Adirondacks – Hurricane & Giant/Rocky Peak Traverse

Even though I finished the 46 High Peaks in February, I’m not quite done with the ADK just yet! I’m planning to visit every now and then for two main purposes – firstly to get some vertical gain training for bigger objectives (since the Adirondacks are within driving distance of Toronto, and it’s not worth it to fly somewhere to train), and secondly, in the winter, to do some ski touring. I recently bought a touring setup, and I plan to take advantage of the terrain here and in Vermont/New Hampshire to train and get experience for bigger ski objectives out west.

This trip, over the May long weekend (the weekend before Memorial Day weekend in the US) would be the first of these trips, as I have a very big objective (which will remain a mystery for now!) the first weekend of June which involves a ton of vertical and time at high elevation. While the max elevations in the ADK are significantly lower than my planned objective, the gain would be good training. For my June objective, I planned some acclimatization nearby in the days before the objective itself.

In addition, I have been slowly working back into shape after a foot injury I sustained in early April as a result of aggressively increasing my training volume. I started following an Uphill Athlete 8 week mountaineering training program which fit perfectly for my June objective, but didn’t ramp into it properly (five hours of weekly running straight away), so I started experiencing a ton of foot discomfort which was diagnosed as a stress reaction (precursor to a stress fracture). Luckily, I stopped running immediately before it got too serious and sought a medical opinion, and was able to get a ton of swimming in (including a 2.6km swim, my furthest distance to date) to stay somewhat in shape. However, mountaineering is a sport where hiking and running are a far better training stimulus, so I unfortunately had to take a bit of a hit fitness wise, only resuming running and hiking at the end of April.

As a result, I would be at a lower fitness level than I would have otherwise liked for my June objective, but I made sure to be methodical in terms of getting back into shape, and listening to my body. Going into the Adirondacks trip, I had done several hikes and trail runs in and near Toronto, and a more rugged hike was next on the road to recovery. My plan was to choose hikes with a shorter approach and large elevation gains to simulate my June objective, with my main choice being the Giant Mountain/Rocky Peak Ridge traverse. I also looked into doing a shorter half day hike as well on a lower peak like Hurricane Mountain the day I would arrive in the ADK or the day I left.

Annoyingly, I somehow sustained ANOTHER injury in my lower back/oblique from swimming THE DAY BEFORE I left for my ADK trip. This was similar to the issue I had at the end of January on the other side of my back which was borderline debilitating (I physically could not work for a couple days at one point), however the pain this time was not nearly as bad. I suspect it was the result of not keeping up my core training. As a result, I opted to leave Toronto early on Saturday, hike Hurricane to test things, and if all was well, go for the Giant-Rocky traverse on Sunday. I would then leave early on Monday to try and avoid the long weekend return traffic to the GTA.

I booked accommodations at the DaCy Meadow Farm. I stayed with David and Cynthia when I hiked the Dix range in October, and they were fantastic hosts. I considered backcountry camping, and was glad I booked accommodations after my back flared up. David has done a lot of hiking in the ADK and does this very traverse every fall, and offered to help with shuttles, since I was solo and it was a point-to-point hike as opposed to a loop or out and back.

Day 1: Hurricane and Goats

I was up at 6am and was on the road at 6:40am, after having a smoothie for breakfast, preparing a wrap for lunch, and feeding the cat. The drive was very smooth, however it was quite a bit busy at the border. Somehow the lineup at the bridge toll booth was the slowest part. The CBP officer was also surprisingly friendly, though I still got the usual question “are you hiking alone in the Adirondacks?” Well, I DID do 40 of 46 of the High Peaks solo…

My first actual stop was in Potsdam, NY where I grabbed a coffee and bagel at Tim Hortons, got gas, and filled up my bottles. The water was at the fountain drinks self-serve at the gas station, and it had a berry taste to it due to the shared spout. That surprisingly made the water taste pretty good! Smooth sailing to the Hurricane trailhead, where there were quite a few cars but no issues parking.

I started my hike just after 1pm, and was dressed pretty lightly (tank top and hiking pants) as it was very warm and sunny. I picked a great weekend to visit! I was also wearing my new-ish trail shoes (La Sportiva Bushidos) which are great for rugged trails. The ascent was moderately steep but also flat in places, and I flew up the 615 meters of vertical (5.2km) in 1h 20min. The trail was very dry with some muddy spots, and no bugs which was great. I also saw a garter snake slithering over the trail as I passed. The summit was a pretty cool spot with a fantastic view of the High Peaks and a fire tower.

