New Old route up Santanoni?

[professor]

I am planning a day trip to the Tahawus Road trailheads in 2 days after several years' absence. I remember reading a few years ago about the possibility of the reopening of the original route up Santanoni from the Bradley Pond trail well before you get to the "standard" route up via Times Square. Is this route legal now? If so, is it fairly straightforward to find its start and follow it to the summit? I am used to following my nose on most of the standard Adirondack herd paths. If someone could post a link to a decent route description, or at least offer their own abbreviated version, I would greatly appreciate it.

 

[FattyD]

Just used the herdpath you mentioned a few weeks ago to finish my 46. It is easy to find and is in good shape after the first few minutes. You will see a cairn well before bradley pond next to the stream you are following. Once across the stream, stay to the left. Someone (46ers?) has now marked a trail around the beaver marsh. The taped trail (flouresecent yellow if I remember) will lead you around the marsh and back to the old/new trail. From there it is very easy to follow and dumps you off just before the summit of Santanoni. The cairn is pretty easy to spot on the trail up to bradley pond. Hope this helps.

 

[ALGonquin Bob]

Did it in March.... there's a cairn?

 

[FattyD]

There was in July...I attempted it last year (and was turned back by the mini-lake) and there wasn't a cairn (just a piece of pink ribbon on a tree branch). This July, no ribbon but a cairn...

 

[BlackSpruce]

Like most of the High Peaks herdpaths the Santanonis have been getting some light maintenance in order to be kind to the mountains and minimize climbers’ impact.* I was surprised to occasionnaly read that hikers had difficulty founding their way around the flooded section of the historical Tahawus Trail (old - new) which leads directly to Santanoni Mt summit . The present owners of the land (The Nature Conservancy/Open Space Institute) concerned over safety kindly granted permission to establish a short by-pass to help climbers find their way back to the “regular” path. In places the water is now several feet deep and even close to seven over a few feet where a sort of overflow drainage from the swamp crosses the trail.


*At this time many of the herdapths already have adopters (Redfield, Gray, Esther, Street/Nye, Tabletop, Marshall and all of the Dixes) and a few herdapth are now open for adoption and the rest will likely be ready for adoption by the end of the summer of 2010. Anyone interested can contact the 46-Rs trailmaster (Len Grubbs) via the e-mail address provided on the Club website. It’s a tough but rewarding commitment.

 

[Paradox]

Just used the herdpath you mentioned a few weeks ago to finish my 46. It is easy to find and is in good shape after the first few minutes. You will see a cairn well before bradley pond next to the stream you are following. Once across the stream, stay to the left. Someone (46ers?) has now marked a trail around the beaver marsh. The taped trail (flouresecent yellow if I remember) will lead you around the marsh and back to the old/new trail. From there it is very easy to follow and dumps you off just before the summit of Santanoni. The cairn is pretty easy to spot on the trail up to bradley pond. Hope this helps.

Do you go around the marsh to the North or the South?

 

[BlackSpruce]

To the South, North would be quite a detour followed by a struggle to get back on the trail!

 

[Mike P.]

The cairin is pretty easy to find & the detour is not too far away. (I don't think it was 200 yards from the cairn but then I wasn't feeling that great that day.) I missed it, got wet & then found it.

For some reason I'm thinking orange flagging for the detour with a couple of small sticks blocking the wet path.

 

[imarchant]

The reroute is cleared and the old herdpath brushed in. I was there yesterday.

 

[Raymond]

The cairn looks something like this: