Dix

[rup]

Considering the Dix summits this weekend. I've read a bit in past on the bushwack / quality of the trails interconnecting the summits, and the slide. Any summary and update you can provide?? Days are short, and I don't want surprizes.

 

[Neil]

Plan on starting and finishing with headlamps. If you do a search I'm sure you'll find many old threads. Also, try adirondackjourney.com or adkhighpeaks.com

 

[daxs]

For the most part, the herdpaths are easy to follow and not too overgrown. I came out with minimum scratches on my legs and even less on my arms. Some sites have advocated using eye wear for protection but I didn't think that was necessary. The group I hiked with took one compass bearing from S Dix to make sure we had the right trail to Hough. The trail to Hough is obvious from the E Dix-Macomb Col not as obvious from S. Dix. The hike up the Macomb slide itself is not difficult. At no time do you feel that you could fall and plunge any distance. If you go for all five peaks it does make for a long day. Plan on taking your headlamp just in case. We needed ours on the hike out but then again, 2 of us finished our 46 that day on different peaks so there was some celebrating and time spent up on the peaks.

 

[masshysteria]

Rup, I consider the Dix traverse as the ultimate ADK multi-mountain hike! There isn't a bad view in the place, and two of my 'Top Five' peaks are in there. You cannot lose the paths, they are so obvious. The only exception I will make to that statement is that there are a couple of deadend paths in the Hough-Pough col, but they peter out quickly. And you have to pay attention for the cairn marking the turn for Pough from Carson(South Dix). It's not at the very summit, just alittle shy of it on the Macomb side. I so enjoy the view from Grace(E.Dix) , either to the east or looking down the Great Slide.

Ditto with Daxs assesment of the Macomb slide, there is no sense of having to make every step stick like glue.

 

[Raymond]

The advice I picked up a few years ago was, if you wanted to "guarantee" success, follow the Red Trail all the way up Dix first, then drop off the Beckhorn onto the herd path to Hough. It's all downhill from there. Took me 11 hours 50 minutes that first time.

Pete Hickey's Forty-Sixer crew was supposed to be relocating the herd path at the bottom of the Macomb slide, moving it away from the brook, so be aware of that. A Trail Conditions report from October 1-2 doesn't mention it, so you're probably safe on that score until this coming weekend at least.