cliff and redfield

[Adk_dib]

My guide book says to do cliff from upper works/Mt. adams lot, but to do redfield from LOJ? looks like the LOJ is a little shorter. what is the best way to do both in a day trip?

 

[Doc McPeak]

How old is your guidebook!? Once upon a time you would have done Cliff up the old Twin Brook trail starting at the Adams lot ... but I think that trail was closed some 20-30 years ago.

Standard route for both is via the UW Calamity Trail lot (the last one) and truck up to the Uphill Lean-to. For some reason people keep re-building the "bad" starting point for Cliff on the trail in front of the lean-to. Don't take this! Start on the Redfield trail (which is the cairn you come to a few hundred feet past the double cairns for Cliff in front of the large overturned root system). You go about 5-10 minutes up the Redfield trail and will come upon a small cairn with a trail heading right. This takes you past the horrible mud pits of the "bad" start and sends you to Cliff. The Redfield trail is in good shape, and the Cliff trail is in better shape than it has been for several years.

A sign will be going up soon to direct hikers up to the Redfield path to avoid this decimated section.

As for Loj or UW. People do the route either way. It's a long haul any way you slice it. But great views and the Uphill Brook is a wonderful brook to hike along. Have fun up there.

EDIT: Redfield cairn may only be 100' or so? But it's the second one from the Lake Colden direction.

 

[Pig Pen]

If I've said it once, I've said it a thousand times! Sure, it's a little shorter to do Cliff and/or Redfield from Upper Works. But when you do it from the Loj you get a nice (24/7, heated in winter) porcelain seat for your pre-hike business and complimentary paper. At Upper Works you get nothing but slivers.

This topic comes up every year, and every year I have to remind people of what is really important.

 

[Mike P.]

I did Redfield a couple of years ago along with Skylight & Marcy from the Loj. Redfield is doable, I went via Lake Arnold which gained & then lost a bunch of elevation but it seemed shorter. Went over March because I knew the trail down was a highway.

I'd think doing Redfield, then Cliff & then back passed Lake Arnold would be a grunt so I'd look at going around past Flowed Lands. Probably even better if you spotted a car on one side & then started at the other side. (Depending on if a porcelain seat is better pre-hike or post hike might determine your direction - better to spot the car the night before)