MattC
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- Sep 2, 2004
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Guiness, T-Max and I did the Dixes Saturday from the Elk Lake TH. Terri and I car-pooled up from the Mid-Hudson Valley Friday evening (in heavy Northway traffic) and pitched our tents at Sharp Bridge State Campground. This is a nice place to car-camp for access to the Eastern High Peaks. Cool caretaker, too. The only drawback is road noise since it's kind of close to the Northway, and right off RT 9. Anyhow, we scored some "dinner" at a Stewarts, returned and hit the hay. Ed was running late, but finally rolled in around mid-night and tossed up his tent. After a short night, we geared up and were tramping along by 7.
We made the Macomb herd path in about 45 minutes and hit it after a quick exchange with a mom and daughter headed for Dix on the state trail. We found a pretty good rhythm for the Slide Brook herd path, on which the worst of the blowdown had been cleared-big thanks to the 46 crew. Soon we were at the slide, which was a first for me. I imagine it's pretty modest as ADK slides go, but I was pretty stoked none the less. The biggest challenge was trying not to kick debris back down behind me. As we neared the top, we could see two other guys at the base starting up.
We made the summit sign about 3 hours in from the TH, had a bite, took pics, etc. The pair we had seen on the slide showed up and we chatted a bit before moving on. They were doing 4 of 5 (no Dix), and planning on hitting Hough before East Dix, which we though was a little unusual. We left them at Macomb and continued on to South Dix, making it in another hour or so. More views, pics, calories.
On to East Dix! A little shy of an hour over there, and for me it was one of the easier parts. Not that much up and down, and the path was pretty obvious. Another quick break there and then back over to South Dix for lunch. This was our longest break yet, and my boots came off. I was doing this hike w/o insoles(!), which I had stupidly forgotten to put back in after cleaning the boots earlier in the week. Fortunately, I had picked a good sock/liner combo in the morning and I'm not prone to blistering, so everything was pretty good w/ the ole dogs.
Next came Hough. It's little buddy Pough wasn't all that bad, but we were definitely a bit fatigued at this point. The blowdown was little tougher in this area and the branches encroached on the path a bit more, but nothing ridiculous. It had been pretty hot and humid all day and the sun had been in and out (mostly out). I was pretty thankful for the lack of constant direct sunlight. Up on Hough we had yet another quick stop for still more somewhat hazy views. There was also a decent amount of mountain sandwort up there, which was nice to see. We now had a full-on look at the lord of the range, Dix itself. The Beckhorn beckoned, and we headed the call, reluctantly.
We found one wrong herd path in the Hough/Beckhorn col, which seemed to be descending (bailout?) or circling back to Hough. Anyhow, Terri was up front and realized this pretty quick and we were back on the correct herd path in minutes. The climb wasn't as rough as we thought it might be, and soon we were close. It was very grey now and we could hear distant rumbling. We scurried over to tag the summit and stopped very briefly for the
pics and got out of there since it was starting to rain. There were these little hot pink flowers along the trail. On closer examination, they turned out to be tiny, stunted laurel, which I thought was pretty cool.
Thankfully the rain was brief and light, since we still had to negotiate some steep slabby areas. We passed a quartet of backpackers (3 human + 1 canine), chatted, and cruised on down. Ed and I kept track of our steady elevation loss and we experienced some measured happiness as we finally got below 3K. Back on the "flat" trail, we still had 3.8 and so began the final death march. Terri and Ed were low on water, so Ed moved up front and beat us to Lillian Brook, where he pumped/filtered for a bit. Walking past Dix Pond provided some nice variety. At the Lillian Brook I wanted to jump in, but I settled for soaking my shirt and feet (downstream from Ed ). Then we staggered out the last couple miles, chased by deer flies and skeeters. I donned my head net, trying to score a gig as a cover model for Bee-Keeper Monthly.
We were back at the car by about 8:10. 13 hours and change total. We relaxed for close to half an hour, rehydrating and Terri and Ed discussing their upcoming Rainer adventure. We were a bit concerned about the guys we had seen earlier, since we knew they were coming back down the Macomb slide, which must have been at least a little wet. We were relieved to see them show up just as we were about to pull out. After a last exchange, we hit the road for a deli stop and camp.
