Santanoni's May 29

[vlphiker]

Just a quick report and thanks to all of you who have discussed the Santanoni's in some form or another over the past month.
We (my brother in law - Ken) and I made it up all three peaks despite the previous week of rain and a downpour the night before our trip. We started out on the trail at 5:20 am and made it to Times Square at 8:45. We were moving on caffiene and adrenalin. We managed to get there without mud on our gaitors - though I have no idea how. Couch was fine - good views going down. Thanks to all for the advice to do that first. Toward the end of the trip back from Couch our energy began to fade. We were back at Times Square by 12 noon and what had started as a dry somewhat warm day became grey and cold. On our way over to Santanoni it rained icy cold. We got soaked through and went up to our ankles in mud. We also hit patches of snow but nothing unmanageable. I realized then that if we had had to start out the day in rain we never would have made it. The weather cleared by the time we got to the top of Santanoni and we managed to dry off and change to warmer clothes and enjoy spectacular views with both rain and sun in the distance. Back at Times square by 3pm and on Panter at 3:20. More amazing views. Great to look back over all we had done. By then our legs were rubber and we were ready to head down and out. The trip down was HARD. It seemed so much longer than the way in. We could hardly believe we had covered all that territory that very morning. My hiking pole (the first time I have use one) saved the day numerous time as my quads stopped working. The trail from Bradley pond out was a muddy quagmire. We both sank up to our knees in mud a few times because we just didn't care or have the energy to be careful. It really hadn't seemed that muddy on the way in but as I said I must have been on some caffiene high. Just before we hit the road we stopped and took our completely mud caked boots off and soaked our prune feet in the stream. We put on dry socks and enjoyed the final 1.6 miles out on the level road. We got back to the car at 7:40pm.
I have now finished 45 and will climb Marcy #46 for me on my 46th B-day this summer .

 

[Neil]

What a great report! I have to confess that reading about your trip while comfortably ensconced with a cup of hot joe at hand is a lot easier than executing it in the field must have been.
I'm always amazed at the time/effort warp I go through on hikes. What took effortless seconds on the way in stretches out agonizingly on the way out. (One notable exception: skiing the toll road on Whiteface ) I'll never forget walking the Sewards road recently after a grueling 14 hour trip up Seward. I would have sworn that the gate was right around the next bend a dozen times.

 

[masshysteria]

Ditto on what Neil said about the difference in the passage of time during a hike. The first time I did the Sants., I went up Panther first, which afforded me a great view of Couch and how far down and out I had to go to get there. Needless to say, I put Couch off till another day. Moral of the story; do like vlphiker did, Couch, Santo, then Panther last.

 

[Pete Hogan]

Prune Feet Indeed!

vplhiker...................

Great TR...... congrats for a successful Santanoni experience! Your descriptive

soaked our prune feet in the stream

made me LOL as I recalled so many torturous "slogs" of my own resulting in ugly, wrinkley, puckered, stinky, tired, but oh so relieved feet painfully soaking in streams and brooks that were so cold, I practically had an ice cream headache!

I'm ashamed to admit I've even photographed my own prune feet for posterity!

Prune feet would be a worthy addition to the glossary of any hiking reference!

 

[TDA]

WOW!--Im doing the Santanonis this Sat-Great trip report-Looks really easy

I might have been better off not knowing how "easy" this hike will be

So,I should expect some mud?

 

[TMax]

Excellant report vlphiker, I could feel your pain!!! I know that long slog out at the end of any hike where time and distance is warped. You get this sense that the hike will never end, that you'll be walking in mud, over rocks, being eaten by bugs until the end of time! You captured this experience quite well in your TR. But hey, that's the stuff great stories are made of...