Jay H
New member
Date hiked 02-14-2009
Participants: Juniper, Darl58, Arm, 7Summits, Donna, Zero-G, Jay H
Since Juniper coordinated this whole shindig about staying at Aunt Pollys in the booming metropolis known as Newcomb ("The Heart of the Adirondacks", how fitting for Valentine's Day), the Santas have been on my mind. 7 of us would attempt the Santanoni Range by the town of Newcomb via Tahawus and Upper Works. Our starting time would be a lazy 7:30am departure from the plowed parking lot. Making good time on the road, we follow recent snowmobile tracks of those fortunate to have the gate key towards the actual trail towards Bradley Pond. At the register, I do spy a party of 2 who had the three Santas signed in on 2/13 and we thought we would be golden for the day. Onward and upward, we get to the Old-Old trail
from Bradley Pond and make our way on a very well travelled path up past the pond and eventually over some brooks. After the brook, I had a major snowshoe failure (See This thread) and while Arm, Zer0-G, and I attempted a field repair, none other than Queenie and Sir Pin Pin comes strolling by. They were headed towards Santanoni and Panther today and apparently wasn't going on Sunday as expected due to a prior engagement. Nevertheless, it's always good to have a Pin Pin sighting, especially when on the trail. I didn't notice any Santa hat though but we chatted for a bit before he scurried off up the trail. After a short bit of getting my snowshoe workable, we take off chasing the wabbit. Onward and upward, this climb is only about 1000ft, unlike Calkin's brook in the Sewards, the nice steady ascent from the road to Bradley Pond assures of a bit easier and less steep ascent to Herald Square. Upon arrival, we take a short break, making note of the giant P and an arrow etched into a poor tree pointing towads Panther. The group decided that we would do Panther given that it's like 10 minutes off the intersection we were in so we gingerly make our way north towards Panther. In about no time, we are all gathered on Panther and Woots and hollers and Ho Ho Hos were shared. Perhaps some valentines candy too, it is Valentine's Day, ya know.
Back at Herald Square, we try to make sense of some of the scattered paths towards time square, and try to follow the wabbit. I get my compass and GPS out, taking a basic bearing towards Couchy which, due to the bluebird day, was plainly visible to us and following tracks to Times Square, we come across a path that heads down, pretty much on my bearing towards Couch. Apparently, we found one of the herd paths that short cuts the Time Square path and we hit the Couchy herdpath w/o the passing of Times Squre. nevertheless, we'll be back as we see fresh Wabbit tracks going towards Santanoni from here.
On to Couch! We follow an obvious herdpath down through the thick spruce to a somewhat open field and ascent a very small knob to a nice viewpoint of Couch. However, for some unknown reason, the tracks we were following stopped here. I can only surmise that the previous hikers turned back after hitting this small thick section. After Zer0-G fell into a bunch of spruce traps, we resume the path to Couchy, following a bearing, keeping to the ridge and using my GPS track (Thanks JoeCedar!), correcting minor deviations if needed. We found the woods pretty open for the most part and since the path follows the ridge, it's not as hard to whack as the Sewards. We get to a point above the infamous Couchy swamp where we hit a small 20-30ft cliff band, but just a little of wandering, we find a good spot to safely descent. Of course, the swamp was frozen and nicely situated in the sun. At this point, we have basically Couchy in the bag. However, it doesn't get any easier as the path over the two bumps on the way to the summit is fairly thick, even with a path, so we fight our way through a couple of thick spots just above the swamp and we are rewarded with the Couchy sign and fabulous views towards Santanoni on the way back. Pictures and silliness take place, including Darl88 trying to get a timed group shot and Juniper trying to impersonate Zer0-G in a spruce trap. (I think we missed getting this completely on camera... ).
Getting back to the ridge was a nice climb, it was getting to late afternoon with the realization that we'd be going out by Headlamp, it was agreed upon after a short stop back at the Couchy swamp to eat some lunch, etc, that we were all OK with hiking out by headlamp. One of the reasons we chose our peak order and saving Santanoni peak for the last was the possibility of utilizing the new-old trail to shave some distance off which descends directly from Santanoni to the trail south of Bradley Pond. So, after getting back to the ridge, we follow the tracks in the direction of Santanoni. A couple hundred feet later, we hit Times Square, aha! and climb over the rock to hit the herdpath to Santanoni. For sure, the good rabbit tracks lead us pretty much on the herdpath to the many false summits to the top. After 5 minutes of wandering around, I could not find any summit sign, and seeing that the snowshoe tracks ended, my GPS track was indicating we were on the summit and no higher spot of land was seen, we declared success! It was about 4pm and the sun was just starting to set and we were getting Amazing views and lighting on our descent back. It was getting a bit windy and the temps were starting to drop but Darl88 managed to get another group shot while we hurried back. Ho Ho Ho... By this time, my santa hat was pretty much frozen in shape...
Anyway, hiking all the way back to Times Square, we follow a different herdpath to Herald Square but this time, missing the P tree and accidentally starting to head up Panther... Oops. Anyway, probably wouldn't count as a second round anyway.
Back down to bradley Pond, descent seems to go on forever, a few butt slides, not as nice as Calkin's Brook though and a looooonnnggg slog out towards the road and back to the trail by 9pm. This is after my battery in my headlamp died and I replaced the batteries with fresh ones. At one point on the descent, Zer0-G and I stopped, turned our headlamps off and was absolutely amazed at the darkness at the edge of night. Stars were awesome and the quietness was cool.
A great but long day in the woods, having hit all 3 peaks is never a given and the fact that all of us made the hike in such spirits and good humor and times is wicked awesome.
I do wonder who messed up all these Holidays though!
