lumberzac
New member
August 5, 2006
In February of 2004 I had my worst experience in the mountains. On that trip my hiking partner and I had hiked Sawteeth via the Scenic Trail. The choice of path and our decisions on the trail were stupid and were lucky to go home only extremely exhausted. The hike would take us both close to the breaking point and we ended up ending our hiking for the season that day. That day and trail have haunted me ever since.
Saturday I decided to face a personal demon and attempt the trail again. After an early morning drive I arrived at the trailhead and signed in at the AMR gate by 7am. The hike up Lake Road was uneventful with the exception of a 30 second rain shower and seeing that someone had dropped #2 right in the middle of the road (to who ever did it, I hope the Ausable Club doesn’t use this as a reason to close their property to except members; think before you act next time). When I arrived at the Lower Ausable Lake dam, the clouds had parted and I could already tell it was going to be a beautiful day.
The trail skirted the Lake and was rougher than I expected, but wasn’t too bad. Soon the trail turned away from the lake and began to climb to the first outlook on Sawteeth. I enjoyed the view of the surrounding mountains and the lake below. From the point on the trail was mostly steep all the way to the top. The many outlooks along the way broke the ascent up in a way that made the climb not too bad. The trail was in excellent shape with very few blowdowns, although there was one belly crawler near Panther Gulch. The views just got better and better as I climbed; something I wasn’t able to enjoy the last trip up the trail. Finally I had made it over all of the subpeaks (teeth) and was rewarded with a spectacular view of Pyramid Peak and the Upper Great Range. From where the trail turns away from the lake to the top had taken me over 8 hard hours in February of 2004. This time it took me less that 3 which also included a 0.6-mile detour over to Marble Point. Even though it was now late morning the temperature was not bad and the humidity was low, which I greatly appreciated after a week of near 100*F weather the previous week. The low humidity also resulted in very little haze. If fact the only time I’ve experienced visibility this good before was in the middle of winter. A cool constant breeze that would blow most of the day also cut down the sun’s heat. I couldn’t have asked for better hiking conditions.
I then started to make my way up Pyramid Peak. Pyramid is reported to have the best view in the Adirondacks. The only other time I had hiked over Pyramid the only view I had was that of the inside of a cloud. This day the only cloud view I would have would be of those high in the sky. I can’t say if Pyramid has the best view as I’ve seen a lot of great views in the Adirondacks and they all have different qualities, but I can say that Pyramid had the most dynamic view of Gothics I have ever seen. The urge to stare at Gothics and Basin was had to fight, but I was able to break away and move over to the east side of the summit rock. There I could see Giant & Rocky Peak Ridge, the Colvin Range, the Dial / Nippletop Range, Dix & Macomb, and also easily see the main spine of the Green Mountains in Vermont.
I was finally able to pull myself away and head for the summit of Gothics. Once there I was greeted with more fantastic views. I enjoyed a game of “Name that Peak” with myself, but was unable to name three mountains that were on the horizon to the north-northeast. I could barely see them, but all three mountains sat on the horizon and appeared to stand alone. At first I thought one of them might be Lyon Mountain, but they were all too far east of Whiteface to be Lyon and seamed too far away (they looked further away than Mount Mansfield appeared from Pyramid). Does anyone have any idea what these mountains could have been? I should have taken some compass bearings but didn’t think of it at the time.
I stayed on the summit for close to an hour before moving along towards Armstrong. The hike over to Armstrong was easy compared to the hiking I had done earlier on the day. I didn’t spend that much time on the summit before heading back to the trailhead. I thought about continuing down the range, but decided to backtrack to the Beaver Meadows Trail as originally planned. This had the added bonus of going down a trail I had never been on before. The upper sections of the trail were quite rugged and had a few ladders over small rock ledges. I came to one 6’ high ledge that once had a ladder, but has loge since rotted away only leaving a one foot square piece of wood nailed to a tree. This took a little problem solving before I found my way up it. The rest of the trail down was fairly benign and offered views of the surrounding mountains at times through the trees. Near the bottom of the trail was Beaver Meadows Falls, which I found more impressive than I expected. I then took a connector trail back to Lake Road and hiked back to my car.
Total Distance: about 15.7 miles
Elevation Gain: about 5040’
I don’t know how this day could have been any better, but on a scale of 1 to 10, I rate it as an 11.
Pictures: http://community.webshots.com/album/552901476RwsZNv
In February of 2004 I had my worst experience in the mountains. On that trip my hiking partner and I had hiked Sawteeth via the Scenic Trail. The choice of path and our decisions on the trail were stupid and were lucky to go home only extremely exhausted. The hike would take us both close to the breaking point and we ended up ending our hiking for the season that day. That day and trail have haunted me ever since.
