75th anniversary of the Bob Marshall “ Big Hike�

“7/13/07 - 7/15/07
75 years ago Bob Marshall completed a dayhike that went over 14 mountains and covered over 30 miles. I am now completely convinced that Marshall was a complete animal when it came to hiking.

Our crazy band of hikers included GreenMonkee, Sherpaman, and myself. The original intent was to repeat Marshall’s feat, but lack of time earlier this year nixed the dayhike idea. We modified Marshall’s original hike into a loop and decided to do it as a weekend backpacking trip. The intended loop would start us at South Meadows, hike through Klondike Notch, over Yard and Big Slide, drop down to the John’s Brook Valley, hike up to Wolfjaw Notch, hit Lower Wolfjaw, head up the Great Range to Mount Marcy, drop down to Four Corners, tag Skylight, then drop down to Lake Colden, head up the MacInyres, hike down to ADK Loj, go up Mount Jo, and return to South Meadows. The loop would be 38.2 miles long, with 15,400’ gain, and 15,400’ loss.

Sherpaman met me at my house and headed up to South Meadows. We got to the trailhead first which we found odd because GM had a head start on us. Just as we were starting to check around for him, he pulled in. We donned our packs and made our way up the Klondike Notch trail. The trail seemed atypical for a high peaks trail and reminded me quite a bit of the southern NPT. About halfway to the lean-to we hard a loud crash just off the trail, which sounded like it could have been a bear treeing itself. We looked around but never saw anything and pushed on. We arrived at the Klondike Dam lean-to just as it got dark enough to need headlamps. We stashed our bear cans and made it a fairly early night.
Distance: 2.6 miles
Gain: 866’
Loss: 95’

5am came early the next morning and the cold mountain air made it very hard to get out of our sleeping bags. A hot cup of coffee helped as we began to pack up; it was going to be a long day. We got on the trail before 6 and made our way through the notch and took a left up the trail to Yard. The trail condition up was better than I expected. There was some blowdown, a log here or there, but most had been cleared. The only part I didn’t like was hitting my head on a rock shelf as I move around another one. At least it was only my head and didn’t damage anything too important. The summit of yard didn’t offer too much in the views department, but we did get some nice framed views below the summit along the trail. It wasn’t long before we pushed on to Big Slide where we would get our first spectacular views of the Great Range and beyond. It was a double edge sword thought, because the view made you want to sit and take it in for as long as possible, but we really didn’t have time this day. As we looked across the valley we could see all the peaks we were to climb and we realized we still had a long way to go.

The decent off of Big Slide seemed to drag on forever. It was also on the way down that we ran into the first people of the day. We would see many more as the day went on. When we reached the valley floor we were glad to be hiking on flat trail for a stretch. Soon we would pass John’s Brook Lodge and start our ascent to Wolfjaw Notch. The lower ascent was fairly easy and we took a short break as the Wolfjaw lean-to to refuel on food and top off our water. From the lean-to the trail progressively got harder up to the notch, but nothing compared to what we knew what was in store for us. We were now on the range and it only got harder from hear.

The trail up Lower Wolfjaw was a bit annoying, not that I don’t enjoy that trail, but we knew every steep pitch we went up would pound our knees on the way back down. The view from Lower Wolfjaw gave us a glimpse back to where we had come from. Big Slide and Yard looked so far away. The descent went surprisingly better than I thought and we were back in the notch in no time and just continued up the range to Upper Wolfjaw. The ascent up is classic Adirondack hand on root and rock hiking. It’s tiring but fun. Every once and a while we’d turn around to check our progress by comparing our elevation with that of the summit of LWJ, which reveled the ugly truth of not as high as we’d like. Finally we reached the spur trail to the summit and took in the view while noticing the ever darkening sky.

It was a relatively short drop into the col, and we where heading up Armstrong. This peak is duly named as ones arms have to be strong to get up it with some nice scrambling and the fun ladder near the top. The wind was picking up as we at a late lunch of tuna on wheat thins bundled up. The plan was to eat on Gothics, but with the wind on Armstrong we figured it would be stronger on Gothics. We were spending too much time on the summits which was slowing our progress and we discussed dropping into Panther Gorge for the night after Haystack instead of going up Marcy and Skylight before dropping down to Uphill lean-to as we got ready to head to Gothics. Plus the clouds were looking more and more like rain.

