peak_bgr
New member
A trip from HELL. Yes I said it. Actually it was one of the nicest and worst all in the same day.
We started from Hoffman Road in Schroon Lake and hiked to the height of land on the Big Pond Trail. The height of land is the South end of the ridge for Hoffman. We hiked up through open woods to the top of the first bump where we found a well trodded foot trail, which lead us right to the summit of Hoffman. The woods are so open over the first 2 miles you'll hardly believe the horror stories people talk about. The views from the open grass and fern covered feilds are spectacular. If you loose the herd path just head to the Eastern side of the ridge and you'll pick it up again. Keep to the Eastern side and the woods are the most open here. If you find yourself in the thicker stuff you're to far to the West. It got only a little close the last 3/4 of a mile, but the herd path shot us right through it without a scratch. The summit had a couple small views to the W and NW. A cairn marked the summit.
Blue Ridge is now only 1.2 miles away to the N. It took us from 1:15pm to 4pm to summit Blue Ridge. Yes it was very thick, almost every step of the way. But our problem occured at .25 miles from the summit. We got caght in a torrential down pour and severe thunder storm. I mean worse than last years Basin trip-you know the one. It got so socked in with cloud that Brians GPS quit and we didn't know what side of the mountain we were on. The GPS kind of starte working but pointed us back in the direction of Hoffman .2 miles. We starting following it and soon realized we were descending to steeply. So, we broke out the map. It had been ruined by the rain and the colors had run to the point that we couldn't read it. Luckily we had a backup, and used it to find the summit. But to do that we had to wait out the storm and wait for the clouds to clear so we could get an idea where we were. We avoided breaking out the compass. We left the top without a break and thought about our descent route. We chose to descend to the Nw between BR and Nw BR to avoid the sharp branches that partially blinded me and Brian. We both got a stick in the eye between the peaks. See Brian really is human, he even got we and tore his shirt in two spots. Me I ripped my camera case that I carry on my side. Ripped the entire cuff off the leg of my pants and ripped a section from my but to my knee on my pants as well. BR has now cost us about $40 in clothing a two eyes.
As for the descent it wasn't real scratchy but it was very thick. The kind of greens where you step down but you don't know where the bottom is. It was like that and very steep for a good shot. Then it opened up occassionally then got little scratchy. We finnally hit the brook after only 45 minutes of descending from BR. The brook was flowing very fast and was to deep to walk in. It was a beautiful stream with many waterfalls, pools and flumes, but the sides we very steep so we had to walk side hill in boots that we squishing from saturation. The side hill we chose was the E side. It was covered in boulders that were over grown with moss and vegitation. You want to talk about postholing-as bad if not worse than Stewart. Occassional I would step on a boulder the size of basketball to the sixe of a coffee table and it would begin to slide down the imbankment. I still can't believe that two half blind guys didn't really get hurt here.
We again broke out the now soaked but readable map, which soon became a two part series to see when this steep side would end. We had about 1/2 mile left. We also came upon what looked to be an old road marked on the map, so we aimed for that. We came to the road and the powerline that ran E to W that we originally wanted to hit. We chose to follow the road out to the main road (Blue Ridge Road). We decided against the powerline, because Brian's GPS was still down and without it or the original map we weren't sure of our exit point from the Powerline. This well maintained dirt road lead us out to the main road. it ended up being a private road maintained by the Hoffman Mountain Fish and Game Club. Thank you to them for the use of their road, and we hope we didn't offend anyone by using it. We were unaware of the ownership until we hit the main road where there was a sign marking the owners.
Anyhow, we were about 2-3 miles from our car now, and we had to walk this road with ripped up clothing, dripping wet with only one eye fully open. I can only imagine what we looked like to the passers by. The intersting part was walking by the bufflao farm with Sunny and no leash on me to keep her at bay if she decided to pay a visit. She didn't even flinch-either she was to tired or she didn't see them. Because I know for sure you could smell them. At this point she was even limping, but I got to hand it to her, she kicked ass. So that was our trip, not to bad right? 11 hours and about 13 miles on a typical hike that should have been about 9 miles and 8 hours.