Saturday I decided to face a personal demon and attempt the trail again. After an early morning drive I arrived at the trailhead and signed in at the AMR gate by 7am. The hike up Lake Road was uneventful with the exception of a 30 second rain shower and seeing that someone had dropped #2 right in the middle of the road (to who ever did it, I hope the Ausable Club doesn’t use this as a reason to close their property to except members; think before you act next time). When I arrived at the Lower Ausable Lake dam, the clouds had parted and I could already tell it was going to be a beautiful day.
The trail skirted the Lake and was rougher than I expected, but wasn’t too bad. Soon the trail turned away from the lake and began to climb to the first outlook on Sawteeth. I enjoyed the view of the surrounding mountains and the lake below. From the point on the trail was mostly steep all the way to the top. The many outlooks along the way broke the ascent up in a way that made the climb not too bad. The trail was in excellent shape with very few blowdowns, although there was one belly crawler near Panther Gulch. The views just got better and better as I climbed; something I wasn’t able to enjoy the last trip up the trail. Finally I had made it over all of the subpeaks (teeth) and was rewarded with a spectacular view of Pyramid Peak and the Upper Great Range. From where the trail turns away from the lake to the top had taken me over 8 hard hours in February of 2004. This time it took me less that 3 which also included a 0.6-mile detour over to Marble Point. Even though it was now late morning the temperature was not bad and the humidity was low, which I greatly appreciated after a week of near 100*F weather the previous week. The low humidity also resulted in very little haze. If fact the only time I’ve experienced visibility this good before was in the middle of winter. A cool constant breeze that would blow most of the day also cut down the sun’s heat. I couldn’t have asked for better hiking conditions.
I then started to make my way up Pyramid Peak. Pyramid is reported to have the best view in the Adirondacks. The only other time I had hiked over Pyramid the only view I had was that of the inside of a cloud. This day the only cloud view I would have would be of those high in the sky. I can’t say if Pyramid has the best view as I’ve seen a lot of great views in the Adirondacks and they all have different qualities, but I can say that Pyramid had the most dynamic view of Gothics I have ever seen. The urge to stare at Gothics and Basin was had to fight, but I was able to break away and move over to the east side of the summit rock. There I could see Giant & Rocky Peak Ridge, the Colvin Range, the Dial / Nippletop Range, Dix & Macomb, and also easily see the main spine of the Green Mountains in Vermont.
I was finally able to pull myself away and head for the summit of Gothics. Once there I was greeted with more fantastic views. I enjoyed a game of “Name that Peak” with myself, but was unable to name three mountains that were on the horizon to the north-northeast. I could barely see them, but all three mountains sat on the horizon and appeared to stand alone. At first I thought one of them might be Lyon Mountain, but they were all too far east of Whiteface to be Lyon and seamed too far away (they looked further away than Mount Mansfield appeared from Pyramid). Does anyone have any idea what these mountains could have been? I should have taken some compass bearings but didn’t think of it at the time.
I stayed on the summit for close to an hour before moving along towards Armstrong. The hike over to Armstrong was easy compared to the hiking I had done earlier on the day. I didn’t spend that much time on the summit before heading back to the trailhead. I thought about continuing down the range, but decided to backtrack to the Beaver Meadows Trail as originally planned. This had the added bonus of going down a trail I had never been on before. The upper sections of the trail were quite rugged and had a few ladders over small rock ledges. I came to one 6’ high ledge that once had a ladder, but has loge since rotted away only leaving a one foot square piece of wood nailed to a tree. This took a little problem solving before I found my way up it. The rest of the trail down was fairly benign and offered views of the surrounding mountains at times through the trees. Near the bottom of the trail was Beaver Meadows Falls, which I found more impressive than I expected. I then took a connector trail back to Lake Road and hiked back to my car.
Total Distance: about 15.7 miles
Elevation Gain: about 5040’
I don’t know how this day could have been any better, but on a scale of 1 to 10, I rate it as an 11.
Pictures: http://community.webshots.com/album/552901476RwsZNv
... I did the scenic route down from Sawteeth a couple months ago and thought it was great up until that walk around the lake! It can be hard to go back and "face the demon" but for me it's important to do so. It feels soooo good it's finally over.
![Grand Teton Day Hikes and National Park Map [Map Pack Bundle] (National Geographic Trails Illustrated Map)](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41DB0jvRnbL._SL500_.jpg)
![Yellowstone National Park [Map Pack Bundle] (National Geographic Trails Illustrated Map)](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51kGuJ72qjL._SL500_.jpg)
