Deb, Sharon, Don, Krista
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| Macomb Slide |
This trip started with lots of bad karma. It started the Thursday before the trip when I wore new shoes to work and got blisters on my heels. That same day we found out the unfortunate news that Glenn's grandmother had past away. Arrangements were made for after the hike, so in the end it worked out that I could still head down with the gang. On the way to Cornwall on Friday, I realized that I had forgotten my passport at home, sending us back to Ottawa to meet Glenn to pick it up. The mistake had cost us over 2 hours of travel time. Feeling horrible about having Debbie drive the extra miles, I insisted to pay for her hostel costs for the weekend. It was the right thing to do. We were also able to arrange for Sharon to pick up a pair of glacier glasses that she had ordered from the Mountaineer before it closed. We stopped in Lake Placid to meet up with our fellow hikers Sharon and Don, and our KV friend Marie for dinner at a Japanese restaurant. Finally arrived at the hostel after 8pm and had a good debate about bringing snowshoes or not right up until bedtime.
After a short night sleep, we woke up at 4:30am and arrived on the Elk Lake road just after 6am. Knowing that the Elk Lake road gate was still closed (despite the unseasonably warm spring and lack of moisture), we had all brought mountain bikes to cycle up to the actual trailhead 3km or 2 miles from where we park. But this was the day when my karma changed from bad to good as we got to the gate and it was open! We rejoiced thinking that the DEC must have decided it was dry enough to open the road to the trailhead. We drove down to trailhead and started off at 6:30am. We had cut off 6km of the hike already!
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| Macomb summit |
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| Trail Conditions |
We marched on the dry rocky path to the Slide brook camping area where we made the decision to head up Macomb first and do the loop counterclockwise. Debbie took off her pack and by accident broke her $172 pair of new glacier glasses. Add to that the piece of plastic that popped off them the day before. She was not impressed and decided they needed to be returned. More on that later. Sharon lead us up the trail to the bottom of the Macomb slide. Being that the temperature with the wind was below zero, most of the loose sand and rock on the slide was frozen in the ground, allowing for fairly easy climbing. We were up before we knew it. Onward to the Maccomb summit, we donned our microspikes hitting a thing covering of snow ice near the summit. We arrived at the summit at 8:58am, about 2.5 hours after our start. The summit was very windy and cold, and there was a summit marker on the ground waiting for us. We were hoping the temperature would warm up to the expected 8 degree celcius high soon.
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| South Dix summit shot with Macomb in the background |
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| View of South Dix and Hough from East Dix |
After a quick photo session and snack, we found the herd path from the summit over to South Dix. The herd path was blanketed with snow but routefinding was fairly easy as you could see the snow spine that had been packed down all winter. Walking on the snowspine provided a great hardpacked surface allowing us to move very quickly. Arriving at the base of some exposed bare rock, we took off the microspikes and scampered up to see the impressive views. After some photos, we kept on moving to the actual summit, passing a cairn that marked the junction we would be returning to later to go to Hough. The South Dix summit was incredible. Sheltered, warm, and south facing, I saw views I never had seen before in the Southern pa
rt of the park. We arrived at 9:59, about an hour from the Macomb summit and about 3.5 hours from the start. We decided to take a longer apple break and I thoroughly enjoyed the relaxed feeling.
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| East Dix Summit shots |
Moving on to East, we hiked down hill and hit a junction. We initially walked the wrong way first which was going downhill but realized quickly that we should be going up instead and backtracked to the junction and up we went. Another fantastic rock summit! I scrambled up to the highest summit rock a few minutes before the rest of the gang came up and took a couple self-portrait photos. Another summit without a marker. We took many photos from this summit of the rest of the Dix Range along with the Santanoni range in the distance which I've never seen from any other summit. We arrived at East Dix summit at 11am.
I lead the group back up South to the cairn junction. By now the temperatures had risen and the snow had began to soften. There was a definite noticable difference between now and earlier. We headed over Pough and on our descent into the col, conditions became treacherous with the snow balling under our microspikes and the slick ice lying right beneath that. We slowed our pace for safety and reached the campsite in the col, marking the junction with our GPS'. From there it was only about 20mins up to the summit of Hough, however much steeper than we had encountered in awhile. We arrived on the summit of Hough at 12:49pm. I was in total shock that we had 4 summits bagged by 1pm! Back in the wind on Hough's summit we took some quick summit photos, added some layers and ate lunch. The views from Hough were incredible: Elk Lake, Skylight, Marcy, Haystack, Basin, Nippletop, Dix, Beckhorn, etc. Amazing.
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| My Hough summit shot |
We descended back down to the col and hooked up with the Lilian Brook herdpath. Steep at first we had to again be careful of our steps on the snow covered ice until we hit a cairn junction where the grade eased and we marched out eventually losing all the snow and therefore our microspikes. We met up with the main trail at 2:51 and hiked over to the Slide Brook lean-to for one more break before heading out. We met our first hiker of the day there and noticed that there were others using the lean-to. Soon after Sharon reminded Debbie that because our hike was much shorter than anticipated, she could make it back to the Mountaineer in KV to return her glacier glasses. Tomorrow was Easter Sunday and the Mountaineer would be closed so this would be her only chance. Debbie and I immediately doubled our pace speed and practically ran out to the truck. Behind us, the solo hiker Adam kept up with us in hope he could hitch a ride to the gate where he had parked. Sharon and Don lagged as they were in no need to rush and had their own car. I quickly signed out at the register and took a photo of my GPS and off we went. It was 4:15 and we had finished the hike int 9hrs and 45 mins, 21.5km and 4601ft of ascending.
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| Deb, Don, Sharon, Krista-Group shot on Hough |
We noticed that there were no other cars parked where we were so we wondered if the gate was really open or not. Debbie drove like a wildwoman to the gate and when we arrived it was closed. Adam hopped out and was ready to open it for us but it seemed to open automatically and so Debbie hit the gas and were back in KV in no time and she was able to make it back to the Mountaineer. When Sharon and Don arrived at the gate, the ranger came out to say that she had left the gate open by mistake in the morning and so the gate hadn't officially been open for the season-we were just really lucky! I'm not exactly sure why it wasn't open-the road was bone dry and hard packed. All in all we had a fantastic day with great conditions, competent group, and a little luck!