I spent about 25 minutes at the summit, covering up to avoid sunburn and also reapplying sunscreen. My descent was pretty quick as I jogged the less rugged sections, narrowly avoiding rolling my ankle in one spot. I made it back to the car about 1h 5min after leaving the summit, for a car-to-car time of 2h 50min and just under 10.5km of hiking. Pretty fun hike, one I would absolutely do again (would be fun in winter) and I’d recommend for anyone looking for a moderately challenging ADK hike.

After making a wrong turn trying to find my way to Westcomb where DaCy farm is (turns out the Hurricane trailhead was on the way to the farm!), I arrived at 4:40pm and while waiting for David and Cynthia to arrive, I hung out with the chickens and goats. One of the goats was very friendly and loved eating the grass I fed him/her.

The evening was pretty relaxing. I cooked dinner in their garden like last time on my camp stove (shell pasta, red lentils, and fresh asparagus from the garden – it turned out pretty well. Thanks Cynthia for the asparagus!). David also messaged me indicating he left some chocolate cake in the kitchen so I couldn’t say no to that.

Training Peaks Activity (Hurricane Mountain)

Day 2: Traverses and Chipmunks

I was up at 7am and made plans to meet up with my buddy Matt, who I had previously hiked Whiteface and Esther with in February 2023. Matt was in the area visiting his girlfriend, and since she was working on Sunday, he was planning to hike. Turns out he had never done the Giant-RPR traverse before, so we planned to join forces. I got my stuff together, informed David I would not need his help with a shuttle to the start point, and set off for the New Russia trailhead, which would be the end point of the traverse. I arrived at 8:40am and Matt arrived 10 minutes later. After being sure my car was locked and I had the keys with me, I hopped in Matt’s car and we set off for the Route 73 trailhead. There was just enough parking when we arrived.

We set off at around 9:15am after again making sure I had my keys on me, and we started up the Giant Mountain trail. We made excellent time up this steep section of trail, which was fairly dry with only a couple small patches of snow, hitting the summit (900m vertical gain) after 1 hour 50 minutes, only slightly faster than my previous ascent (which reached the junction between the Giant and RPR trails in the same amount of time).

After about 35 minutes at the summit of Giant, we descended to the junction and made our way over to RPR. It was a pretty slippery on the way down but not too bad overall. After an hour, we were at the summit of RPR, where we took another 25 minutes or so as a break. From there, it was onto new trails for the both of us as we started down the east side of RPR.

This section of trail was pretty interesting. A lot of it was exposed on the ridge, which made a nice change from being in the woods. The bareness of the ridge was the result of a large forest fire which took place back in 1913. This also began the vast majority of the descent of the route. We had done most of the vertical gain on the way up Giant, and needed to lose even more vertical on the way down, as the New Russia trailhead is slightly lower than the Route 73 trailhead. This made the remainder of the hike pretty tiring.

We took a quick breather at a lookout just before Bald Peak and enjoyed some great views and fairly exposed ridgeline even at lower elevations. Eventually we descended into the more deciduous forest and the trail became significantly more gentle, but we were too tired (OK it was really just me that was tired) to run much of the remainder of the hike.

The highlight of the home stretch was encountering a juvenile chipmunk that ran across the trail. It was surprisingly slow moving and I was actually able to catch it with my bare hands and move it off the trail. It was very small and light (smaller than a gerbil) and luckily it didn’t bite, pee or poop on me. Probably a bad idea to handle it in hindsight. Hopefully it grows up to be much faster and able to avoid predators!

Eventually, after a few more kilometers of hiking (with Matt giving regular updates on the amount of vertical we had left to lose) we arrived at the parking lot, after just over seven hours on the trail (probably 5 hours 50 mins of travel time). Pretty solid day and my feet were very glad to be done with hiking. We hopped in my car and drove back to Route 73 and said goodbye. Was great hiking with you once again, Matt!

I stopped by the Ausable Inn in Keene for a bean burger dinner (the spinach ravioli special was my second option) before returning to the farm to update David on my day. He offered another slice of cake and also encouraged me to keep in touch especially concerning my next objective, which he was interested in doing at some point. He also gave me the scoop on how winter accommodations at the farm worked and I’ll definitely consider staying again at that time if winter camping is off the menu. I planned to be on the road around 7am so I made sure to go to bed fairly early, around 10:15pm.

Training Peaks Activity (Giant-Rocky Peak Traverse)

Day 3: Return Home and Final Thoughts

I was on the road just after 7am, and after a quick stop at the Tim Hortons in Potsdam for food and gas, had pretty smooth sailing home. The border was a bit slow but not too bad, and the traffic was only really bad entering Toronto which was to be expected.

Overall, not a bad weekend in the Adirondacks! Definitely got my butt kicked considering lower fitness than I would have liked given my injuries. Definitely not 100%, but I feel good enough to push ahead with my plans, but I also plan to take things a bit easier and get lots of rest in the next few days prior to departing on my next adventure.