Pictures:
http://picasaweb.google.com/cycleslugyahoo/Santanonis2009_02_14
Jay
Participants: Juniper, Darl58, Arm, 7Summits, Donna, Zero-G, Jay H
Since Juniper coordinated this whole shindig about staying at Aunt Pollys in the booming metropolis known as Newcomb ("The Heart of the Adirondacks", how fitting for Valentine's Day), the Santas have been on my mind. 7 of us would attempt the Santanoni Range by the town of Newcomb via Tahawus and Upper Works. Our starting time would be a lazy 7:30am departure from the plowed parking lot. Making good time on the road, we follow recent snowmobile tracks of those fortunate to have the gate key towards the actual trail towards Bradley Pond. At the register, I do spy a party of 2 who had the three Santas signed in on 2/13 and we thought we would be golden for the day. Onward and upward, we get to the Old-Old trail
from Bradley Pond and make our way on a very well travelled path up past the pond and eventually over some brooks. After the brook, I had a major snowshoe failure (See This thread) and while Arm, Zer0-G, and I attempted a field repair, none other than Queenie and Sir Pin Pin comes strolling by. They were headed towards Santanoni and Panther today and apparently wasn't going on Sunday as expected due to a prior engagement. Nevertheless, it's always good to have a Pin Pin sighting, especially when on the trail. I didn't notice any Santa hat though but we chatted for a bit before he scurried off up the trail. After a short bit of getting my snowshoe workable, we take off chasing the wabbit. Onward and upward, this climb is only about 1000ft, unlike Calkin's brook in the Sewards, the nice steady ascent from the road to Bradley Pond assures of a bit easier and less steep ascent to Herald Square. Upon arrival, we take a short break, making note of the giant P and an arrow etched into a poor tree pointing towads Panther. The group decided that we would do Panther given that it's like 10 minutes off the intersection we were in so we gingerly make our way north towards Panther. In about no time, we are all gathered on Panther and Woots and hollers and Ho Ho Hos were shared. Perhaps some valentines candy too, it is Valentine's Day, ya know.Back at Herald Square, we try to make sense of some of the scattered paths towards time square, and try to follow the wabbit. I get my compass and GPS out, taking a basic bearing towards Couchy which, due to the bluebird day, was plainly visible to us and following tracks to Times Square, we come across a path that heads down, pretty much on my bearing towards Couch. Apparently, we found one of the herd paths that short cuts the Time Square path and we hit the Couchy herdpath w/o the passing of Times Squre. nevertheless, we'll be back as we see fresh Wabbit tracks going towards Santanoni from here.
On to Couch! We follow an obvious herdpath down through the thick spruce to a somewhat open field and ascent a very small knob to a nice viewpoint of Couch. However, for some unknown reason, the tracks we were following stopped here. I can only surmise that the previous hikers turned back after hitting this small thick section. After Zer0-G fell into a bunch of spruce traps, we resume the path to Couchy, following a bearing, keeping to the ridge and using my GPS track (Thanks JoeCedar!), correcting minor deviations if needed. We found the woods pretty open for the most part and since the path follows the ridge, it's not as hard to whack as the Sewards. We get to a point above the infamous Couchy swamp where we hit a small 20-30ft cliff band, but just a little of wandering, we find a good spot to safely descent. Of course, the swamp was frozen and nicely situated in the sun. At this point, we have basically Couchy in the bag. However, it doesn't get any easier as the path over the two bumps on the way to the summit is fairly thick, even with a path, so we fight our way through a couple of thick spots just above the swamp and we are rewarded with the Couchy sign and fabulous views towards Santanoni on the way back. Pictures and silliness take place, including Darl88 trying to get a timed group shot and Juniper trying to impersonate Zer0-G in a spruce trap. (I think we missed getting this completely on camera...
). Getting back to the ridge was a nice climb, it was getting to late afternoon with the realization that we'd be going out by Headlamp, it was agreed upon after a short stop back at the Couchy swamp to eat some lunch, etc, that we were all OK with hiking out by headlamp. One of the reasons we chose our peak order and saving Santanoni peak for the last was the possibility of utilizing the new-old trail to shave some distance off which descends directly from Santanoni to the trail south of Bradley Pond. So, after getting back to the ridge, we follow the tracks in the direction of Santanoni. A couple hundred feet later, we hit Times Square, aha! and climb over the rock to hit the herdpath to Santanoni. For sure, the good rabbit tracks lead us pretty much on the herdpath to the many false summits to the top. After 5 minutes of wandering around, I could not find any summit sign, and seeing that the snowshoe tracks ended, my GPS track was indicating we were on the summit and no higher spot of land was seen, we declared success! It was about 4pm and the sun was just starting to set and we were getting Amazing views and lighting on our descent back. It was getting a bit windy and the temps were starting to drop but Darl88 managed to get another group shot while we hurried back. Ho Ho Ho... By this time, my santa hat was pretty much frozen in shape...
Anyway, hiking all the way back to Times Square, we follow a different herdpath to Herald Square but this time, missing the P tree and accidentally starting to head up Panther... Oops. Anyway, probably wouldn't count as a second round anyway.
Back down to bradley Pond, descent seems to go on forever, a few butt slides, not as nice as Calkin's Brook though and a looooonnnggg slog out towards the road and back to the trail by 9pm. This is after my battery in my headlamp died and I replaced the batteries with fresh ones. At one point on the descent, Zer0-G and I stopped, turned our headlamps off and was absolutely amazed at the darkness at the edge of night. Stars were awesome and the quietness was cool.
A great but long day in the woods, having hit all 3 peaks is never a given and the fact that all of us made the hike in such spirits and good humor and times is wicked awesome.
I do wonder who messed up all these Holidays though!
Pictures:
http://picasaweb.google.com/cycleslugyahoo/Santanonis2009_02_14
Jay
Last edited:
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