Adirondacks – Dix Range

Firstly, this blog is now 2 years old, so a great day to share my latest adventures!

Just two weeks after my fun, successful trip to the ADK to tackle Cliff, Redfield, and Allen, I was back to take on the Dix Range at the beginning of October, which would knock five more peaks off my list. I was going to be in Montreal for work the following Monday, so it made sense to combine trips. The Dix Range consists of Dix, South Dix (also known as Carson), Grace, Hough and Macomb, and constitutes a fairly tough day hike more or less in the shape of a lollipop.

I was initially planning on hiking in and making camp in the evening, before tackling the range and hiking out the next day. However, since it was pretty much peak autumn foliage season in the ADK, I was concerned about not being able to get parking at Elk Lake or the overflow lot in the afternoon, and have to scramble to make alternate arrangements. Thus, I decided to book an AirBNB close by, so that I could get up super early and snag a spot. My plan was as follows:

Saturday: Leave Toronto around 10am, arrive in the ADK around 5pm, check in to the AirBNB
Sunday: Get up at 3am and drive to Elk Lake for 4am or so. Hike the range counterclockwise (Macomb, South Dix, Grace, Hough, Dix – 23.4km) and return to the AirBNB for the evening
Monday: Get up very early again (5:30am) for a 6am departure, drive to Montreal for the day for work, and hopefully get some Montreal bagels on the way

The weather looked phenomenal for the weekend (12-14C at the summits, close to 20C down low, no rain) so it was perfect hiking conditions. I planned to hike in shorts and bring a couple upper body layers. I would be in trail shoes and a day pack again, so I’d be moving quickly and staying warm.

Day 1

I left Toronto at 10:30am and drove about 3 hours to my usual stop at the Mallorytown ON Route, the last one before the bridge at Ogdensburg. I had a coffee and donut (with orange sprinkles to support the National Day of Truth and Reconciliation) and also ate a couple wraps I had prepared at home (had some stuff in the fridge I wanted to finish off before leaving). After a 30 minute break, I was back on the road and got through the border after being interrogated obnoxiously by the US border agent, who, despite me indicating which specific mountains I was hiking and which town my AirBNB was in, was not incredibly satisfied with my answers about where I was headed.

My route through the toll bridge was actually only about 10 minutes faster than the non-toll option, since I was headed to Newport, which is very close to the border with Vermont. The route was actually identical to the one I took with my friends Nikola and Harmony last November, passing through Saranac Lake and Keene. I got to my lodging just after 5pm, with a quick stop for gas. I had booked a room at the DaCy Farm, which is owned by David and Cynthia (hence the name), and features three rooms in the former stables, along with showers and a composting toilet (for sustainability, huge thumbs up), as well as a kitchen/restaurant eating area which was very helpful for washing my dishes!

They also have a garden on the property (owned by Mary, a farm-trepeneur, and one of their former guests), cow fields, and (I quote Cynthia) the “Taj Mahal” of chicken coops, complete with probably close to two dozen chickens and at least one rooster. The chickens were roaming around when I arrived, and they were very friendly. They were pecking the dead bugs off my car!

I waited a bit for David and Cynthia to return from their walk, and David showed me around. Super nice people! He was happy to know I was planning to hike the Dix Range, having been there before, and along with my parents who I had told where I was going, he and Cynthia would also look out for me in case I didn’t return. He indicated they had called the rangers for missing guests seven times since they bought the farm 20 years ago!

I cooked dinner on my camp stove – I had brought my usual camp meals (both for breakfast and dinner) and was able to wash up in the kitchen. Before bed at 9:30pm (probably way later than I should have gone to bed!) I finished up a bit of work and did a bit of research on the following day’s hike.

Day 2

My alarm went off (not so) bright and early at 3am, and by 3:15am I was headed for the Elk Lake trailhead after boiling some water for instant coffee. The windows on my car were extremely damp and it took a ton of wiper usage to be able to see properly at arguably the worst time to drive. Backing out of my parking spot at the farm was tricky due to this as I had to avoid hitting a tractor, the chicken coop, and another building by the gravel road on the farm.

