Turns out my last trip where I bagged Marshall was not my last visit to the Adirondacks before summer!
On my previous trip, I met a lot of great people on the trail, including one of the group experts (Malgosia) in a Facebook group I’m in which is a great up to date resource for ADK trail conditions (I’m literally only still on FB because of this group!). She’s working on the ADK grid, where you hike all 46 peaks in each month of the year, a staggering 552 summits! She mentioned that she was aiming to get her April Santanoni summits in the weekend after Easter, which would complete the grid, and I expressed interest in tagging along with a group she had assembled, especially since it would be much more manageable as a group. I probably wouldn’t have wanted to go at it solo in spring anyway, since the melting snow and mud seemed quite unpleasant. Luckily it’s always more fun to suffer with others!
The weather leading up to the weekend was very warm, with temperatures in the mid-teens (Celsius) lower down, and close to 10C at the summit. I started using the Mountain Forecast website to track temperature and weather on peaks. Very useful tool! The good thing is that there was very little precipitation between my visits, and several people had completed the Santanonis since my failed attempt, so, aside from the potential issues with water crossing due to snow melt, it seemed fairly straightforward in terms of following trails, even up the dreaded Santanoni Express.
This trip was similar to my previous one – I booked an AirBNB, this time in Tupper Lake, which is about 1 hour 10 mins from the Santanoni trailhead. While this meant a longer drive to/from the trailhead on Peak Day, it meant my drive between home/work and the AirBNB was shorter. Plus, the AirBNB I booked was a bit cheaper than the one in Newcomb, so overall I saved money as I only had one hike day. In addition, like last time, I planned to take off in the mid-afternoon on the Friday after work. The plan was to only do the Santanoni’s this time, which meant that I would aim to be back in Toronto by around noon on Sunday. No new gear acquired for this trip, though I made sure I had enough moleskin as well as a change of socks/liners as it was forecasted to be very warm with lots of deeper river crossings and melting snow. Also packed for warmer conditions, though I made sure to bring a soft shell jacket, windbreaker and rain pants, as well as my snowshoes.
I took off from work on Friday at around 4:40pm. Quite a bit later than expected since I had to drive home over lunch to unplug my work phone which I had forgotten in the morning (wasn’t crazy about leaving it three days plugged in) which meant I wrapped up my end-of-week to-do’s at work a bit later. The late departure wasn’t too bad as the drive to Tupper Lake would only be 4 and a half hours. The drive was uneventful; I stopped at Mallorytown ON Route for dinner and was disappointed to see that A&W was closed bright and early at 7pm! Other than that, smooth sailing across the border and I arrived at my AirBNB at 9:45pm. Pretty cute little unit, significantly better than the Newcomb AirBNB I stayed at last time (though the proximity to any High Peaks is a slight downside)!
I woke up just after 6am on Saturday, and was out the door and on the road at 6:40am after getting my pack ready and carefully applying moleskin to my ravaged heels (not quite 100% healed after my last ADK hike!). I arrived just before 8am, which was the time Malgosia indicated the group would be leaving.
It was a group of 11 (plus a dog) hiking, which was a bit different than what I’m used to, though I’ve done some group hikes in Ontario. Malgosia introduced everyone and we were off just before 8:30am, starting out barebooting or in spikes (the snow had melted significantly, but there was still some left). I got to know the two people who parked in front of and behind me first – Mark from Boston and Julia from New Hampshire. Really nice folks! We made good progress to the start of the Bradley Pond trail, reaching in about 40 mins, then started up the trail after donning snowshoes, where there was significant snowmelt and next to no ice bridges like last time. After some careful foot placement to avoid getting the feet wet (including me taking a tumble on a wooden plank) we reached the start of the dreaded Santanoni Express.
The plan was to try for the express first, and if the river was impossible to cross safely, we would ascend the Panther trail and come back the same way after hitting Santanoni. Luckily, we had several resourceful hikers in the group who found a good spot, and we were soon on our way up the express. WOW what a huge difference this time! The trail was packed down and easy to follow, and while steep and tough in places, we made it to the top of Santanoni Mountain after just 3 hours and 10 mins of hiking (my 24th ADK High Peak).