Back at camp it was a shower, a little to eat, a little of the local beverage (Lake Placid Ubu Ale) and an attempt at sleep. We all figured we would sleep like the dead after our day, but it was so hot you could barely stay in your bag. I was up @ 5 again and Terri and Ed not much later. Ed hit it for his long drive. Terri and I checked out, enjoying one last chat with Tim the caretaker, and went to score breakfast at the Cliffhanger up in Keene. Then it was the long trek home. Have I mentioned how happy I am to finally be getting back to the Adirondacks?
Matt
We made the Macomb herd path in about 45 minutes and hit it after a quick exchange with a mom and daughter headed for Dix on the state trail. We found a pretty good rhythm for the Slide Brook herd path, on which the worst of the blowdown had been cleared-big thanks to the 46 crew. Soon we were at the slide, which was a first for me. I imagine it's pretty modest as ADK slides go, but I was pretty stoked none the less. The biggest challenge was trying not to kick debris back down behind me. As we neared the top, we could see two other guys at the base starting up.
We made the summit sign about 3 hours in from the TH, had a bite, took pics, etc. The pair we had seen on the slide showed up and we chatted a bit before moving on. They were doing 4 of 5 (no Dix), and planning on hitting Hough before East Dix, which we though was a little unusual. We left them at Macomb and continued on to South Dix, making it in another hour or so. More views, pics, calories.
On to East Dix! A little shy of an hour over there, and for me it was one of the easier parts. Not that much up and down, and the path was pretty obvious. Another quick break there and then back over to South Dix for lunch. This was our longest break yet, and my boots came off. I was doing this hike w/o insoles(!), which I had stupidly forgotten to put back in after cleaning the boots earlier in the week. Fortunately, I had picked a good sock/liner combo in the morning and I'm not prone to blistering, so everything was pretty good w/ the ole dogs.
Next came Hough. It's little buddy Pough wasn't all that bad, but we were definitely a bit fatigued at this point. The blowdown was little tougher in this area and the branches encroached on the path a bit more, but nothing ridiculous. It had been pretty hot and humid all day and the sun had been in and out (mostly out). I was pretty thankful for the lack of constant direct sunlight. Up on Hough we had yet another quick stop for still more somewhat hazy views. There was also a decent amount of mountain sandwort up there, which was nice to see. We now had a full-on look at the lord of the range, Dix itself. The Beckhorn beckoned, and we headed the call, reluctantly.
We found one wrong herd path in the Hough/Beckhorn col, which seemed to be descending (bailout?) or circling back to Hough. Anyhow, Terri was up front and realized this pretty quick and we were back on the correct herd path in minutes. The climb wasn't as rough as we thought it might be, and soon we were close. It was very grey now and we could hear distant rumbling. We scurried over to tag the summit and stopped very briefly for the
pics and got out of there since it was starting to rain. There were these little hot pink flowers along the trail. On closer examination, they turned out to be tiny, stunted laurel, which I thought was pretty cool.
Thankfully the rain was brief and light, since we still had to negotiate some steep slabby areas. We passed a quartet of backpackers (3 human + 1 canine), chatted, and cruised on down. Ed and I kept track of our steady elevation loss and we experienced some measured happiness as we finally got below 3K. Back on the "flat" trail, we still had 3.8 and so began the final death march. Terri and Ed were low on water, so Ed moved up front and beat us to Lillian Brook, where he pumped/filtered for a bit. Walking past Dix Pond provided some nice variety. At the Lillian Brook I wanted to jump in, but I settled for soaking my shirt and feet (downstream from Ed
). Then we staggered out the last couple miles, chased by deer flies and skeeters. I donned my head net, trying to score a gig as a cover model for Bee-Keeper Monthly. We were back at the car by about 8:10. 13 hours and change total. We relaxed for close to half an hour, rehydrating and Terri and Ed discussing their upcoming Rainer adventure. We were a bit concerned about the guys we had seen earlier, since we knew they were coming back down the Macomb slide, which must have been at least a little wet. We were relieved to see them show up just as we were about to pull out. After a last exchange, we hit the road for a deli stop and camp.
Back at camp it was a shower, a little to eat, a little of the local beverage (Lake Placid Ubu Ale) and an attempt at sleep. We all figured we would sleep like the dead after our day, but it was so hot you could barely stay in your bag. I was up @ 5 again and Terri and Ed not much later. Ed hit it for his long drive. Terri and I checked out, enjoying one last chat with Tim the caretaker, and went to score breakfast at the Cliffhanger up in Keene. Then it was the long trek home. Have I mentioned how happy I am to finally be getting back to the Adirondacks?
Matt
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