The drive was pretty uneventful but was careful to watch out for animals crossing the road. I fittingly played the 90s classic tune “3AM” by Matchbox Twenty on the drive in honor of the ridiculous time I was up and on the road. I made it to the Round Pond overflow parking lot at around 3:50am and noticed a sign saying the main (smaller) Dix lot was full. I grudgingly parked in the overflow lot which had plenty of space and boiled some water for oatmeal. I decided after finishing cooking that since I was pretty early and it seemed unlikely that the overflow lot would fill any time soon, I might as well check out the main lot since it was also unlikely that the sign had just been set up that morning (I guess night?). My instincts proved to be on point as there were four spots left at the Dix lot. Score! That saved me 2 miles PER direction on an already long, tough hike.

After finishing my oatmeal, packing my bag (I brought 3L of water with me), and signing in at the register (I was the first person that day), I was off at 4:50am under the light of my headlamp. The first 40 mins, until the turn off for Macomb Mountain, was fast and light, and I grabbed some extra water at a creek on the way. The Macomb trail started fairly flat but picked up some incline quickly and it took about 50 minutes to reach the bottom of the famous Macomb slide. On the way, I passed a couple from Montreal, who I saw one more time on the trail later that day.

From the posts on the ADK trail conditions Facebook group, a lot of people were saying the slide was really tough, a scramble, and full of loose rock and scree. Definitely a fun part of the trail (especially with the sun rising!) but absolutely was not a scramble, I managed just fine without using my hands (my poles were helpful for sure). There are definitely more intense scree fields out west that are true scrambles (e.g. Mount Temple and Middle Sister in Alberta). I made it up the slide in 30 minutes, including many stops to take pictures (most of which did not turn out). I had a lot of fun powering up the slabs as well. This section felt the most like the Rocky Mountains out of anything I’ve done in the ADK, and Macomb was definitely my favorite peak of the five in the Dix range.

After clearing the slide and navigating a few more root and rock riddled sections of trail, I was at the summit of Macomb Mountain just before 7am, my 34th High Peak. I hung out for about 10 minutes for a quick rest, then it was on to the next peak of the day, South Dix. It took about 35 minutes to reach South Dix (number 35), which was absolutely the most underwhelming, peak of the day. The trail to it was pretty interesting with some slabs near the end, but the summit was in the middle of the trail, with a trail marker sign with “South Dix” serving as the summit sign. There was a great view point about 100m onwards though!

From South Dix, I ambled over to Grace Peak, reaching it in about 40 minutes. Nothing much to write home about for this trail, pretty standard. The peak itself had some great rocky areas to relax and enjoy the view, but I could not find a summit sign nor survey marker. My GPS said I was there, so I settled with that. I was finally able to get reception on Grace and messaged my mom indicating that my inReach might die (I usually send messages through that to my parents at the start, middle, and end of my hikes). After a short rest on Grace Peak (number 36 for me), it was backtracking time over to South Dix, where the trail splits and heads over to the remaining two peaks in the range, Hough and Dix. I ran into several parties on my way back from Grace, including the folks from Montreal.

At the junction where the Hough trail began, I swapped out my hiking shirt for a tank top (suns out, guns out?) as it was getting pretty toasty outside. I then began the fairly tough traverse down South Dix and up Hough – probably the most difficult upward travel of the day. I eventually reached Hough just over 40 mins after passing South Dix the second time, my 37th High Peak! It was about here I spent a lot of time wondering what the correct pronunciation of “Hough” is. I was thinking it rhymes with “tough”, though I heard some people call it “Hugh” which did not seem right to me. I guess it could rhyme with “dough” or maybe “cough”?? English is such a great language! I later checked and I was correct – the pronunciation is indeed like “tough”.