Gothics was pretty easy from here, we had a short descent with one bump and then a steady climb to the top. The view from the top was a bit hazy, but you could still see Lyon Mountain to the north fairly well. We were surprised to find very little wind on the summit, I guess we should have eaten lunch there after all. Haystack still looked a long ways away, but a lot closer than it did a few hours before.

The descent of Gothics from this direction is always fun. A lot of open rock and then you get to the cables. This was the third time I had descended Gothics this way and for some reason I felt the need to use the cable more despite the rock being dry. Maybe the knock to the nogen earlier finally knocked some sense into me. Below the cables it was a steady descent and my knees were starting to feel some pain. We hoped to top off our water in the col, but there was no to be found so we started the ascent up Saddleback.

The nature of the range seems to change somewhere between Gothics and Saddleback. The steps get higher and the rock descents and ascents of the Upper Range seam more exposed. We got some nice views looking back at Gothics, which was good because we were taking breaks more often or at least I was. By the time we summitted the wind had picked up again and it became too cold to sit on top of the summit cliff. Basin towered above us as we made our way down the scramble from the summit. When we finally made it to the bottom, I was beat. We still had over 700’ to climb to the top, plus a PITA false summit in between. GM didn’t sound too pleased when we reached the top of it and realized we still had another 250’ to go. The summit views were excellent, but we didn’t linger long. It was cold and we were getting hungry. I finished off most of my food for the day and we made our way down, down, down over 900’ of steep pound your knees trail with some nice scrambling and a ladder mixed in as well.

Halfway to the bottom we ditched the idea of going over Haystack and dropping into the gorge. We hiked over to the Sno Bird site instead. We arrived at the highest legal campsite in New York State, just shy of 4000’, and found it empty. We had enough time to setup camp and eat dinner before the rain started.
Distance: 15.7 miles
Gain: 7192’
Loss: 5985’

It rained heavy off and on all night. The wind blew the rain sideways at times, but my sil-nylon tarp kept the spray down to a minimum. What it didn’t stop was water from pooling underneath. We were restricted to setup in only one spot, which happened to have as small depression that collected water. Sherpaman too the brunt up most of it and woke up with his arm wet despite sleeping in a bivy. The rain didn’t stop until after 9 when we finally emerged from our shelters. Haystack was in the clouds so we decided to wait a little while and hope things cleared. By 10 we had waited long enough and started hiking towards Little Haystack. Nothing like a 450’ climb to start the day when you’re still recovering from the day before.

When we reached Little Haystack, its bigger sibling was still in the clouds. It was cold, windy, and the rocks were still wet. We didn’t want to chance getting hurt or worse, so we went the other way. As it turned out GM almost got knocked over by the wind on Little Little Haystack. The clouds kept flying over the summit as we descended into the Marcy – Haystack col.

At the bottom it was time to strip off the extra layers, in anticipation of the long climb up to Marcy. The climb went better than I thought to the junction with the Van Ho Highway, but it was starting to get late, so no peaks for us that day and down the trail we went to Marcy Dam. The clouds parted some time before we got to Indian Falls where we made a stop and I got to see this place for the first time with no one there.

From there it was a long slog back to first Marcy Dam and then the fire truck road back to south meadows.
Distance: 8.9 miles
Gain: 1429’
Loss: 3404’

Totals for the weekend
Distance: 27.2 miles
Gain: 9487’
Loss: 9487’”

“a net gain of 0.0 feet. Sounds like a nice flat hike. If I had known that's what it was I might have joined you.

Nice job guys. Good report. I was wondering how you fared.”

“Had the weather been better Sunday morning we probably could have done Haystack, Marcy, and Skylight. I doubt we would have had the energy to do the other 4 peaks.”

“A painful pleasure.
Superb TR. Looking forward to seeing your pics. We have to try that again, after some training.

Here are mine
http://outdoors.webshots.com/album/559909785EuleAu”

“Here are my photos


I ended up barely taking any.”

“Slacker ;)


Wouldn't have anything to do with your having a gazillion of those same shots, would it?

Hey, can you get Sherpaman's pics.”

“I'll bug him until I do. Don't hold your breath though. I still haven't gotten all his pics from last years LT trip.”

“ hummm font turn off?”

“[/b] bold off?”

“Sounds like a fun trip! Sweet trail”