This was a long day and one of the harder hikes so far. 17 miles and 3 trail-less mountains. There was a lot of snow, probably 3+ feet, but the route was mostly tracked. I say mostly because there were significant areas at elevation, particularly around the summits where the wind had covered the track. These mountains are pretty remote and no one was in the area on the day I went. It looked like the last people were there a few days ago.
About 12 miles of the route was fairly straight forward. Following a visible track and a relatively open trail. The other 5 miles were rough. Sometimes following a visible trail sometimes trying to figure out where to go. Low branches constantly in your way so a lot of time was spent bent over plowing through branches or sometimes crawling forward under fallen trees. Branches caught on the snow shoes, the poles, my hat, my pack and slowed things down considerably. It was snowing lightly off and on during the day but I was constantly getting covered with snow from coming into contact with all of the branches.
I try to pick clear days when I go to the ADK's so the views are good. This day turned out cloudier than anticipated with some views of close by peaks but no views beyond the three I was climbing. It was cold. Zero at the parking lot at the start and 10 when I returned. Probably zero or less at elevation all day. Winds were 30 when you were out of the trees. Panther in particular had very strong winds and I spent less than a minute at the top. It was a day to focus on the immediate surroundings. There was one area where all the trees had ice hanging from them. Other areas where deep snow had been plastered onto the branches in all kinds of shapes. Near the top of panther there was one area where the trees sounded like chimes as the ice in the branches was blasted by the wind.
I got turned around a few times. Most significantly at the top of Santanoni. There are two trails going to the top. One comes from "times square" which is the junction where you can go off to each of the three peaks and the other comes up from the East directly to the top of Santanoni. I came up the direct route and then had to find the trail that led back to times square. I thought the trail went from the summit. I spent some time hiking off of the summit trying to find the trail. It was hard going and I fell into a number of Spruce traps and burned a lot of energy getting myself back on solid ground again. After a while I figured out that you could tell where people had been before by the snow. If you walked in area that had not been tracked there was a layer of ice crust below that you could feel. After determining that the trail didn't leave from the top of Santanoni I started back the way I came poking at the snow with my poles until I found an area that had been tracked and eventually got back on track toward times square. It was also tough around times square because there were a number of tracked areas. I spent some time on one of them that eventually came to an area so dense that the people must have turned around. These little side trips burned a lot of energy.
Another surprise was Couchsachraga. It is a lot further from times square than I thought. The trail goes on for a while and goes up and down a number of times. It seems like Couchsachraga is roughly the same elevation as times square so climbing it involved going down as much as up.
I started at 6AM and made it back to the car at 4:30PM. This hike pushed my limits similar to the Dix range. A nice area but by 2PM I had used up most of my energy and I would have been happy if the hike ended there instead of going on for another 4 miles.
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| Camera didn't do so well here. 6AM crescent moon, clear cold start. |
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| Warm car |
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| Trail scene -time to start crawling again... |
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| Trail scene - plow through branches again... |
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| There was an area of "ice trees" |
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| Near top of Santanoni |
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| This tree will be happy when Spring arrives |
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| Lowest peak of the three but a lot of work getting there. |
