ebbinghaus
Member
MacNaughton from UpperWorks and back via Indian Pass.
See post on 2004-09-04 on trail conditions site. This is an expansion of that (but different).
Left at 4am. Ansel met me at home. Weatherman was promising nothing but rain and thunderstorms on Sunday. But at 4am there was no rain though the sky was overcast.
No rain at trailhead! Arrived sometime near 6 am -- on the trail by 6:20. Day was muggy, but not too hot.
McM#1 Indian Pass: Goodwin#125 -- followed Yellow markers
Right fork goes to Calamity Brook Trail -- we went straight
McM#2 -- branches left; Goodwin#127
outlet to Hunter Pond
8:15 am MacNaughton creek joins trail from E -- this is the point to leave trail
Still no rain. Cut off was very obvious. Like all the posting on View-from-the-top say, just keep going until after Hunter Pond where a large, wide stream intersects the trail from the right (NE) and continues to follow the trail heading N. Actually this is a wide flat space with abandoned mining and/or logging equipment. Cut-off is marked by a cairn.
Way up can be described in 4 discrete stages:
A. easy hike up ridge to south (right) of MacNaughton Creek -- took a bit of work to follow this, but was well worth the effort (considering the alternatives)
B. Ridge trail gets lost near blowdown. This is heck!! Only rule of thumb we could derive was to not stray too far from the creek, but to not go in the creek either. Ours was a very wet year. Lots and lots of water. Be sure to wear protective clothing on arms and legs -- long sleeve shirt, eye protection, high gaiters are minimum. Knee pads would have been a good idea.
C. Creek ends. It really does. Source comes from under some rocks. At this point some kind soul(s) has flagged the path to the summit area. This is very very nice as the trail they flagged leads through dense stands of tall spruce. The tops of the spruce are over head high, but the density of the woods is extreme and wd have made hiking thru it very uncomfortable. As is it is not a real nice walk
D. Looking for the summit. We found the ledge that we assumed would have had a nice view if not for the clouds. Took a while to find the summit with the sign. It would have helped us a lot if we could have seen the surrounding mountains and ponds. But we cd not.
Four peaks to MacNaughton 44.13°N, 74.06°W
Semi-summit near ledge -- N 44.13997 // W074.06497 -- estimated elevation 3995
Summit w/sign -- N 44.13970 // W074.06458 -- estimated elev 4022
Once at top it took us a while to find the way down. Tried to follow a few trails that petered out. Found pink ties at one spot that seemed to be marking a trail down the east side. Began following that. Sort of petered out. We kept going. This walk was notable for the black flies. At this writing it is a week after the hike and my black fly bites are mostly old scabs!! There were swarms of black flies. I had never been attacked so by these critters. They went for the eyes!! We put on deet but it didn't help much. I put on sunglasses and that helped keep them away from my eyes. Eventually I remembered my head mesh -- that helped a lot. But by then we were halfway down the east side of MacNaughton and away from most of the flies.
The fly stuff was very weird. None on the way up. Found them at the top and on the east side of MacN. None down at Wallface Ponds!
2:20 pm -- Left Wallface Ponds
Found the "marked" trail. Lousy. Going xcountry up west side of MacN was drier.
Note that it began to rain about 5-min after we left Wallface Ponds. First thunderstorm in the ADKs that I had ever been out in. Very powerful rain.
Indian Pass was very surprising. Very rugged trail. Somehow I had expected something bigger and better maintained. Maybe few people do this one? We went off trail by accident climbing through the pass. At some point we found ourselves climbing uphill steeply -- breaking trail thru the side of the mountain. At his point we decided we were off trial and headed forward but down until we intersected the real trail. The real trail was very rocky, but kept closer to the stream than we had been.
Goodwin#125 4.4 mi from here to parking lot!
Nice walk
Wallface Lean-to. Farther to this place than we had expected to be. We were growing tired.
I guess that all in all we hiked through 3 major thunderstorms. As we were not on the mountaintop for any of them it was all okay -- we just got wet.
Happy to see the junction to Calminity Brook Trail.
Henderson Lean-to. Stopped here to pump water. We both had run out. Was raining hard here, but we felt we had better have something to drink before going on. We had to talk ourselves into this as we were pretty much beyond food and drink at this point.
7:40 -- back to car -- finally.
on the road to home
Was a long day. One of the most strenuous either of us had been on. Certainly one of the most varied in terms of terrain and weather. The black fly bits swelled to leave my forehead very distinctively marked for the next week. My right-toe nail on my small toe finally fell off (Seymour killed it several weeks ago.) My feet were wet all day. The first part of the day -- the uphill to MacN -- I blame on the boots. No reason for the boots to fail me!! The second part of the day -- from Wallface Ponds back to the car -- I blame on the rain. At this point we were just walking pretty much as straight as we could. Mud?? Water?? Well, you can only get so wet and so dirty and we were there. (Indeed, I slipped and fell in the mud at one point. About as dirty as possible.) All in all, a truly stupendous day and a great hike! Was glad to have Ansel's company as he just keeps on going. Few complaints! Good sense of humor. Lots of stamina! Great guy to take a long walk with.
