Santanoni Range Trip Report

“pictures
Here are some pictures to start. Trip report later.”

“Great pix. Is the Bradley Pond LT still there, and is it still in a swampy area? Camped there one night after a rain storm and had to dig ditches to drain the water from around the lean-to.

I love the photo looking back at Marcy. Good shot!”

“Donde esta Santanoni Ridge? Mi gusto muy bien.”

“In the Adirondacks.”

“With all the rain lately, there was about a half-mile section of trail that was all mud. I would say it was about knee to waste deep on average. I’ll explain when I have more time to write a formal trip report.”

“Yeah, on that trip the mud was knee deep on some of the trails. My boots would come off in the mud and I had to slip my foot back into the mudhole and feel around for the boot. After a week of that I cut the trip early and got a hotel room in Lake Placid.”

“Very nice zak. I can't wait to get back to the Daks.”

“Hey everyone, I finally have found the time to write this report.
For those of you that don't know, the Santanoni Range is located in the southwestern portion of the High Peaks Wilderness of the Adirondack Park.

8/16 Friday Night
I picked up my hiking partner, a newbie to backpacking (this was her first trip), whom I gave the trail name of Grace, do to the fact that she couldn't seem to stop stumbling every few feet along the trail. We arrived at the parking lot, near Tahawus just past the old blast furnace, at around 9:00 PM. As of lately it would seem I am destiny to hike by headlamp at the beginning of my weekend trips. From the parking area we hike down the road, past the blast furnace, to the start of the rod and gun club road, a total of about 1mi. At the gun club road we read the trail head sign, "Bradley Pond Lean-to 4.8 mi." our destination for the night. We than hike about 1.8 mi. along the gravel, gun club road when the trail cut to right into the woods. The trail remained flat for the next quarter mile. We cross a fork, and then the main branch of Santanoni Brook. Once we crossed the brook that trail steadily gained about 820' over the next 1.5 mi. before it leveled off. We hit a few muddy spots (nothing bad), and the trail resembled streambed in spots. All and all it was your typical ADK trail. The remainder of the trail was fairly level and extremely muddy. We arrived at the lean-to at about midnight to find it occupied. After searching around for about 10 minutes we found a suitable tent site for the night. We set up the tent, hung a bear bag and went to sleep. I didn't sleep very well. Shortly after we went to bed the wind picked up. This was one of the few times I have felt nervous about trees falling on the tent.

8/17 Saturday
I awoke about 7:00am to find that not a single tree fell during the night. The sky was overcast. I took down the bear bag and walked back to camp to start boiling water for that all important morning cup of coffee. Grace awoke shortly after the water was ready. After coffee we decided to talk to our neighbors in the lean-to. They were a couple with three kids, from New Jersey. They told us that they were hiking out that morning. After they left we moved our gear to the lean-to and hit the trail for the range at about 9:30. The quarter mile from the lean-to to the start of the herd path went through some of the deepest mud holes I have ever seen. I'm still not sure how we manage to navigate it the night before without ending up knee deep in mud. The next .3 to .4 for miles were fairly level with occasional views of Bradley Pond. After the pond the path skirted the base of some cliffs along Panther Peak. It was at the base of these cliffs that the sky opened up and it began to pour. We paused at the base of the cliffs for about ten minutes, shielded from the rain by the rocks high above. The rain began to slow and we proceeded up the trail. After about .20 miles the trail crossed Panther Brook. From this point on the trail was all up hill until we hit Time Square. The path follow / went through Panther Brook for the next .75 mi. The next .3 miles were through thick scrub brush and through small runoff streambeds. As we gain elevation we hit some fog that got thicker as we continued up the mountain. The path leveled off and we came upon a small open area (about 15' in diameter). At first we didn't recognize this as Time Square, so we continued done one of the herd paths that had a small cairn next to it. The path started to descend and we followed it for about .25 mile before we realized that the small open area we were in was Time Square. We then turned around and headed back up the trail. We returned to Time Square and got are bearings and head down the correct path toward Couchsachraga Peak. One interesting fact is that one must descend from Time Square to get to the summit of Couch. Couch is actually at a lower elevation than Time Square. The trail over to Couch has got to be one of the most time consuming in the Adirondacks. It took us nearly four hours to hike a mere 2.8 miles. About half way over to Couch the sun finally decided to burn through the fog. It was beautiful the rest of the day. The summit of Couch offers few views. I have seen worse though. We then hiked back up to Time Square and over to Santanoni Peak. The path over to the summit of Santanoni is only about 1mile from Time Square. Santanoni has three false summits. The path is a ridge walk and is easy to follow. The views just kept getting better and better. Indian Pass looks amazing sitting between Wallface's cliffs and the MacIntyre Range. We then hiked back to Time Square. Unfortunately we didn't hike Panther Peak, not wanting to hike the herd path in the dark. So I’ll have to leave that one for some other day. We hiked back to the lean-to and cooked dinner. After dinner we pretty much passed out.

