lumberzac
New member
What is an armchair hike you ask? Its one of those hikes that you think up in your mind when you’re sitting at home with nothing to do, but sit and wish you were out hiking. Most of the time these hikes are ones that push the edge or beyond one’s abilities and that generally never materialize beyond the back of one’s mind.
Pictures
The plan for this trip was to hike three butt kicking day. The trek was to bring us over 14 of New York’s highest peaks. We were to hike over 30 grueling miles with almost 16,000’ of elevation gain and over 14,000’ loss. That was the plan, now here is what happened.
Thursday:
Once again I got held up at work and ended up running late and got to South Meadows Campground just as it was getting dark. Everyone else had already arrived and had their tents set up for the night. After setting up my tent we discussed our plans for the following day and went to bed early, as we wanted to get an early start. During the night we were serenaded with the not so distant calls of coyotes.
Friday: Let the hike begin
We woke up around 5, Friday morning, so we could get an early start. After packing up camp and eating breakfast we drove to Adirondack Loj to spot a car and then made the half hour drive to the Rooster Comb Trailhead in Keene Valley. The sky was overcast and temperatures were cool, it felt like excellent hiking weather. I signed us in at the trailhead, filled out our camping permit and we made our way into the High Peaks Wilderness. As soon as we started hiking up the first hill I didn’t feel right. I was gasping for air and couldn’t get my body to respond; I felt like a car stuck in first gear with the gas peddle to the floor. This feeling persisted until we got about halfway up Lower Wolfjaw.
The lower section of the trail was through an open forest that contained a mix of pines and hardwoods. The trail quickly let us know that the hike was going to be mostly up hill. We finally reached the junction with the spur trail to the summit of Roostercomb. We dropped our packs and hiked the half-mile to the top where we were able to get views (the only ones we would get all day) of the surrounding mountains from the cliffs on the summit. When we looked up the Great Range we could see that the summit of Lower Wolfjaw already in the clouds. After taking some pictures we made our way back down to the Range Trail and put our packs back on.
The next bump (actually 2 bumps with the false summit) was Hedgehog Mountain. Although the summit wasn’t socked in, there were no views to be had from Hedgehog due to the thick forest there. We descended off of Hedgehog and soon began the long up hill to Lower Wolfjaw, which would be our first high peak of the day. The climb seemed never ending and when the trail finally did level off it was only for a very short stretch and was followed by an even steeper and longer climb. It was somewhere in this section I had to remind everyone and myself that this trail is evil because every mountain along it has at least one false summit. Between the false summit and the actual summit of Upper Wolfjaw, we came to the bottom of the first rock scramble of the day. This section was only foreshadowing what was still awaiting us along the trail. Once we made it to the summit the only views to be had were that of the inside of a cloud. We were now mileage-wise at about the half way point of the days hike, but we still had 5 more peaks planned for the day and a whole lot more elevation to climb. After a brief break we started our descent into Wolfjaw Notch. After about a half mile of hiking and about 800’ of descending, we reached Wolfjaw Notch, where we at some lunch.
The problem with loosing all of that elevation was that we had to regain all of it and then some to the summit of Upper Wolfjaw. I really enjoyed this section of trail it was full of short rock scrambles that required some thought to where one places their feet and hands. Hiking through this section of trail one begins to understand what an Adirondack Great Range Traverse is all about. When we reached the false summit, the rain made its first appearance of the day. At first it was an on and off mist, but would become a full rain latter on in the day, Cindy had arrived. ENS, GM, and myself pushed on towards the true summit, while the others rested for a few more minutes. After climbing about 200 more feet of elevation we reached the summit rock and rested. Soon the others joined us. It was at this point that I began having doubts that we would make it to the Sno Bird Campsite as it was already after 2pm.
The next portion of the hike didn’t seem that bad even though the trail climbed over 500’ in about .4 miles. I could tell everyone enjoyed the 30’ ladder up one of the ledges on Armstrong. We all made pretty short work of Armstrong and we met up on the summit ledge. Normally this offers great views of Gothics, but not this day with the clouds and rain. During our short break on the summit, we made the decision to only hike over Gothics and not Saddleback and Basin. Instead we would hike down the Orr Bed Brook Trail and down to the Orr Bed Lean-to and finish the range on Saturday.
The hike up to the summit of Gothics was the first peak of the day we didn’t have a false summit, that would come after the summit. It was also the first summit where we broke treeline as the summit of Gothics is just about at that level.
By far the most interesting part of the hike was the descent off of Gothics. This proved to be treacherous in the wet conditions as about 400’ of the decent was on bare rock slab. The two sections with cables were helpful, but the going was extremely slow. It was about halfway down the first slab where ENS gave us all a scare when he slipped and must have slide down at least 30’. Every time we would reach the bottom of one slab another would be around the next turn. Finally we reached the col between Gothics and Saddleback. We still had another 1.8 miles to go form here along more steep trail that offered up more rock slabs, broken ladders, and mud.
When I approached the lean-to I found it occupied, but too my surprise it was my cousin Sherpaman and his dog Tahawus, AKA The Goat. We settled in the lean-to, cooked food and went to sleep as the rain poured down.
