Gothics via Pyramid?

[Dana]

Ever since it was suggested by a girl I met once at JBL I've wanted to do Gothics via Pyramid. Trying to figure out the details now... what's the deal with the Ausable Club lands nowadays? Can non members hike the west river trail or do you have to stick to the road? I was told once that you wouldn't be allowed past the gate unless it was early enough in the day to clearly be able to be off their land by sunset, is there a specific cutoff time? And where can you park?

My thought is to hike in (on the west river trail if that's allowed, on the road otherwise), and go far enough up the trail that goes to the upper/lower Wolfjaw col to get off their land, and drop the heavy pack there. Then back down with daypacks, on down to the end of the lake, up the Weld trail to Gothics, then follow the Range trail over Armstrong and Upper Wolfjaw, back down to the packs to camp for the night, followed by an easy hike out the next day. Or better yet, if we have the time and want to take it easy, camp at the same location two nights with just the loop over Gothics, Armstrong, and Wolfjaw on the middle day.

Thoughts? What about water along the route? I'm thinking Columbus Day weekend to get the three days (hiking with my daughter who's a teacher and doesn't get much time off during the school year), I know the weather can be iffy by then, but I can hope...

 

[Daniel Eagan]

You can take the West River trail all the way up to Lower Lake and then take the Weld trail up to Pyramid and Gothics. All of the club trails up to the Lower Lake are open to the public.

You can leave as early or late in the day as you want. Parking is down by Route 73. Water is available at the Lower Lake and along by Rainbow Falls.

You will not find many places, if any, to camp on the trail up to the Wolf Jaws. It is very steep.

On the other hand, most people do this as a day hike. It is a very doable loop with easy stretches at the start and finish.

I would camp somewhere else and drive to the Route 73 trailhead rather than carry packs in and out.

 

[JoeCedar]

There is a "possible campsite" mentioned in the ADK trail guide on the Wedge Brook trail (1.2 mile from the West River trail) in an area of some huge boulders (truck size). State land begins at about 2600 feet, and the campsite is beyond that, so it is a good climb for a marginal camping opportunity. Beyond that, the terrain is not suitable for camping. Please note that this is the Eastern High Peaks and fires are not allowed. Camping is allowed >150 feet from trail or water.

 

[Dana]

Thanks... I realize I could do it as a [long] day trip, but part of the pleasure for me is to spend a couple of days in the woods without dealing with cars and stuff. "Camping" for me is a hammock or bivy sack, so lots of marginal sites become usable.

 

[Dana]

Are bears as much of a problem on this side of the range as they are around Flowed Land and Colden?

 

[TEO]

Are bears as much of a problem on this side of the range as they are around Flowed Land and Colden?

To the best of my knowledge, no, but then there aren't any official campsites on the Ausable side of the Great Range. That said, if you're camping above the AMR boundary, you'd still be in the Eastern High Peaks, so a bear canister would be required. Also, bears are known to have a huge range, so theoretically a skilled bear-bag-busting Colden bear could serendipitously stumble upon your site.

 

[Dana]

Update: We did this hike this past weekend. To those who call it a day hike from the road, I say maybe... if we'd left at dawn on the summer solstice.

Stopped at EMS in Saratoga Springs to rent a bear canister, but we were too early, they weren't open yet... so we continued on, only to find The Mountaineer in Keen was out of rentals, so I bought one of the smaller ones (oh well, it'll get used). All of the trailhead parking lots were full, so we parked on Rt 73, along with about a hundred other cars. Got on the trail around noon, took it easy, and had no trouble finding a suitable campsite not far above the state land boundary (there are quite a few more good campsites farther up). It was a difficult but doable climb down to Wedge Brook for water.

Got a late-ish start the next morning, somewhere between 9 and 10. Back down to the West River trail, a delightful and easy walk,



which we took all the way to the Weld Trail, stopping to fill our water bottles at Rainbow Falls.



Then up... the Weld trail is one of the roughest trails I've been on in years, and it was slow going (my daughter was quite tired, feeling the effects of lack of sleep in the days before). Finally stopped for a late lunch on the way up Pyramid, after which we both got a second wind and felt better. The views from Pyramid were spectacular, just as described, and when we finally reached the summit of Gothics, even better.



There were still others on the summit with us, all of whom said they were returning to their cars, so I hope they had headlamps because they'd need them! On the way down, we passed a family still going up, with full packs... no way they were going to reach a legal campsite by sunset, I don't know where they were going. Knowing we were running late, we spent only a brief time on top of Gothics and pressed on, reaching the summit of Armstrong at sunset.



We didn't get far down before we needed our headlamps (good thing we brought them!), and found the trail down Armstrong to be extremely rough in the dark. Then over Upper Wolfjaw and down again in full dark, again very tricky (and slow going!) in the dark. Tired now and moving very slowly to avoid a misstep, it was close to 11pm before we reached our campsite, where we crawled into our sleeping bags without worrying about dinner.

Woke up around 3am to raindrops on my face and pulled the bivy sack hoods over, then I got up around 4:30 to heavier rain and did a half assed job of string the tarp so we could cook breakfast (last night's uncooked dinner, really) without getting too wet. The hike out was relatively easy, and the lunch of smoked trout appetizer followed by burgers at the Ausable Inn were did some serious spot-hitting! Then back to our cabin in Harriman in time for dinner and some much needed sleep.