rhihn
New member
Cliff and Redfield jinxed us! We tried twice. The first time we made it as far as Flowed Lands and had to turn back due to my illness. The second time we made it as far as Exit 29 on the Northway and developed car trouble. The third time was a charm, but given our schedules we couldn’t do an overnight, so we did Cliff only, and as a dayhike, this past Monday. We’re slow, so this meant getting up at 2:15. We were on the road shortly after 3:00, at Tahawus by 5:35, and on the trail by 5:50. The weather was picture perfect: 70’s, gentle breeze, mostly sunny. We could probably sleepwalk to Flowed Lands, so many times have we traveled that route, and yet we continue to enjoy it. There is something quite special about a morning hike that makes us want to linger. We spent some time at the dam, taking pictures and talking to a nice couple.
Arriving at Uphill Lean-to at about 10:00, we met a ranger and a nice group of Boy Scouts, who were discussing the bear problem (they had lost some of their food the previous night). The ranger mentioned what we already had heard, that canisters would be required next year. After more chatting, we started up the Redfield path shortly after 10:30, heeding Mavs00’s tip as the better way to approach Cliff. The path is easy to find. It is a few yards behind the lean-to on the main trail, and marked with a cairn. A short distance up the trail is a green flag that marks the beginning of a short trail off to the right (thanks to Mavs00 for posting this tip on his site!). Going this way rather than the traditional Cliff path cuts off a section of seriously deep mud. Nevertheless, this way was far from dry, given all of the rain, and we proceeded slowly and carefully across the rotten corduroy. Evidence of very recent trail maintenance ahead was apparent (see the 46er trail report by Pete Hickey for details). Eventually we reached two cairns on the right, and we exited at the second one (clearly marked with log across path) to avoid at least some of the blowdown (again, thanks Tim!).
From this point on it was Blowdown City. We of course knew that Cliff had a reputation for this since Floyd, and we confess to having been somewhat intimidated by some of the war stories we had heard. It WAS significant, but really more annoying than nightmarish. Though it is an overused word, we found the sight of all of the blowdown to be “awesome.” The path is generally easy to follow, and the flagging helps in places, but it is important to be continuously observant. If you do get off, you’ll know it rather quickly. Most of the debris in the trail was trimmed and had smooth edges. The biggest problem with it is that the logs were often at just the wrong height -- too high to climb over easily and too low to crawl under easily -- and when taken as a whole, it’s quite draining.
Shortly we made our way to the base of the cliffs. These ledges are steep, but we found nothing particularly frightening about them, as others have reported. Taken individually, we found little difference between these and similar ledges on countless other mountains. However, having just hiked from Tahawus and through the blowdown, energy maintenance was a definite factor for us. Most of the time there is only one way up and down the ledges, but a few places dictated (at least to us) that an alternate way down was preferable (left side vs. right side, not an entirely different route). At one point we noticed a cairn next to one of the ledges that seemed to serve no purpose, with seemingly no other way to go. Our hiking poles, so helpful in the mud, were becoming gradually useless here, and we abandoned them about two-thirds of the way up, even knowing that they might come in handy at the top.
Several have warned of the profusion of many herdpaths at the false summit, and to head to the left (Southwest). We thought the path at the top of the false summit to the left was quite obvious, and took it, but we did see flagging to the right as well, and some faint signs of other paths. The false summit was much longer than we had imagined it to be. A muddy section soon greeted us, followed by lots more blowdown. There was evidence of more clearing that had been done by the 46er trail crew up there. This section was slow for us, largely due to the “hmm…?” factor (which way to go) in a few places. The “belly crawl” section was much shorter than I had expected, only a few feet long. I took my pack off and was able to crawl on my hands and knees, even with the one nasty wooden “spike” sticking down that couldn’t be broken off.
Eventually the trail drops into a pleasant col, thankfully a relatively easy stretch, and then you climb up to the true summit. The summit area is small, with two nicely smoothed sitting logs, and the summit sign attached to a post (a piece of it is broken off). Views are really quite decent, given all of the negative views about this peak. Views appeared to include Colden, Skylight, Redfield, Algonquin, Iroquois, Marshall, and Whiteface in the distance (someone please correct me if these are not right!). We actually liked this summit area – remote, and somehow comforting, and spent some time here.
Oh, yes…we had to go back…another 8-9 miles back to the car. Just as we started down we were surprised to meet three people (a couple and their child) coming up who didn’t seem to be enjoying the experience at all. At the “belly crawl” I kept my pack on (I was too lazy to take it off) and paid for it by having to crawl on my belly. The biggest problem descending was that the log or ledge you negotiated easily going up was a real bear going down. Looking down the series of ledges, we often remarked “did we really climb all of that?!” We made our way back to Uphill lean-to without incident via the same route. Although we are usually slower descending, especially when ledges are involved, there was less head scratching, as each blowdown and ledge “event” started to look familiar, and we moved right along. We made it to the lean-to by 2:30, and spent some time getting water and relaxing. Back at the dam we stopped to chat with others (same couple from the morning, and the family on Cliff). We arrived at Tahawus by about 7:30 (I said we were slow!), having passed about 15 people on their way in, and wondering where they were going to camp. This dayhike was exhausting for us, and we swore at a variety of ledges, downed logs, and mud pits, but at some weird, decadent level, we also found it satisfying, even “enjoyable.” OK, not too enjoyable, but we’re glad we did it, and not just because it brought us one mountain closer to finishing the 46 (three more to go). There are other hikes with a reputation for being “duty” hikes that one would only do to finish the “required list.” Would we do Cliff again? At 58, we have other hiking fish to fry, so honestly, we probably won’t.