10.3 miles hiked
5821’ gain
4255’ loss
Pictures
The plan for this trip was to hike three butt kicking day. The trek was to bring us over 14 of New York’s highest peaks. We were to hike over 30 grueling miles with almost 16,000’ of elevation gain and over 14,000’ loss. That was the plan, now here is what happened.
Thursday:
Once again I got held up at work and ended up running late and got to South Meadows Campground just as it was getting dark. Everyone else had already arrived and had their tents set up for the night. After setting up my tent we discussed our plans for the following day and went to bed early, as we wanted to get an early start. During the night we were serenaded with the not so distant calls of coyotes.
Friday: Let the hike begin
We woke up around 5, Friday morning, so we could get an early start. After packing up camp and eating breakfast we drove to Adirondack Loj to spot a car and then made the half hour drive to the Rooster Comb Trailhead in Keene Valley. The sky was overcast and temperatures were cool, it felt like excellent hiking weather. I signed us in at the trailhead, filled out our camping permit and we made our way into the High Peaks Wilderness. As soon as we started hiking up the first hill I didn’t feel right. I was gasping for air and couldn’t get my body to respond; I felt like a car stuck in first gear with the gas peddle to the floor. This feeling persisted until we got about halfway up Lower Wolfjaw.
The lower section of the trail was through an open forest that contained a mix of pines and hardwoods. The trail quickly let us know that the hike was going to be mostly up hill. We finally reached the junction with the spur trail to the summit of Roostercomb. We dropped our packs and hiked the half-mile to the top where we were able to get views (the only ones we would get all day) of the surrounding mountains from the cliffs on the summit. When we looked up the Great Range we could see that the summit of Lower Wolfjaw already in the clouds. After taking some pictures we made our way back down to the Range Trail and put our packs back on.
The next bump (actually 2 bumps with the false summit) was Hedgehog Mountain. Although the summit wasn’t socked in, there were no views to be had from Hedgehog due to the thick forest there. We descended off of Hedgehog and soon began the long up hill to Lower Wolfjaw, which would be our first high peak of the day. The climb seemed never ending and when the trail finally did level off it was only for a very short stretch and was followed by an even steeper and longer climb. It was somewhere in this section I had to remind everyone and myself that this trail is evil because every mountain along it has at least one false summit. Between the false summit and the actual summit of Upper Wolfjaw, we came to the bottom of the first rock scramble of the day. This section was only foreshadowing what was still awaiting us along the trail. Once we made it to the summit the only views to be had were that of the inside of a cloud. We were now mileage-wise at about the half way point of the days hike, but we still had 5 more peaks planned for the day and a whole lot more elevation to climb. After a brief break we started our descent into Wolfjaw Notch. After about a half mile of hiking and about 800’ of descending, we reached Wolfjaw Notch, where we at some lunch.
The problem with loosing all of that elevation was that we had to regain all of it and then some to the summit of Upper Wolfjaw. I really enjoyed this section of trail it was full of short rock scrambles that required some thought to where one places their feet and hands. Hiking through this section of trail one begins to understand what an Adirondack Great Range Traverse is all about. When we reached the false summit, the rain made its first appearance of the day. At first it was an on and off mist, but would become a full rain latter on in the day, Cindy had arrived. ENS, GM, and myself pushed on towards the true summit, while the others rested for a few more minutes. After climbing about 200 more feet of elevation we reached the summit rock and rested. Soon the others joined us. It was at this point that I began having doubts that we would make it to the Sno Bird Campsite as it was already after 2pm.
The next portion of the hike didn’t seem that bad even though the trail climbed over 500’ in about .4 miles. I could tell everyone enjoyed the 30’ ladder up one of the ledges on Armstrong. We all made pretty short work of Armstrong and we met up on the summit ledge. Normally this offers great views of Gothics, but not this day with the clouds and rain. During our short break on the summit, we made the decision to only hike over Gothics and not Saddleback and Basin. Instead we would hike down the Orr Bed Brook Trail and down to the Orr Bed Lean-to and finish the range on Saturday.
The hike up to the summit of Gothics was the first peak of the day we didn’t have a false summit, that would come after the summit. It was also the first summit where we broke treeline as the summit of Gothics is just about at that level.
By far the most interesting part of the hike was the descent off of Gothics. This proved to be treacherous in the wet conditions as about 400’ of the decent was on bare rock slab. The two sections with cables were helpful, but the going was extremely slow. It was about halfway down the first slab where ENS gave us all a scare when he slipped and must have slide down at least 30’. Every time we would reach the bottom of one slab another would be around the next turn. Finally we reached the col between Gothics and Saddleback. We still had another 1.8 miles to go form here along more steep trail that offered up more rock slabs, broken ladders, and mud.
When I approached the lean-to I found it occupied, but too my surprise it was my cousin Sherpaman and his dog Tahawus, AKA The Goat. We settled in the lean-to, cooked food and went to sleep as the rain poured down.
10.3 miles hiked
5821’ gain
4255’ loss
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