Great Range Traverse Loop (almost) ADK Weekend

[HuiYeng]

Very nice effort guys!! Great Range is definitely on my to dos list...

...
There was a funny smell hovering over the Range Saturday. Now I know why. The VFTTers were in town.

They are not just any VFTTers, they're the fart-propelled hiker . Guess you guys running out of "gas" heading up UWJ huh? .

 

[FARMER]

sounds like i missed a good one. nice report wu. that hike is on my to do list for sure.

 

[Nif]

They are not just any VFTTers, they're the fart-propelled hiker . Guess you guys running out of "gas" heading up UWJ huh? .

And just who are we talking about here Hui??? Not good to run out of gas is it

Sounds like you guys had a good day. Sounds like you guys should have "trained" with Ryan, Mats, and Sasquatch last weekend then you would have been ready....

See ya' all at the next Barnes

 

[una_dogger]

This hike was tough but a lot of fun and certainly not impossible by any means. I hope to get back soon and do the whole traverse. It's more of a ball buster than say a Presi Traverse and the views are stunning and also, a big plus is that the woods in between the summits (not as much treeline as a Prezzie) are quite pretty -- prettier than the Whites in my opinion -- so that makes things go quick.

Of course its possible, Frank, a whole gaggle of people do it every year, its a NY tradition to traverse the Great Range on the Solstice!! Duh! (I just haven't been one of them yet )

Seriously, not everyone adds Marcy but that would be my plan. When you say you went up the S Side of Haystack, do you mean you went up via Panther Gorge? Kick ass modification!


Awesome writeup! Great job! The Daks are awesome --- my kinda mountains!

 

[Viewseeker]

you guys kick ass... awesome TR..

 

[dr_wu002]

Of course its possible, Frank, a whole gaggle of people do it every year, its a NY tradition to traverse the Great Range on the Solstice!! Duh! (I just haven't been one of them yet )

Seriously, not everyone adds Marcy but that would be my plan. When you say you went up the S Side of Haystack, do you mean you went up via Panther Gorge? Kick ass modification!

A lot of people at the campsite on Friday night thought it would be impossible, given the condition of the participants, to complete the Traverse on Saturday. I should have clarified: I obviously realize that many people do Great Range Traverses bigger than the ones we had planned. It just seemed impossible to others that such low-functioning people could do it.

South Side of Haystack (Panther Gorge) is awesome! It's a sweet, beautiful area and actually the hike up is pretty easy. No harder than anything in the Whites. Panther Gorge is a wicked nice place though.

Sounds like you guys had a good day. Sounds like you guys should have "trained" with Ryan, Mats, and Sasquatch last weekend then you would have been ready....

We're thinking that if we drank a little less and got to bed a little earlier...

but hey, it's a gathering! What's a hike the next day if you're not hungover and with piss in your pants!?

-Dr. Wu

 

[una_dogger]

We're thinking that if we drank a little less and got to bed a little earlier...


-Dr. Wu

OK, now I get it!!!
Yeah, I don't know how you guys hike with hangovers and short sleep!
For all the big ADK hikes I did when I was getting my 46; it was all about the long drive, getting plenty of sleep, and bagging as many peaks as I could...I must either be a wimp or getting old...I never even thought of having a beer!

 

[dr_wu002]

OK, now I get it!!!
Yeah, I don't know how you guys hike with hangovers and short sleep!
For all the big ADK hikes I did when I was getting my 46; it was all about the long drive, getting plenty of sleep, and bagging as many peaks as I could...I must either be a wimp or getting old...I never even thought of having a beer!

The solution, I find, is to bring beer on the hike. That's a good motivator!

I really want to complete the hike we planned (which includes Gray, Pyramid, Horseturd and Roostercomb) so next time a little less drinking and little more sleep the night before. Oh, and I'm going to bring 3 beers on the hike so that when Cory brings in pizza again I'm ready with a beer!

-Dr. Wu

 

[una_dogger]

The solution, I find, is to bring beer on the hike. That's a good motivator!

I really want to complete the hike we planned (which includes Gray, Pyramid, Horseturd and Roostercomb) so next time a little less drinking and little more sleep the night before. Oh, and I'm going to bring 3 beers on the hike so that when Cory brings in pizza again I'm ready with a beer!

-Dr. Wu

HighonLife and some others did Marcy to Roostercomb a couple summers ago in 12 hours (?) so I think you will have no problem finishing it under 14, even with a few beers.

