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We left the trailhead shortly after 7am on Friday the 4th and enjoyed sunshine and clear skies the whole day. Taking the N/O/N trail split almost 4 miles in offered a way to avoid some mud and shave a little mileage off the trip,and we reconnected with the main trail just shy of the Santanoni summit. The herd path up was well defined and we had no trouble staying on the trail on the N/O/N path or any of the other herd paths. Nice views a little before the summit of Santanoni,though no real views from the actual summit itself. We then took the path to times square and over to Panther,which from TS and back was only about a 25 minute trek. Again, nice views towards the top of the peak but no real great views from the summit of Panther itself. Then came the fun part - Couchsachraga. We thought that since it's only 1.5 miles from TS we should be able to get there and back in about 2 hours. Ha!! Mud and the infamous Coochie bog had other ideas. After more than 3 hours we had made it there and back,and had long since given up any notion of keeping our boots dry or mud free. At this point our legs were getting somewhat tired and the prospect of hiking all the way back up Santanoni to take the N/O/N trail back down wasn't very appealing. Instead we took the Bradley Pond trail back,and while it added a little mileage,it was all downhill. Even with a full week of sunshine the trail was still muddy,though I suppose not as bad as it could have been. We finished back at the car right around 7pm, having hiked 3 peaks and 16 miles in about 12 hours. Not great time,but all in all as good a day as you could have asked for to tackle the most unpopular high peaks in the 46.