8/18 Sunday
We woke up around 8:00am. We slowly packed up our gear and hit the trail to head back to the car. The hike out was pretty much uneventful with the exception of the mud soaking though my gaiters. Once back to the car we drove to Newcomb and bought some subs. After that we drove home to like our wounds.

Total Distance about 18.7 miles
Total Gain about 4475ft”

“Cool trip report and pics lumberzac.Hope to get to ADK someday. :~ )”

“Cool trip report and pics lumberzac.Hope to get to ADK someday. :~ )”

“Great report zak. You sure know how to break in a newbie: hiking in the dark, rain, deep mud, and in the high peaks no less. Wow! How did she like it? If she liked it, she's a keeper. ;o)”

“Pennsy,
I think we have a new backpacker. When we got back to the lean-to all she seemed to talk about was getting her own gear. If she wasn't related I would have put a ring on her finger.”

“awesome pics and report”

“That all sounds so familiar I could swear I was there. Oh, not on Santanoni, but Bradley Pond and environs. All the peaks are about the same. You can climb to the ridge easily, but once you get there it gets hard. You need to figure in extra time for those bears!”

“I've tried those peaks four times now. The last time was Easter and we postholed constantly with snowshoes on in drizzling rain and never did find the herd path. I'm hoping to be able to return on US Thanksgiving. Things here should have calmed down by then.”

“zac...

Having done the Santanonis myself last month, I particularly enjoyed reading your trip report. Thanks for the pics too.

People's reflections after hiking the *beloved* Couchsachraga are always interseting to read. "Hilarious" is the one word that describes it for me. My brother and I did Couchie (his third time there) out of the campsite near Panther Brook. It was raining and the peaks were socked in ... by the time we got back to Times Square, we were so thoroughly soaked that we decided to cancel our original plan to do all three peaks on that same day. I went back a week or so later during nicer weather and completed Santanoni & Panther. Earlier this week I did Allen Mtn (very nice!) and hope to add two more (possibly Colvin & Blake) before the snow comes. How many of the 46ers have you completed?

Bummer that you didn’t get to Panther Peak. Even though it was late, Panther was only about 20-minutes away from Times Square!

Your pics are nice ...even though it looks like your camera lens had moisture or something on it for some of the shots ...which created a misty, surreal appearance ...interesting effect.”

“M Silver,Yeah, I know panther was right there. I really wanted to hike it, but if I did I think Grace would have killed me.
As far as completed 46er's, as of today 18. I just got back from hiking Whiteface and Esther. Weather was perfect.”

“and my mother said once I lost my virginity I could never get it back. ppphhhtttt”

“umm that was not supposed to happen. if you are reading this, you will have no clue as to why i said what I said.


please move on, nothing to see.”

“What The Ppphhhtttt are you talkin' about?”

“are you going TT to the Daks?”

“I might just do that ThnxG weekend >:P

And just who the hell are yoo?”

“Butt head”

“Two Thanksgiving dinners might be gluttony!

What other deadly sins can we break that weekend ?!?”

“dorks

;p”

“can someone PLEASE go to the trip page and tell me where the heck we are going. i confused.


but one thing i am sure of, Tom is and will always be the daddy of all butt heads!”

“"Butt head"

Hmmmmmmm, that sounds oddly familiar.
Could all this love be emanating from The City?”

“hey, leech-brain, who exactly are you, first of all? And then maybe I'll tell you the secret location. Maybe.

>;D”

“think tree like MAPLE.



TT you spelled that all right. very good!”

“I'm taking a stab in the dark here, butt...

Leeches = Mapleleaf

Trick or Tree blood = Treebeard?”

“Leeches = Mapleleaf


when you put it like that, its not as funny capt!”

“Yeah this is Treebeard. Sorry, thought you guys knew that...”

“As long as yoo leave your murderous tendancies behind, go ahead and bring your leechy self.


Brats too?”

“holy crap, thats you?




oh well, when you sleep with one tree, you sleep with all”

“Holy New Yorkers!!!”

“



SEE YA THERE!”

“LOL! Hey, how is one supposed to keep up with all of these Halloween handles, when I can barely keep up with TT in general.

Capn', thanx for the debriefing.
;p”

“Do you find me repulsive?”

“ummmm...errr...no, of course not. That is a lovely picture of you. No doubt, it is a better likeness than the one on Phil's photo page.

;p
;b
;d”

“tom, you have mail.”

“lol Amy.”

“I 'spected so :]”

“when I fall to sleep at night, I can assure you, that is NOT what i cream about treehead!”

“cream=dream


(but is there really any difference?)”

“An off topic sidenote for Tom. Jack Bruce underwent a liver transplant that his body rejected at first. Almost killed him, but he seems to be stabilizing. I know you are a big fan of his. Ok, folks, we now return to our regularly scheduled programming...”

“Holy crap!!!

I was just thinking of checking to see if Ginger Baker was still drawing breath.

That's what killed Rory Gallagher in about '95.......complications from liver transplant.”

“Wow, didn't know that. Get well soon Jack!”

“Ginger looked bad ten years ago >:^O”