Dix Range - 7/14/07

[mtnhiker]

Hiked the Dix Range from the Rt 73 side on Saturday. Found the parking turn off from Rt 73, it’s a small lot, will only hold 2-4 cars, but there’s plenty of on road parking as well. The herdpath to the Grace slide was generally easy to follow, lost it a few times, the longest was maybe 10-15 minutes. Arrived at the slide and started looking for the herdpath that runs to the right of the slide. I’m not sure that I ever found it, followed a very faint path for a bit, then it would be gone, I’d go for a bit and seem to be back on a path and then it was gone again. Got close, within 400 feet of the top of Grace, hit a section of impassable rock cliffs and turned around, retraced my steps down a bit and cut over to the slide. I didn’t find the slide to be bad, there were dry spots the entire way up. The views coming up the slide are spectacular and it was a great day with blue skies and clear views. Great views from the top of Grace, could see all the peaks I was going to today as well as Marcy in the Hough/Beckhorn col. The herdpath to Carson was easy to follow and an easy hike, I think it was about 40 minutes. Nice views of Macomb and south, as well as the Great Range, Dial/Nippletop Range and Beckhorn/Dix. Headed off to Macomb, another easy to follow herdpath, around 30 minutes and again fantastic views, lucky to be in the mountains on a “good view day”. Retraced my steps back to Carson to find the herdpath to Hough, had some trouble finding it, if you are at the Carson yellow circle marker, go on the trail towards Macomb, at the first junction (there is a cairn), take a right, it will take you out on some rocks and then left, this is the trail to Hough. Passed the campsite and then up Hough. Now, I had to get back to the Boquet River to get out to Rt 73. I could go back to Carson and then Grace, but I did not want to go down the Grace slide and I had not been able to find the herdpath paralleling the slides. I decided to attempt a bushwack down Hough that I had found on alavigne.net, he had done it in the winter so I wasn’t sure if it would be doable in the summer – my backup plan was to hike to the Beckhorn and Dix and out via Round Pond and walk down 73 to get back to the car. I’m a novice bushwacker, so I don’t have a good sense of where this would fall on the scale, but there wasn’t much easy walking. Lots of very dense woods, a good amount of blowdown. About halfway down, found a streambed and walked, slipped and slid in that since it was generally easier than the woods. Finally met up with the South Fork of the Boquet! It was about a mile bushwack and I was able to stay right on the track I had from alavigne.net, so I was pretty sure I wouldn’t run into impassable conditions – like a cliff drop-off. I’m glad I tried the route, it was a fun challenge, though I don’t think I saved myself any time vs. the Beckhorn/Dix/Round Pond route – shorter mileage but such slow going. From there it was an easy walk back to the car on a nice clear herdpath (especially after all the bushwacking). This was a great hike with some really spectacular views. Didn’t meet anyone else who came in from 73, but met several groups coming in from Elk Lake/Macomb slide.

 

[Neil]

I really like this TR. I happened to be aware of some of the pre-trip planning that went into it and admire mtnhiker's choice to tackle the Dix Range (for the first time) by an unconventional route that included losing the herd trail, finding it again and then proceeding to poke around and do some solo off-trail travel and remote bushwhacking. Very cool. Way to go mtnhiker!

 

[una_dogger]

Great job, mnthiker! I'm sure you will get lots of pats on the back here for your accomplishment, but somehow I get the feeling you've already reaped the greatest rewards for your efforts.

Nicely done!