June 19, The Great Range Traverse

[dangergirl]

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kfolcik/sets/72157624200777903/
On Friday night I left work and headed out to the Adirondaks to hike the Great Range Traverse with a bunch of people I met online. They were: (forgive me if I mess up names or forgot anyone!) Doug, Laura, Guy, Frank, Scott, Jessica, Gillian, Jay, Rob, and myself. I was a bit nervous to be doing such a big hike with a group I never met before, but I really wanted to do this hike so I went. I was tired so I stopped at McDonalds to get a burger and fries so that I would get an upset stomach...that way I would not fall asleep while driving.
I found the campground at around 9:30pm and saw a couple of people sitting around a campfire ring with no fire in it. Soon more people began to show up and I started to meet everyone around our campfire which consisted of a light on a cooler. It was warm out so it didn't matter. Everyone seemed really nice and definitly had a sense of humor. I crawled into my car around 11pm and could not sleep because I was so afraid of not keeping and then having people never want to hike with me again. I finally fell asleep around 1am and woke up to my alarm at 4:00am. I was exhausted. I forced down some poptarts and made myself a cup of tea. I finished meeting everyone and was so nervous but excited!
That morning a racoon got into a cooler and helped himself to some food and then tried to drink some beer but it wasn't a twist top and he didn't have a bottle opener so he just settled for food. He left his footprint on a piece of paper.
At 5:30am we hopped in the cars and the fun began.
We started out from the Adirondak Loj at 6:08am and went over to Marcy. When we came around a corner before a bridge over a swamp, Jason was rummaging through the woods looking for sticks. We all wondered what he was doing when he started to hand out hiking sticks. We found out why when we saw that the bridge was under about a foot of water. We hopped across a log to get to the other side. At Marcy Dam we were treated to some really nice views of Colden. Rob and Jay ran up to tag Phelps while the rest of us kept moving towards Marcy. The weather was really nice and I was starting to lose the butterflies. Everybody was really nice and I didn't wonder anymore if I was going to be left behind to get eaten by a bear or something.
We summited Marcy under blue skies, nice weather, and a cool wind. We took a break up there and checked out the views. There was a concern about some naked hiking but fortunately everybody arrived with their clothes on!
Next stop was Skylight which gave us a nice view of Haystack. The trail was so wet that it had water running from the summit all the way down. Suprisingly the traction was pretty good. We went down to Panther Gorge and after some Giardia discussions most everybody filtered their water. I was so excited to find out that my Nalgene bladder screwed onto my filter!
It was really hot and humid by this point and things were quite muddy. We were all getting pretty dirty by this point, but still having fun! Soon enough we stood on top of Haystack and the views just kept getting better! I spied some nice looking rock on the back of Marcy and hope to go back to climb it sometime. We made the easy trot to little Haystack before descending again.
After Haystack we went to Basin and then my favorite part of the hike began! The slabs going up Saddleback were so much fun! Awesome handholds and very cool! The only problem was there there was blood all over the place! Someone must have been gushing pretty good all the way up the climb. I was pretty scared of catching some bloodborne pathogen and tried to avoid touching the blood at all costs.
The next mountain was Gothics which was pretty cool! It had some nice grippy slabs and some old garden hoses cabled to the rock. At this point the sky was getting pretty dark and there were some interested but non threatening clouds forming. It did drizzle a bit but it wasn't bad and it kept things a bit cooler than they were earlier in the day.
After Gothics we popped out Armstrong and Upper Wolf Jaw. There was one other bump with a view that Frank had given some odd name. It was really getting late in the day so some people decided to take off down to the Garden parking lot and three of us continued on.
I am a wimp when it comes to the dark so I was motivated to get out of there before the evening critters started to come out to eat me. We hurried up Lower Wolfjaw and then started to run towards Hedgehog. The trails actually got pretty nice after Lower Wolfjaw. When we got to Roostercomb the sign said it was .5 miles away. The three of us looked at each other and then Rob figured we were there so why not go for it. We ran to the summit and it was definitly worth doing! The views were awesome! We snapped a few pictures. I soon realized I lost the tube to my pee funnel and was devistated! Luckily I found it running down off of Roostercomb. At that point we only had 2.2 miles to go so we took off running and got out of the woods just as it got dark!
The frogs were loud and the bugs were hungry so we didn't hang out too long. We were out there for 15 hours, summitted 12 peaks and did 11,200 feet of elevation gain.
We got back to the campground and met up with everyone again. We had a real campfire this time and shared some interesting stories about zombies, telescopes, Brooklyn, and creepy guys snorkeling in portolets. I had a blast with everyone and hope to go hiking with them again sometime! Thanks for inviting me and not scaring me away!

