first timers need some advice

[una_dogger]

Why not go on a guided backpack for your first time?

ADK is offering a guided backpack of the Santanoonis Sept 3 to 5. The cost is $110 but it may be a great way for you to learn the ropes and ease some of your concerns.

For info check out the ADK at www.adk.org

 

[ADK4Life]

I highly advise making sure that you are used to long descents before attempting this hike. If your feet are not used to a long day on the trail you may find the descent to be quite unplesant. Make sure to bring enough water or a filter. I took this trail yesterday and was fine with 2 litres each.

 

[ALGonquin Bob]

Funny... I was just talking to my wife and her friend about a trek up to Marcy in mid-September. Crampons never entered my mind. We won't be carrying crampons or snowshoes. We WILL be carrying extra warm clothing, gloves and rain gear.

Our friend asked about staying at Marcy Dam to shorten the trip, but since Marcy Dam is a very easy walk in of less than one hour, it's not worth hauling in packs and extra gear to camp there. We'll do the Van Hoevenberg trail to Marcy as a leisurely day hike of perhaps 11 hours, and that's what I recommend to you. Watch the weather forcast, but still prepare for foul weather. Most of all, have fun.

P.S.: Santanoni as a warm-up? I consider the Santanoni's as much more difficult than the VH "highway" up to Marcy. An easy warm-up would be Cascade, for one.

 

[ADK4Life]

It was damn hot on Marcy Saturday. I put my shell on for a bit of relief from the wind but was too warm. This trail is very easy for ascent, probably the easiest of the 46ers I have been on, I found Cascade to be steeper. As the weather slowly drops the trail conditions will change fast. I advise camping at the Dam as the 2.4 from the dam to the loj tends to drag on after hours of hiking. Cutting off 4.8 RT from the trail would make for a much more enjoyable day.

 

[Raymond]

There's no need to consider Marcy a "backpack" hike unless you're trying to go out of your way to camp out. Yes, it's about 15 miles, but most people can hike it in 10-11 hours. Check the weather report before you leave and you can leave most of the gear suggested here at the motel or wherever you stay. You'll save your knees and make the hike more pleasant the less weight you carry. We met a young fellow who never hiked anywhere without carrying a tent, sleeping bag, extra food, etcetera, and needed a knee operation at about the age of 20. I couldn't bear my pack on my back anymore so I switched to a hip bag in 2000 and I'm much happier.

Animals. I'm 22 High Peaks into my second round of the Forty-Six and I've never encountered a bear while on a hike. Saw one way down the road while driving through Algonquin Provincial Park in 1990, and at Clark's Trading Post in Lincoln, New Hampshire, when I was a kid. We met a deer once in the Adirondacks, just after leaving Johns Brook Lodge on our way to Yard Mountain. That was in 1999. Nothing else wild bigger than a woodchuck, and the woodchuck was near the St. Huberts parking lot just last week when we climbed Noonmark. I've seen plenty of deer tracks, but only the one deer. Bear track once, near the Flowed Lands. Never a moose track. Thought we saw a moose poop last week between Moose and McKenzie Mountains, but, as it was only one doot (as my ex-wife would have said), it was probably from something else.

 

[una_dogger]

P.S.: Santanoni as a warm-up? I consider the Santanoni's as much more difficult than the VH "highway" up to Marcy. An easy warm-up would be Cascade, for one.

No I was actually referring to the technical experience of backpacking they may gain on a guided hike, but I'm not so sure that this hike is open to beginners. Just an idea