WalksWithBlackflies
New member
Is there a herd path to Allen from the Marcy Trail between Elk Lake and Panther Gorge? If not, has anyone attempted the bushwhack?
Allen from Marcy Trail
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Bhoody
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sand brook route
I'll add a little to Alpine's mention of the Sand Brook route. My wife's uncle did the Sand Brook route back in the 1980's - once in the winter and once in the summer. The winter was easy (I mean easy in relative terms) and took about 12 hours. The summer was a nightmare of blowdown and took something like 21 hours. I believe he has not hiked in the summer since....
I'll add a little to Alpine's mention of the Sand Brook route. My wife's uncle did the Sand Brook route back in the 1980's - once in the winter and once in the summer. The winter was easy (I mean easy in relative terms) and took about 12 hours. The summer was a nightmare of blowdown and took something like 21 hours. I believe he has not hiked in the summer since....
I've looked at the Sand Brook route for over 20 years and have always found a reason for avoiding it. The terrain difficulty has been legendary for years.
doable but difficult
The Sand Brook route crosses private land and for that reason alone should be avoided. However, you can make a legal approach if you continue up the Marcy trail to state land then roughly contour across (one deep gully at Marcy Brook) then up to the Allen/McDonnell col. Mark L and I did this route in September of '00 and found it to be exhilerating (i.e., extreme). It took us 5 hours to make the 2 miles to the summit, then after a long summit break we made the return trip in the same time of 5 hours. I'll preface by saying we weren't trying to set any speed records that day, as this was my first serious hike after a knee injury earlier in the summer, but still our time was slow - about 18 hours round trip (5:30am-11:30pm as I recall). The good news is we met two great new hiking buddies on the summit of Allen and my knees didn't act up.
The Sand Brook route crosses private land and for that reason alone should be avoided. However, you can make a legal approach if you continue up the Marcy trail to state land then roughly contour across (one deep gully at Marcy Brook) then up to the Allen/McDonnell col. Mark L and I did this route in September of '00 and found it to be exhilerating (i.e., extreme). It took us 5 hours to make the 2 miles to the summit, then after a long summit break we made the return trip in the same time of 5 hours. I'll preface by saying we weren't trying to set any speed records that day, as this was my first serious hike after a knee injury earlier in the summer, but still our time was slow - about 18 hours round trip (5:30am-11:30pm as I recall). The good news is we met two great new hiking buddies on the summit of Allen and my knees didn't act up.
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