 

[dr_wu002]

The only bummer about this trip was losing the freaking cap to my water bladder on Skylight. Otherwise it was pretty much perfect! We moved pretty decent for a group of 10 as well. I had a fantastic time! Thanks a lot to the jerk that organized the whole thing. He was freaking people out at the campsite afterwards but that's ok because we all love him...

There was one other bump with a view that Frank had given some odd name.

I didn't make up that name -- it's on most ADK maps...

-Dr. Wu

 

[mookie]

The only problem was there there was blood all over the place! Someone must have been gushing pretty good all the way up the climb. I was pretty scared of catching some bloodborne pathogen and tried to avoid touching the blood at all costs.
!

that was so nasty!
nice to meet and hike with you and hopefully frank and guy didnt freak you out-those dudes can be strange....

 

[dangergirl]

I didn't make up that name -- it's on most ADK maps...

-Dr. Wu

I need to get a copy of your map it wasn't on mine! !

It was really nice to meet everyone and those two kooks didn't scare me too much. Thanks for the laughs and the great hike!

 

[Jay H]

Awesome trip, except for that Mookie guy, stay away from him, I hear he likes Cottage cheese.

Sorry, couldn't make this one, would of been cool to see Giggy in the ADKs, though I think he is just photoshopped...

Looks like you had a nice day!

Jay

 

[giggy]

Great report and tons of fun.. Great first trek in the ADKs. Had a great weekend. I swung by the Jackrabbit late Friday to say hello to TMAX and check out the place. It was great to say hello - it had been a while since I saw her.

JayH - wish you could have been there, been a while since we hiked together and recall a couple years back, we had this planned and it never panned out. It would have felt fitting to have both you and arm along for this ride, but he had to go out west - the jerk.

It felt good to finish this. I could have gone with the flow, but as long as I had one other person to finish roostercomb with, I was going, so the Sasquatch led the way. Not sure when I will get back there, just get er done.

So here is the deal from my perspective... the debate on which is harder the pressie or the great range.. I have to say, the great range by a small amount, but I think they are both in the same ballpark. I think it was about as tough as the a pressie I did with a Howker ridge start and ending with Webster. (with JayH for that matter)

I think if you don't do lowerwolfjaw-roostercomb and don't do skylight, I would say they are really about even. The water thing is a non issue as is no summit building. I did a press about 3 weeks ago and this - this past weekend, so both are fresh in the head. Actually, I have done several pressie traverses and my feet actually felt less beat up on the great range than a pressie. I simply don't buy that the great range is leaps and bounds harder than a press traverse. Sorry, the NY'ers don't want to hear that, but its a question that had some debate, so there is my analysis!

Great to get a hike with dangergirl after seen her cool trips posted here. I think she fit right in with this crowd and had zero trouble keping up. Though, not sure if thats a good or bad thing.. always fun to hike with the rest of the gang (WU, JF, Gillian, Mookie, Rob, etc)

I enjoyed myself this weekend - thanks to WU for putting it all together and asking me along. I like doing things a little different, so adding skylight and coming out of pather gorge really put the icing on the cake. I heard that is done more rarely as a start. Though, I don't know that for sure?

 

[dr_wu002]

I think if you don't do lowerwolfjaw-roostercomb and don't do skylight, I would say they are really about even. The water thing is a non issue as is no summit building. I did a press about 3 weeks ago and this - this past weekend, so both are fresh in the head. Actually, I have done several pressie traverses and my feet actually felt less beat up on the great range than a pressie. I simply don't buy that the great range is leaps and bounds harder than a press traverse. Sorry, the NY'ers don't want to hear that, but its a question that had some debate, so there is my analysis!

I think the GRT is way easier. The downs are slow and tedious. But the ups have a lot of elevation gain but are way more fun and easier, in my opinion. Gothics, especially... we basically ran up it.

It would have been nice to go to Roostercomb (I bailed down Wolfjaw last year too) but it was cutting into my beer drinking time and someone needed to spend the next 2 hours driving back and forth between trail heads, picking up hikers and cars. It was fun bombing down to the Garden with Jason -- probably took 40 minutes to cover ~5 miles.

Giggy: Glad I was able to finally get you to the ADKs.