I recommend Hoffman in a heart beat but if you combine the two plan for a hard day.
We started from Hoffman Road in Schroon Lake and hiked to the height of land on the Big Pond Trail. The height of land is the South end of the ridge for Hoffman. We hiked up through open woods to the top of the first bump where we found a well trodded foot trail, which lead us right to the summit of Hoffman. The woods are so open over the first 2 miles you'll hardly believe the horror stories people talk about. The views from the open grass and fern covered feilds are spectacular. If you loose the herd path just head to the Eastern side of the ridge and you'll pick it up again. Keep to the Eastern side and the woods are the most open here. If you find yourself in the thicker stuff you're to far to the West. It got only a little close the last 3/4 of a mile, but the herd path shot us right through it without a scratch. The summit had a couple small views to the W and NW. A cairn marked the summit.
Blue Ridge is now only 1.2 miles away to the N. It took us from 1:15pm to 4pm to summit Blue Ridge. Yes it was very thick, almost every step of the way. But our problem occured at .25 miles from the summit. We got caght in a torrential down pour and severe thunder storm. I mean worse than last years Basin trip-you know the one. It got so socked in with cloud that Brians GPS quit and we didn't know what side of the mountain we were on. The GPS kind of starte working but pointed us back in the direction of Hoffman .2 miles. We starting following it and soon realized we were descending to steeply. So, we broke out the map. It had been ruined by the rain and the colors had run to the point that we couldn't read it. Luckily we had a backup, and used it to find the summit. But to do that we had to wait out the storm and wait for the clouds to clear so we could get an idea where we were. We avoided breaking out the compass. We left the top without a break and thought about our descent route. We chose to descend to the Nw between BR and Nw BR to avoid the sharp branches that partially blinded me and Brian. We both got a stick in the eye between the peaks. See Brian really is human, he even got we and tore his shirt in two spots. Me I ripped my camera case that I carry on my side. Ripped the entire cuff off the leg of my pants and ripped a section from my but to my knee on my pants as well. BR has now cost us about $40 in clothing a two eyes.
As for the descent it wasn't real scratchy but it was very thick. The kind of greens where you step down but you don't know where the bottom is. It was like that and very steep for a good shot. Then it opened up occassionally then got little scratchy. We finnally hit the brook after only 45 minutes of descending from BR. The brook was flowing very fast and was to deep to walk in. It was a beautiful stream with many waterfalls, pools and flumes, but the sides we very steep so we had to walk side hill in boots that we squishing from saturation. The side hill we chose was the E side. It was covered in boulders that were over grown with moss and vegitation. You want to talk about postholing-as bad if not worse than Stewart. Occassional I would step on a boulder the size of basketball to the sixe of a coffee table and it would begin to slide down the imbankment. I still can't believe that two half blind guys didn't really get hurt here.
We again broke out the now soaked but readable map, which soon became a two part series to see when this steep side would end. We had about 1/2 mile left. We also came upon what looked to be an old road marked on the map, so we aimed for that. We came to the road and the powerline that ran E to W that we originally wanted to hit. We chose to follow the road out to the main road (Blue Ridge Road). We decided against the powerline, because Brian's GPS was still down and without it or the original map we weren't sure of our exit point from the Powerline. This well maintained dirt road lead us out to the main road. it ended up being a private road maintained by the Hoffman Mountain Fish and Game Club. Thank you to them for the use of their road, and we hope we didn't offend anyone by using it. We were unaware of the ownership until we hit the main road where there was a sign marking the owners.
Anyhow, we were about 2-3 miles from our car now, and we had to walk this road with ripped up clothing, dripping wet with only one eye fully open. I can only imagine what we looked like to the passers by. The intersting part was walking by the bufflao farm with Sunny and no leash on me to keep her at bay if she decided to pay a visit. She didn't even flinch-either she was to tired or she didn't see them. Because I know for sure you could smell them. At this point she was even limping, but I got to hand it to her, she kicked ass. So that was our trip, not to bad right? 11 hours and about 13 miles on a typical hike that should have been about 9 miles and 8 hours.
I recommend Hoffman in a heart beat but if you combine the two plan for a hard day.
