Hanging my head in shame. TR

“I admit it. I was unfaithful to the forum. I went hiking with a group form another forum. My only excuse is that it’s a local forum and I wasn’t able to commit to the hike until 9PM the night before. I hope everyone will forgive me for my two-timing. 8D

Anyways on with the trip report.

I met up with eight others from the adkhighpeaks forum (Tim, Nick, Alan, Eric, Brian, Dick, Rik, and Charlene) around 9am in Upper Jay. The task of the day was to hit two of the 100 highest peaks in the Adirondacks, Saddleback and Jay mountains. From there we drove to where the herd path came out form Jay Mountain and spotted two cars and then proceeded to head up the road. Soon the road narrowed and turned to dirt. About 3/4 of a mile from where we planed to start our hike we came to a sign stating that the road was closed; it was probably washed out from all the rain we had gotten that week. We parked the cars and started our hike. There are no trails or herd paths that lead to Saddleback Mountain and the only path up Jay was on the other side, so most of our hike was a true bushwhack. As far as bushwhacks in the Adirondacks go, this one wasn’t too bad. The trees and brush were thick in places, but things were open enough that you could see where you were going. Everything was pretty wet from the rains the night before and soon we were as well. The hike up Saddleback went fairly well and we were generally able to keep a bearing right to the top. We made it to the summit at around 11:30. The views would have been nice if we weren’t in the clouds; such is like hiking in the Northeast. We took a short lunch break on top and then started the, bushwhack towards Jay.

The ridge towards Jay doglegged, so we didn’t take a straight bearing to the summit, as this would involve loosing a lot more elevation than what we wanted. Tim did a great job navigating and we only got turned around once and only for a few hundred feet. Eventually we reached the col between the two mountains and we started the steep ascent up Jay Mountain. At times we has to negotiate are way around ledges, which would have been a lot of fun scrambling up if it wasn’t for the wet conditions and the rotten, crumbly rock. The summit of Jay was well defined with a large rock cairn on top. Once we reached it, it became quite apparent that this is a peak we would have to return to on a nice day. The summit as well as about two miles of ridge is on open rock, which offers 360 degree views most of the time. The wind had picked up on the summit and with everything wet and cool (perfect hypothermia weather), we quickly added on layers. We sat on the summit for a short time and made our way across the open ridge. Once at the end of the ridge, the trail cut sharply downwards losing about 900’ in the first half-mile. We finally made it back to the cars around 6PM nearly 9 hours (about 2 hours later than we expected) after we started the 6 to 7 mile hike. I guess bushwhacking really cuts down on one’s hiking speed. Despite the weather everyone had a great time. Over the course of the day we only saw one other person outside of our group, which was a stark contrast to a normal day in the High Peaks. I’ll have to do some more bushwhacks in the future.”

“LOL

wish the ADK's would be closer to me dammit.
It's been a while since I bushwacked.

Great TR...now where the pics?”

“Because the conditions we so wet, my camera stayed in my pack most of the day. I think I took maybe 3 photos the entire day. I'll upload them some time tonight.”

“a 9 hour hike just to get two non-46 mts?

bah! wussies!


i kid. thats cool zac.”

“i bushwacked once with danababy trying to find the porterscreek manway...[we were way off, but that's besides the point] it took us 2 or 3 hours for one mile...crawling on hands and kees. LOL

it was fun thou wasn't it LZ? LOL”

“it was fun thou wasn't it LZ? LOL”
Gemini
12:07:36 PM
6/20/05
ignore this user

It sure was. You also have to think a lot more than when you're on a trail, because sometimes the shortest route isn't always the best route to take.


Had it been a nice day, it probably would have taken us at least another extra 2 hours just for taking pictures.”

“Here are the two whooping pictures I took on the hike. They were taken within the last 20 minutes of the hike when the clouds dissipated some giving us the only views of the day.

http://community.webshots.com/album/375016966CLnsUX”