BlackSpruce
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- Sep 8, 2003
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Following a decade of planning and smart observations from every possible angle Inge and I felt ready to climb Haystack via its prominent and ever so gradual spine. Never mind that John E. Winkler had written in his book A Bushwhacker View of the Adirondacks “In bushwhacking the 46 highest peaks(1970’s and 1980’s), I have found Colvin to be the most difficult, with Mount Haystack a close second. (...) Through very thick spruce and woods and quite steep all the way, this was a long, tough haul”, we pinned our hope of an easier trek on a freshly refurbished slide to take us part-way up (see picture below). Plus after hearing second-hands horror tale we too made sure to sleep near-by to be able to start the trail-less section of our adventure early in the day. Getting to and finding the slide bottom / 3130’ from the Haystack Brook Trail / 3000’ was a twelve minutes no-brainer. I quickly worried as the forest bordering the delightful slide leading to the upper reaches of, according Colvin, the “Matterhorn of the Adirondacks” did not appear to be all open birch forest and fern meadows! The higher we got the better were the views and the worse were the surroundings woods, at 3830’, we had no choice but to push through and get a closer look. It took us less than 5-steps to realize we should have invited along a dozen experienced loggers. We were facing several generations of blowdowns with the latest probably named after Floyd whoever in 1999. Naturally the trees standing were just tall enough to block views in all directions, naturally they were at least six inches apart, naturally the ones sideways were much larger, naturally they were more often than not piled up artistically, naturally some would have made excellent display for the Tupper Lake Wild Center, naturally we were in way over our heads... of course it would soon get better, doesn’t it always? NO IT DOES NOT on Haystack. Up, and over, and under, and around, and crawling, and sideways... Moving slightly above 0.0 mph it only took us twenty-five minutes to reach 4000’ and found ourselves in a pretty, side-table size, mossy meadow (aka standing-room only). Retreating was not option, way too dangerous to descend. Naturally neither of us had taken her i-phone along. Darn it, one app could have shown us the easy way and another how to get picked-up by a chopper or get lemonade... It was what it was and likely still is what it is, as we could not even see which way the one in front had been: arm wrestling every step. To be honest we had some “easier” section, for example 65 minutes later at 4355’ we covered a distance of 39 feet at 1.3 mph and we once walked all of 53 feet without stopping. The mentally and physically most strenuous were the 35 seconds 7 feet stretches leading to much of the same. At 4500’ we reached some open ledges bordered by large Bog Laurel bushes in full bloom. Furthermore we could now see a mere 400 linear feet away Haystack summit area rock ledges and WOOW WOOW we were out of the blowdown. In spite of being somewhat re-energized that last section was so very tight it took us 40 minutes to travel. Our heads were more often than not above the trees but we still could not see our feet. Now on the open ledges, at 4855’ (.76-mile and 2H45 after leaving the top of the slide), Inge kept on to the true summit of Haystack while I chose to reach the trail and wait for her there. The Matterhorn of the Adirondacks had just taken all the energy I could spare for one day, I was ready to shoot the breeze..