At the top we relaxed for a break, and I learned that almost everyone on the hike (save Mark and myself) were 46ers, and 3 of us had already completed the grid. So, there were over 100 completions of the ENTIRE Adirondack 46 in this group! Quite a star-studded, experienced lineup. It was quite warm at the top, so I took off my shirt for the descent northwards to Times Square (quite the look – no shirt, rolled up pants, gaiters, and snowshoes). The descent was fairly smooth and we got to Times Square, where the turnoff for the most disliked ADK High Peak, Couchsachraga, was located. Couch is a long 1.5 mile descent (roughly 800 feet elevation loss) west from Times Square, and is not even 4000+ feet, making it the shortest of the 46.
I decided to leave my pack at Times Square and just take my 1/4 full bottle of Gatorade with me, which turned out to be a mistake. The hike down was long and tougher than I expected as I was fairly underhydrated at this point. Eventually, after about an hour, and crossing the dreaded bog (which was partially thawed), we reached the summit of Couchsachraga Peak, my 25th ADK (not so) High Peak! I later learned that Couchsachraga is based on a First Nations name meaning “dismal wilderness.” Very fitting!
I started back to Times Square a bit earlier – I was very hungry and thirsty at this point and wanted a head start as our group was very speedy! Not long after crossing the bog, I caught up with one of our group and he was filling up his bottle at some melting ice. He assured me that it was safe to drink sans filtering, so I enthusiastically filled up my bottle, downed it all then filled it up again. As I write this back in the AirBNB I still have not gotten sick, so good call! The ascent to Times Square was slow going, but I got into a good rhythm, and before long (about 1 hour 10 mins after leaving the summit of Couchsachraga) I was reunited with my pack, and I inhaled one of my wraps as well as a Clif bar, as well as had a good long drink of water.
The final peak of the day, Panther, was only about a quarter mile away, and it would be my 26th ADK High Peak. But, more importantly, Panther would mark Malgosia’s final (552nd) summit in her ADK grid attempt, so there was a lot of hype and excitement for that. Her partner, Scott, who I had also met after completing Marshall a couple weeks ago, made sure to capture a video of the moment. Congratulations, Malgosia! All the grid finishers in our group (5, including Malgosia) posed for a photo. I learned that, including Malgosia, only 30 people had completed the grid on record, so we had one-sixth of them in our group! Panther was a nice summit, decent views and a wide open area for everyone to relax. Before long, it was time to descend the Panther trail, which was super steep and tiring, with a lot of tricky ice and rock sections to navigate. It seemed to last forever! Notably, we had to negotiate some tricky sections crossing the raging Panther Brook.
Finally, we made it down to Bradley Pond and reconnected with the “official” trail (the Panther trail, Couchsachraga trail, Santanoni trail and Santanoni Express are all herd paths) and the group started to separate a bit, with the faster hikers taking off. On the return hike to the cars, I decided to not even bother dodging the water and mud, and thrashed right through it This was especially important after we removed our snowshoes, as I did not have my Kahtoola microspikes with me to navigate the snow spine and ice still on the trail (I did have my Hillsounds, but wasn’t crazy about wearing them on the rocks). Finally, after a decent chunk hiking alone, I made it back to the Santanoni Road, where I reconvened with several others in our group (the last of the group on the trail). We made short work of the remaining hiking and made it back to the cars after just over 11 hours and just under 26 kilometers of hiking, my longest day hike in the ADK to date.
After drying my feet and changing my shoes, it was time to say goodbye, and I must say it was quite the pleasure hiking with these great folks. It was definitely a challenge keeping up with them, and they were great to have conversations with. Malgosia even gave everyone gifts, including myself, which consisted of a thank you card and some snacks. Thank you and once again congratulations on your incredible achievement! After returning to the AirBNB, I hopped in the hot tub for about 20 mins to relax. At around 11pm, it was off to bed after a long, tiring, but rewarding day in the mountains!
Sunday was largely uneventful. I got up at 6am and was on the road by 7am. There was a gas station really close to the AirBNB, so I took advantage of the low USA fuel prices, and made one stop at the Napanee ON Route (just over halfway home) to stretch and grab some food. I was really sore (likely accentuated by mild dehydration) so it was good to take a break. I made it back home around 12:30pm after a very tiring, yet fun weekend. Very glad to get some redemption on the Santanonis and take another step closer to finishing the 46 High Peaks.
With that, I’ll be taking a little break from the Adirondacks as the snow melts. It’s pretty brutal to hike around this time of year, and it’s recommended to stay below 2500 feet until June or so due to snow persisting and the higher degree of mud on the trails. My plan is to come back in July or August to begin tackling my final twenty High Peaks!
Veg 'n' Alpine 