See post on 2004-09-04 on trail conditions site. This is an expansion of that (but different).
Left at 4am. Ansel met me at home. Weatherman was promising nothing but rain and thunderstorms on Sunday. But at 4am there was no rain though the sky was overcast.
No rain at trailhead! Arrived sometime near 6 am -- on the trail by 6:20. Day was muggy, but not too hot.
McM#1 Indian Pass: Goodwin#125 -- followed Yellow markers
Right fork goes to Calamity Brook Trail -- we went straight
McM#2 -- branches left; Goodwin#127
outlet to Hunter Pond
8:15 am MacNaughton creek joins trail from E -- this is the point to leave trail
Still no rain. Cut off was very obvious. Like all the posting on View-from-the-top say, just keep going until after Hunter Pond where a large, wide stream intersects the trail from the right (NE) and continues to follow the trail heading N. Actually this is a wide flat space with abandoned mining and/or logging equipment. Cut-off is marked by a cairn.
Way up can be described in 4 discrete stages:
A. easy hike up ridge to south (right) of MacNaughton Creek -- took a bit of work to follow this, but was well worth the effort (considering the alternatives)
B. Ridge trail gets lost near blowdown. This is heck!! Only rule of thumb we could derive was to not stray too far from the creek, but to not go in the creek either. Ours was a very wet year. Lots and lots of water. Be sure to wear protective clothing on arms and legs -- long sleeve shirt, eye protection, high gaiters are minimum. Knee pads would have been a good idea.
C. Creek ends. It really does. Source comes from under some rocks. At this point some kind soul(s) has flagged the path to the summit area. This is very very nice as the trail they flagged leads through dense stands of tall spruce. The tops of the spruce are over head high, but the density of the woods is extreme and wd have made hiking thru it very uncomfortable. As is it is not a real nice walk
D. Looking for the summit. We found the ledge that we assumed would have had a nice view if not for the clouds. Took a while to find the summit with the sign. It would have helped us a lot if we could have seen the surrounding mountains and ponds. But we cd not.
Four peaks to MacNaughton 44.13°N, 74.06°W
Semi-summit near ledge -- N 44.13997 // W074.06497 -- estimated elevation 3995
Summit w/sign -- N 44.13970 // W074.06458 -- estimated elev 4022
Once at top it took us a while to find the way down. Tried to follow a few trails that petered out. Found pink ties at one spot that seemed to be marking a trail down the east side. Began following that. Sort of petered out. We kept going. This walk was notable for the black flies. At this writing it is a week after the hike and my black fly bites are mostly old scabs!! There were swarms of black flies. I had never been attacked so by these critters. They went for the eyes!! We put on deet but it didn't help much. I put on sunglasses and that helped keep them away from my eyes. Eventually I remembered my head mesh -- that helped a lot. But by then we were halfway down the east side of MacNaughton and away from most of the flies.
The fly stuff was very weird. None on the way up. Found them at the top and on the east side of MacN. None down at Wallface Ponds!
2:20 pm -- Left Wallface Ponds
Found the "marked" trail. Lousy. Going xcountry up west side of MacN was drier.
Note that it began to rain about 5-min after we left Wallface Ponds. First thunderstorm in the ADKs that I had ever been out in. Very powerful rain.
Indian Pass was very surprising. Very rugged trail. Somehow I had expected something bigger and better maintained. Maybe few people do this one? We went off trail by accident climbing through the pass. At some point we found ourselves climbing uphill steeply -- breaking trail thru the side of the mountain. At his point we decided we were off trial and headed forward but down until we intersected the real trail. The real trail was very rocky, but kept closer to the stream than we had been.
Goodwin#125 4.4 mi from here to parking lot!
Nice walk
Wallface Lean-to. Farther to this place than we had expected to be. We were growing tired.
I guess that all in all we hiked through 3 major thunderstorms. As we were not on the mountaintop for any of them it was all okay -- we just got wet.
Happy to see the junction to Calminity Brook Trail.
Henderson Lean-to. Stopped here to pump water. We both had run out. Was raining hard here, but we felt we had better have something to drink before going on. We had to talk ourselves into this as we were pretty much beyond food and drink at this point.
7:40 -- back to car -- finally.
on the road to home
Was a long day. One of the most strenuous either of us had been on. Certainly one of the most varied in terms of terrain and weather. The black fly bits swelled to leave my forehead very distinctively marked for the next week. My right-toe nail on my small toe finally fell off (Seymour killed it several weeks ago.) My feet were wet all day. The first part of the day -- the uphill to MacN -- I blame on the boots. No reason for the boots to fail me!! The second part of the day -- from Wallface Ponds back to the car -- I blame on the rain. At this point we were just walking pretty much as straight as we could. Mud?? Water?? Well, you can only get so wet and so dirty and we were there. (Indeed, I slipped and fell in the mud at one point. About as dirty as possible.) All in all, a truly stupendous day and a great hike! Was glad to have Ansel's company as he just keeps on going. Few complaints! Good sense of humor. Lots of stamina! Great guy to take a long walk with.
Thanks.
