. It is long, somewhat muddy (no boot sucking mud) and the swamp is easy to navigate by staying on the right side. There is a carved sign and yellow disc once you reach the summit. There is a short scramble up steep rocks before you reach it. ADK #45 and Northeast #60 for me. Dark clouds were rolling in once again. We were 25 minutes from times square when all hell broke loose. We found a sheltered area and crouched down while the thunder boomed, lightning cracked and the pea-sized sleet came down. It looked like a winter wonderland after it was over. We headed back to times square and waited until it passed before attempting the short hike up Panther. We left the poles at the start of the herd path and started our ascent. The only difficult part of this path is a large muddy area. There is a path to the left of this mud pit which I did not see. I tried crossing it on the logs that were there and ended up slipping into the mud pit. It's deep - up to my knees. The remainder of the ascent was uneventful. There is no sign on the summit, only a small yellow disc with Panther written on it. This was anticlimactic for my 46th peak in the ADK's. My camera died on Couchie, I was covered in mud, soaked, cut up, exhausted, etc. We all hugged and said let's GTFO before the next storm comes. The trip back down Panther Brook took us approximately 3 hours because of all the rain. The brook was really high and running fast. Better to take it slow than end up injured. The next storm rolled in right after we passed the campsite at the base of the cliffs...just in time to leave us soaked and cold before getting back to the lean-to. We expected the hike to take around 10 hours - it took us 12 because of the weather problems. We changed, cooked, and crawled into the sleeping bags to warm up.
7/7 - The blue trail was even worse than it was on 7/5. It looked more like a pond than it did a trail. It took us 3 hours to hike out because of the poor trail conditions.
7/6 - I've read trips reports that referred to the Santanoni's as Hell...I now know why they said that. The sky was a little cloudy when we started and it seemed to be clearing up. The herd path is very easy to find - there is a large boulder on the left side of the trail at a clearing before you reach the lean-to. There is an obvious herd path behind the boulder that leads towards water. The herd path up to times square is easy to follow. You'll pass a large campsite at the base of some cliffs - this is about 30 minutes from the blue trail. It's a great spot to camp if the lean-to is full. There's plenty of room for a large group and there's already a fire pit set up. Continuing past the campsite, the trail soon reaches Panther Brook. You'll cross over the brook several times before having to hike the remainder of the way in the brook. Shortly before times square, the dark clouds rolled in and the rain started coming down. Times Square is not as straight forward as I thought. For those that haven't hiked it, at the end of the Panther Brook herd path, you'll reach an area that has quite a few rocks, herd paths going in all 4 directions and some letters carved in the trees. The start of the herd path to Panther begins at this spot...there is a P carved in a tree and the path goes off to the right. I didn't take the trail to the left so I don't know where it goes. I took the path straight ahead. It turns out that there are several large boulders with herd paths behind them. The correct one is in a large clearing which took us a while to find because of the multitude of herd paths up there...the boulder also has a small cairn next to it. The paths behind the other boulders don't lead anywhere and they don't have cairns. So, our intent was to hike Couchie first. It was raining really hard so we missed the path and ended up hiking Santanoni first. The path to Santanoni is behind the boulder heading left and Couchie heads to the right but you don't have to go behind the boulder to get to it. We didn't have any problem following the Santanoni trail. It was wet and muddy but still better than the blue trail. After you cross the ridge, you will begin ascending. We left the poles at the start of the steep rocky ascent. We ascended 3 false summits before reaching the real one with the Santanoni sign. This was #44 in the ADK's and #59 in the Northeast for me. It was no longer raining and we had fairly good views. We hiked back to times square where we easily found the herd path to couchie. The path to Couchie is not as bad as I was expecting. It is long, somewhat muddy (no boot sucking mud) and the swamp is easy to navigate by staying on the right side. There is a carved sign and yellow disc once you reach the summit. There is a short scramble up steep rocks before you reach it. ADK #45 and Northeast #60 for me. Dark clouds were rolling in once again. We were 25 minutes from times square when all hell broke loose. We found a sheltered area and crouched down while the thunder boomed, lightning cracked and the pea-sized sleet came down. It looked like a winter wonderland after it was over. We headed back to times square and waited until it passed before attempting the short hike up Panther. We left the poles at the start of the herd path and started our ascent. The only difficult part of this path is a large muddy area. There is a path to the left of this mud pit which I did not see. I tried crossing it on the logs that were there and ended up slipping into the mud pit. It's deep - up to my knees. The remainder of the ascent was uneventful. There is no sign on the summit, only a small yellow disc with Panther written on it. This was anticlimactic for my 46th peak in the ADK's. My camera died on Couchie, I was covered in mud, soaked, cut up, exhausted, etc. We all hugged and said let's GTFO before the next storm comes. The trip back down Panther Brook took us approximately 3 hours because of all the rain. The brook was really high and running fast. Better to take it slow than end up injured. The next storm rolled in right after we passed the campsite at the base of the cliffs...just in time to leave us soaked and cold before getting back to the lean-to. We expected the hike to take around 10 hours - it took us 12 because of the weather problems. We changed, cooked, and crawled into the sleeping bags to warm up.
7/7 - The blue trail was even worse than it was on 7/5. It looked more like a pond than it did a trail. It took us 3 hours to hike out because of the poor trail conditions.