Arriving at Uphill Lean-to at about 10:00, we met a ranger and a nice group of Boy Scouts, who were discussing the bear problem (they had lost some of their food the previous night). The ranger mentioned what we already had heard, that canisters would be required next year. After more chatting, we started up the Redfield path shortly after 10:30, heeding Mavs00’s tip as the better way to approach Cliff. The path is easy to find. It is a few yards behind the lean-to on the main trail, and marked with a cairn. A short distance up the trail is a green flag that marks the beginning of a short trail off to the right (thanks to Mavs00 for posting this tip on his site!). Going this way rather than the traditional Cliff path cuts off a section of seriously deep mud. Nevertheless, this way was far from dry, given all of the rain, and we proceeded slowly and carefully across the rotten corduroy. Evidence of very recent trail maintenance ahead was apparent (see the 46er trail report by Pete Hickey for details). Eventually we reached two cairns on the right, and we exited at the second one (clearly marked with log across path) to avoid at least some of the blowdown (again, thanks Tim!).
From this point on it was Blowdown City. We of course knew that Cliff had a reputation for this since Floyd, and we confess to having been somewhat intimidated by some of the war stories we had heard. It WAS significant, but really more annoying than nightmarish. Though it is an overused word, we found the sight of all of the blowdown to be “awesome.” The path is generally easy to follow, and the flagging helps in places, but it is important to be continuously observant. If you do get off, you’ll know it rather quickly. Most of the debris in the trail was trimmed and had smooth edges. The biggest problem with it is that the logs were often at just the wrong height -- too high to climb over easily and too low to crawl under easily -- and when taken as a whole, it’s quite draining.
Shortly we made our way to the base of the cliffs. These ledges are steep, but we found nothing particularly frightening about them, as others have reported. Taken individually, we found little difference between these and similar ledges on countless other mountains. However, having just hiked from Tahawus and through the blowdown, energy maintenance was a definite factor for us. Most of the time there is only one way up and down the ledges, but a few places dictated (at least to us) that an alternate way down was preferable (left side vs. right side, not an entirely different route). At one point we noticed a cairn next to one of the ledges that seemed to serve no purpose, with seemingly no other way to go. Our hiking poles, so helpful in the mud, were becoming gradually useless here, and we abandoned them about two-thirds of the way up, even knowing that they might come in handy at the top.
Several have warned of the profusion of many herdpaths at the false summit, and to head to the left (Southwest). We thought the path at the top of the false summit to the left was quite obvious, and took it, but we did see flagging to the right as well, and some faint signs of other paths. The false summit was much longer than we had imagined it to be. A muddy section soon greeted us, followed by lots more blowdown. There was evidence of more clearing that had been done by the 46er trail crew up there. This section was slow for us, largely due to the “hmm…?” factor (which way to go) in a few places. The “belly crawl” section was much shorter than I had expected, only a few feet long. I took my pack off and was able to crawl on my hands and knees, even with the one nasty wooden “spike” sticking down that couldn’t be broken off.
Eventually the trail drops into a pleasant col, thankfully a relatively easy stretch, and then you climb up to the true summit. The summit area is small, with two nicely smoothed sitting logs, and the summit sign attached to a post (a piece of it is broken off). Views are really quite decent, given all of the negative views about this peak. Views appeared to include Colden, Skylight, Redfield, Algonquin, Iroquois, Marshall, and Whiteface in the distance (someone please correct me if these are not right!). We actually liked this summit area – remote, and somehow comforting, and spent some time here.
Oh, yes…we had to go back…another 8-9 miles back to the car. Just as we started down we were surprised to meet three people (a couple and their child) coming up who didn’t seem to be enjoying the experience at all. At the “belly crawl” I kept my pack on (I was too lazy to take it off) and paid for it by having to crawl on my belly. The biggest problem descending was that the log or ledge you negotiated easily going up was a real bear going down. Looking down the series of ledges, we often remarked “did we really climb all of that?!” We made our way back to Uphill lean-to without incident via the same route. Although we are usually slower descending, especially when ledges are involved, there was less head scratching, as each blowdown and ledge “event” started to look familiar, and we moved right along. We made it to the lean-to by 2:30, and spent some time getting water and relaxing. Back at the dam we stopped to chat with others (same couple from the morning, and the family on Cliff). We arrived at Tahawus by about 7:30 (I said we were slow!), having passed about 15 people on their way in, and wondering where they were going to camp. This dayhike was exhausting for us, and we swore at a variety of ledges, downed logs, and mud pits, but at some weird, decadent level, we also found it satisfying, even “enjoyable.” OK, not too enjoyable, but we’re glad we did it, and not just because it brought us one mountain closer to finishing the 46 (three more to go). There are other hikes with a reputation for being “duty” hikes that one would only do to finish the “required list.” Would we do Cliff again? At 58, we have other hiking fish to fry, so honestly, we probably won’t.