The descent from LWJ is really rough, I'm thinking that the walk out over Roostercomb would end up being a more mellow descent. I did the Devil's Path just under 13 hours, so I figure I could do a nice hike over the range in 14 hours.

It is indeed a great hike and one I hope to do maybe next Solstice. I had hoped to do it Solstice 2008 but a shoulder injury killed that plan.

Wow, you were going to add Gray and Pyramid??? Pyramid wouldn't be a big deal but Gray, too?? That would be somethin'....more power to ya! I wonder if Randomscooter or one of the other epic adkhighpeaks.com hikers has done that!?

 

[UNFROZENCAVEMAN]

Great hike, I wish I didn't get so crazy sometimes....no I don't.

To quote Limp Bizkit: "I'd love to be the one to dissapoint you when I don't fall down!"

Wu, you're spot on - we train at Barnes for this kinda thing all the time!

 

[mookie]

now we just gotta get giggy out there!

 

[MichaelJ]

*VERY* nice! I only did Gothics, Armstrong, and Upper Wolfjaw as a mini-traverse, never the whole entire range ... sounds amazing and well worth the effort. Congrats on a great day.

(though I'll pass on the hangover part, lack of sleep causes me enough stomach upset when I try to hike the next morning)

 

[PA Ridgerunner]

Hysterical report! I read it out loud last night to Fran and we were bustin' a gut laughing. Congratulations on a really amazing hike. It was good meeting you at the gig Saturday night. Fran was disappointed that she didn't meet Dr. Wu, as she's a huge Dan fan. Hope to see you again.

 

[una_dogger]

*VERY* nice! I only did Gothics, Armstrong, and Upper Wolfjaw as a mini-traverse, )

..and Pyramid...don't forget!

 

[MichaelJ]

..and Pyramid...don't forget!

That's right. Best darn view of the whole hike, because unlike being up on the main ridge, you get the view of the ridge plus all the surroundings. Sweet peak!

 

[Gillian]

can't say I would've enjoyed hiking behind any of you....but nice job guys!!

 

[ColdRiverRun]

It was cool running into you guys, got me fired up to try to intercept you from the other direction, then meeting past the point where I thought you'd be was a nice surprise. That mo' carried me up to Gothics where I then ran into Neil and fam and got the boost to carry me out the rest of the day.

As far as Lwj whatever, your hike was bigger than the "traditional" Great Range hike anyway by about a 1000k. I'm figuring about 10k even. That's pretty nuts considering your starting condition, you guys are bulls.

Hope we can get a good hike in before the year is out either in the ADK or Whites. Good to finally meet you Wu, to bad I had to see Jason though.

PS- I went to the camp ground after showering and hanging for a little bit at a friends house..
Here is the convo between me and the lady, short version:

Me: Hi, I was looking to visit the Forum campsite.
Her: No
Me: I..I..I'm sorry what does "No" mean?
Her: It's to late.

It was 10:30, I forget that that is late to most people not, "hey, you want to get a hike in?" time. I was as nice as possible but left pissed off and decided to drive all the way back to Albany right then. Oh well, better luck next time!

 

[Tom Rankin]

PS- I went to the camp ground after showering and hanging for a little bit at a friends house..
Here is the convo between me and the lady, short version:

Me: Hi, I was looking to visit the Forum campsite.
Her: No
Me: I..I..I'm sorry what does "No" mean?
Her: It's to late.

It was 10:30, I forget that that is late to most people not, "hey, you want to get a hike in?" time. I was as nice as possible but left pissed off and decided to drive all the way back to Albany right then. Oh well, better luck next time!

Wow, that s@cks! I can't believe you were so close but so far! Then again, if you had looked at some Infrared Satellite Imagery, you might have seen the fire!

To tell you the truth, we 'snuck' in the 2nd night w/o paying, and now I'm glad we did! She didn't want your money, huh? Whacked!

 

[Jay H]

Wow, that s@cks! I can't believe you were so close but so far! Then again, if you had looked at some Infrared Satellite Imagery, you might have seen the fire!

To tell you the truth, we 'snuck' in the 2nd night w/o paying, and now I'm glad we did! She didn't want your money, huh? Whacked!

Yeah, like Tom, I "snuck" in on saturday.. however, my $2 I paid on friday could of easily covered saturday since all I did on Friday was just go in there to see if anybody was going out to dinner!

Jay