Dory
New member
Ok, so the plan was Basin/Haystack/Saddleback, we were getting up at 4AM (it was supposed to snow till 8AM) and we were going to hike quickly to gain elevation and hopefully miss some of the rain. ha ha ha... 
We arrived at Trails End around 10:45PM and it was around midnight until we all settled in. Travelmates for this trip were my husband Wes, sister Amy, and friend Colby. Needless to say we weren't so thrilled when the alarm rang at 4. Immediately we heard the steady pour of rain, and after 5 minutes of contemplation snuggled back into the blankets and decided on destination 'B'. We reawoke around 7 and headed down for an awesome breakfast and took off for the Ausable Club. At the car as we shouldered our packs my sister asked me for the 50th time, "Why do we do this?". I gave her the answer which we always remind each other..."Because we hate shopping."
Time leaving the car 9AM. We signed in at the trailhead where a very nice ranger warned us about possible blowdown from the wind. We made quick work of the road and grabbed the trail to Indian Head. Wes was captivated by the photos he has seen, so we decided to take a look. Surprisingly, we were able to see the back side of Gothics and the Ausable lakes. The low clouds, I think, sometimes add to the texture and the body of the view even more than a blue sky can. We will return to see it on a sunny day tho!
Down past fish hawk cliffs and then thru Elk Pass we travelled thru the rain and muddy, muddy trail. As we started our ascent up Nippletop, we stopped on the trail to refuel and three Canadians passed us on their way up. After Elk Pass we started seeing about 1/4" to 1" of slush. Following the junction to Colvin/Blake we started to see between 1-3" of snow. The snow depth increased as we ascended and from the junction to Dial (2/10's of a mile from the Nippletop summit) we saw about 6" to a foot of snow. There was a small amount of thin ice over some rocks, but mostly it was snow over slush over water. Lots and lots and lots and LOTS of water. Many places it was more than half way up to my knee. We spent about 2 minutes at the summit as we were completely soaked and still had a lengthy return trip. We were rewarded with a few views of the sawteeth and Gothics and Dix...and South Dix? Anyway, I did put on stabilizers as we hit more of the icy/slushy sections, but I can't really say that they helped. I don't believe crampons would have helped either, it was just slippy slushy goo. Descending sucked. Hehe, I'm not sure how else to put it. The steeps were very difficult to navigate because of the slush. Each of the four of us took turns taking some spectacular falls. I did a nice 20' slide down a snow covered section. I had flashbacks of my glissade and resulting concussion on Saddleback. Further down the ponds around Elk Pass were overflowing and just pouring down the trail. We finally reached the junction where we had previously turned off to go to Indian Head, but we continued on and hiked all the way out Gill Brook to the Lake Road. Along the Gill brook trail we saw an enormous pile of ... bear poo?...a yellowish pile of stuff full of those small red berries. We also were amazed at how much the Gill had come up as the day went on. Our friend Colby is a white water kayaker, he was like a kid at Christmas looking at some of the runs...but he also said that many of them were things only a few would try if they had the chance...very sketchy stuff. We hit the Lake Road around 5PM and were back at the car by 6:15. Two hours and 4 hot showers later, we found ourselves seated in the dry warm friendly Baxter Mtn Tavern drinking some brew and trying to decide what to eat for dinner. This morning we packed up and had another delicious breakfast feast before we made the long drive back to PA.
I think that hiking up here is much like reading a good book over and over. Each time you get something new out of it. This trip I wish I had taken trekking poles to help with navigating the steeper sections. I also wish I had taken an extra set of 'waterproof' shell gloves. Maybe Seal Skinz. I packed a turkey sandwich for lunch, but I should have taken more Energy gel, it worked much better to give me a boost.
As always, experiencing all of it...from the crappy rain to the SUMMIT to relaxing by the fire and drinking a beer...is something that completes me and probably only someone who read all the way to here might also understand.
Hope to see you out there,
Dory
p.s. See our pictures here
We arrived at Trails End around 10:45PM and it was around midnight until we all settled in. Travelmates for this trip were my husband Wes, sister Amy, and friend Colby. Needless to say we weren't so thrilled when the alarm rang at 4. Immediately we heard the steady pour of rain, and after 5 minutes of contemplation snuggled back into the blankets and decided on destination 'B'. We reawoke around 7 and headed down for an awesome breakfast and took off for the Ausable Club. At the car as we shouldered our packs my sister asked me for the 50th time, "Why do we do this?". I gave her the answer which we always remind each other..."Because we hate shopping."
Time leaving the car 9AM. We signed in at the trailhead where a very nice ranger warned us about possible blowdown from the wind. We made quick work of the road and grabbed the trail to Indian Head. Wes was captivated by the photos he has seen, so we decided to take a look. Surprisingly, we were able to see the back side of Gothics and the Ausable lakes. The low clouds, I think, sometimes add to the texture and the body of the view even more than a blue sky can. We will return to see it on a sunny day tho!
Down past fish hawk cliffs and then thru Elk Pass we travelled thru the rain and muddy, muddy trail. As we started our ascent up Nippletop, we stopped on the trail to refuel and three Canadians passed us on their way up. After Elk Pass we started seeing about 1/4" to 1" of slush. Following the junction to Colvin/Blake we started to see between 1-3" of snow. The snow depth increased as we ascended and from the junction to Dial (2/10's of a mile from the Nippletop summit) we saw about 6" to a foot of snow. There was a small amount of thin ice over some rocks, but mostly it was snow over slush over water. Lots and lots and lots and LOTS of water. Many places it was more than half way up to my knee. We spent about 2 minutes at the summit as we were completely soaked and still had a lengthy return trip. We were rewarded with a few views of the sawteeth and Gothics and Dix...and South Dix? Anyway, I did put on stabilizers as we hit more of the icy/slushy sections, but I can't really say that they helped. I don't believe crampons would have helped either, it was just slippy slushy goo. Descending sucked. Hehe, I'm not sure how else to put it. The steeps were very difficult to navigate because of the slush. Each of the four of us took turns taking some spectacular falls. I did a nice 20' slide down a snow covered section. I had flashbacks of my glissade and resulting concussion on Saddleback.
Further down the ponds around Elk Pass were overflowing and just pouring down the trail. We finally reached the junction where we had previously turned off to go to Indian Head, but we continued on and hiked all the way out Gill Brook to the Lake Road. Along the Gill brook trail we saw an enormous pile of ... bear poo?...a yellowish pile of stuff full of those small red berries. We also were amazed at how much the Gill had come up as the day went on. Our friend Colby is a white water kayaker, he was like a kid at Christmas looking at some of the runs...but he also said that many of them were things only a few would try if they had the chance...very sketchy stuff. We hit the Lake Road around 5PM and were back at the car by 6:15. Two hours and 4 hot showers later, we found ourselves seated in the dry warm friendly Baxter Mtn Tavern drinking some brew and trying to decide what to eat for dinner. This morning we packed up and had another delicious breakfast feast before we made the long drive back to PA. I think that hiking up here is much like reading a good book over and over. Each time you get something new out of it. This trip I wish I had taken trekking poles to help with navigating the steeper sections. I also wish I had taken an extra set of 'waterproof' shell gloves. Maybe Seal Skinz. I packed a turkey sandwich for lunch, but I should have taken more Energy gel, it worked much better to give me a boost.
As always, experiencing all of it...from the crappy rain to the SUMMIT to relaxing by the fire and drinking a beer...is something that completes me and probably only someone who read all the way to here might also understand.
Hope to see you out there,
Dory
p.s. See our pictures here