I spent about 20 minutes on Hough – the views of the Beckhorn and Dix, as well as the Colvin and Great Ranges were fantastic. I really needed that extra 10 mins as I was hurting a little bit! From there, it was time for the longest stretch between peaks – down Hough and up to the Beckhorn, a minor peak very close to Dix, too close to count as a High Peak. The ascent was not nearly as grueling as Hough’s, though there were some tricky slab sections at the Beckhorn. I eventually reached what I thought was the summit of Dix about an hour after leaving Hough, and spent about 20 minutes relaxing with my shoes and socks off, enjoying the warm sun and fall breeze. I soon realized that I was about 100 meters away from the actual summit, so I headed over there to tag my 38th ADK High Peak. I then headed back to the Beckhorn to begin a very long descent.

The Beckhorn trail is infamous for being very steep and grueling, and it definitely kicked my butt! The hardest part, however, was finding where the trail started from the Beckhorn! I took a couple wrong turns and descended some slab, needing to hoist myself back up awkwardly. The trail itself was full of steep, but grippy slab and rocks to hop around/on/over, and also a ton of roots. It definitely felt like it would never end and I breathed a sigh of relief when the trail flattened out and I could pick up a strong pace again. My knees sure were thankful! I eventually reached the second camping area of the range at Lillian Brook, a little over 90 minutes after leaving the Beckhorn, where I was happy to rest for a bit, as well as down a ton of water (this was the first water source I encountered since midway though the Macomb trail, before the slide, so I was conserving a little bit). I even splashed cold water on my face and dunked my cap in the brook.

Before long I was back on the trail. Just before reaching the junction with the Lillian Brook trail, I ran into Steve, a NY native who was hiking the opposite direction to me (north) thinking he was heading for the Elk Lake trailhead! I indicated that he was definitely going the wrong way, and after confirming with my app as well as the compass on his watch, he was happy to find out I was correct and that he bumped into me. We hiked the remaining hour together and had some great conversations. Pretty friendly guy! I signed out of the register after just over ten hours on the trail, with 24.34km of travel, 1687 meters of ascent, and five more ADK High Peaks in the bank. Not bad!

After returning to the farm, I took a shower and it was glorious. I then relaxed for a bit before stepping out to cook the last bit of my dehydrated dinner and enjoy the garden (several flowers pictured below). After packing a lot of my stuff in the car, chatting with David (he was impressed that I cleaned up the Dix range in ten hours) and washing my dishes, it was back in my room to relax and do some reading (Training for the New Alpinism – my go-to recently to guide my training). It was off to bed at about 9pm – man was I exhausted!

GPS Track

Day 3

I had an early alarm again – not nearly as early as the previous day, but 5:30am was definitely not ideal given how tired I was! The reason I got up so early was to try and avoid the worst of the Montreal traffic – it takes about two hours from Westport, but I’ve heard horror stories. In addition, I intended to stop at the St-Viateur location near the office for some delicious Montreal-style bagels. The border crossing was much smoother this time, and had lots of time to grab a dozen bagels and have their “Traditionnel” which is a sliced bagel topped with tomato, smoked salmon, cream cheese, and capers (yes, I went for the lacto-pescetarian option). Highly recommend!

Great day with work, got a lot done and went to an interesting examination of a hot water tank. The drive home, however, was horrendous. Getting out of Montreal was brutal, super congested, and there was a ton of construction on the 401, which always seemed to be accentuated by an accident right where the construction was! It took about seven hours to get home, but no issues otherwise.

Closing Thoughts

All in all, another pretty successful trip! The Dix Range was definitely up there in the hardest ADK hikes I’ve done (along with the Santanoni Range and the Great Range traverse) but it was also really enjoyable and one of my favorites so far. It was also the driest, least muddy trail in the ADK I’ve ever hiked, which was a nice bonus.

With that, just 8 peaks to go! The plan is to do two trips, starting with the Colvin Range + Sawteeth in early November. Hopefully the winter weather doesn’t make an early appearance! I love winter hiking, but at first snowfall it is pretty treacherous as it hasn’t settled in yet.