Dangergirl: it was great to finally meet & hike with you.

Mookie: good to see and hike with you again after like a year. And congrats.

Jason, Gillian, Rob, Jess, Doug, Lara: always good...

-Dr. Wu

 

[mookie]

I think the GRT is way easier.

to me, this was tougher than pressies and that lame devils path thing.
but thats just me, what do i know.... the long trip up marcy was obviously an easy walk for like 6.7 (??) miles and the last 5+ out were easy.
the +/- 10 miles in between kicked my arse.

 

[mookie]

Awesome trip, except for that Mookie guy, stay away from him, I hear he likes Cottage cheese.

Sorry, couldn't make this one, would of been cool to see Giggy in the ADKs, though I think he is just photoshopped...

Looks like you had a nice day!

Jay

for some reason my cottage cheese spoiled jay, may have been the high temps of the day? wish you could have hiked with us.

 

[dangergirl]

Oh come on! They are both easy!
I thought that technically the GRT was harder but physically a bit easier than the presi. The boulder hopping in the Presi tends to wear on the knees towards the end where the slabs seem to be slicker when wet but more comfy. Both are great hikes but very different.

 

[Mike P.]

i'll check out the pictures later, that's some trip & super time. the elevation gain for a GRT is more than a PT & even more than a Pemi loop. (Day hiked the range in sections from JBl back in 1995)


All different, I'd say the GRT is more like a pemi trip, some big up & downs (more in ADK's) & more dirt than a PT. down low vs, the rock hopping in the Northern Presi's. (The Northern peaks have decent cols but descending from Washington is never more than 350 up to the next peak. (Only Sklight from 4 Corners is about that)

Giggy, to see what you did on this trip, a trip to big Slide over the Brother's gives you a great view of the Great range.

 

[ferrisjrf]

What is book time for this hike? I heard it's harder than Tecumseh. Is that true? I'm thinking about doing this hike in 13 months. What will the weather be like? Should I bring crampons? Would you recommend that I wear shorts or pants? Maybe capris? Is there a post office in the Great Range?

 

[mookie]

What is book time for this hike? I heard it's harder than Tecumseh. Is that true? I'm thinking about doing this hike in 13 months. What will the weather be like? Should I bring crampons? Would you recommend that I wear shorts or pants? Maybe capris? Is there a post office in the Great Range?

Ferris,
I would not attempt it , you may get sweat in your eyes or get lost trying to find the trail head.....

 

[dangergirl]

I think there is a post office in Panther Gorge. They have really pretty postcards there. You should wear short pants and a wife beater.

 

[Dave Bear]

Kristina, Great TR and excellent pictures of what looks like an awesome hike with a great bunch! You must be a keeper in this crowd if you survived a Dr Wu hike, or was he on good behaviour because Jess was along?

Kudos to all of you for doing NY in style! Someday maybe.

 

[Neil]

What is book time for this hike? I heard it's harder than Tecumseh. Is that true? I'm thinking about doing this hike in 13 months. What will the weather be like? Should I bring crampons? Would you recommend that I wear shorts or pants? Maybe capris? Is there a post office in the Great Range?

Whatever you decide to do be sure and bring yourself fully up to date on the black fly "situation" before venturing into the wild lands within the blue line. Luckily, with the internet hiking boards it is now possible to get up to the minute, region specific reports regarding the density and degree of ferociousness of this scourge.

What I recommend you do specifically is start a thread (there never seem to be enough of them anyway) entitled' "What are the black flies like on the Great Range? Should I stay in Mass?"

 

[leaf]

What is book time for this hike?

I wouldn't even try it if you can't do it in 9 hours. I mean, what's the point?

 

[Gillian]

Nice TR Kristina!

It was so much fun to get back on the Great Range. I would love this hike even more though, if there wasn't a death climb over Saddleback - can we remove that mountain please?? Noone believed me about how dangerous it is, until they saw it covered in blood from top to bottom.

The rest of the ridge was loads of fun though. We lucked out with the weather and the views were gorgeous. The climb up Haystack got the heart pumping hard, but that's why we do it right?...and of course the walk along the ridge to Little Haystack was awesome. The river crossing at the end, 0.5 miles from the Garden, was a wee bit trying, but thanks for putting up with me Mookie and waiting patiently.

Thanks for putting the trip together Wu - your too serious though, lighten up Great to hike with Gig in the ADKs finally, and of course everyone else. Looking forward to another long walk over the mountains hopefully soon....