Intro to da Dacks Marcy Posthole Edition TR

“A few weeks ago, some friends emailed me on a trip to the Dacks, day 1 being Mt Marcy, day 2 Haystack, Basin and Saddleback. Having never been there yet, I signed right up. Friday finally came around and we left Philly at 8AM. After an eventful ride up complete with a chat with a NY state trooper and nice piece of paper to mail back in, we arrived in Keene Valley to pick up our bear canisters at the Mountaineer shop. We parked at the Garden lot and finally hit the trail at 4PM. There was a rumor that it was a Canadian holiday, but the lot was only half full. It was a nice hike in along Johns Brook. The leaves are really starting to come out up there and it was very pretty. The brook was running strong, after a some rain on Thursday. After a while we passed the shuttered Johns Brook Lodge and soon reached our destination for the day. We had planned to base camp across the brook, in a nice level spot, but the water was runing a little high for an easy crossing. We opted instead to climb up the hill a ways and found some level spots to set up. This would turn out to be a good decision later on. We set up and headed back down to have dinner by the water. We saw a mink? running along the bank, It had a golden yellowish coat, so I wasn't sure what it was although it was bigger than a cat. We turned in soon after and got some sleep for the next days adventure.

It dawned sunny in the east, but clouds in the west as we watered up and had breakfast we left for the peak at 8AM. It was a nice hike the yellow trail wound thru some nice areas, along the brook and across many feeder streams. There were several blowdowns to navigate around, but nothing really big, as we started gaining elevation, we came across some snow. I cooled myself off with a few handfuls, we were sweating and had zipped off our pant legs since it was so hot. The snow got deeper and deeper, the trail following a creek bed. Soon we were postholing past our knees and traversing large deep puddles. We tried to keep our shoes dry, but it was getting difficult. The snow got deeper and the water running underneath the snow was several inches deep. Finally at 11AM we reach a junction with the trail from the Loj. The is where we first time we saw other hikers. No one had used the trail we came up for some time. It also started to rain about then, we had a snack and donned the rain gear. A couple of the girls didn't have rain pants. One of them told me that the guy at REI said they didn't need them!

We pressed on thru more snow up to Little Marcy where we met the lovely summit steward(ess) Julia. We chatted for a bit and then headed up. It became very windy the further we went up. Water was pouring out of every crack in the slab, making the scrambling a little trecherous but it wasn't too bad. We finally reached the top to find 60MPH winds and some sleet it was coming sideways the wind was so strong. We took the pics, and a few did the obligatory bare chested summit dance.

Mike and I on the Summit,click to see my pics

We headed back down, myself and two of the girls first, they were cold, with wet pants, so we started down the Phelps trail. It was a mess, 3-4 feet of slushy snow all the way down, It was difficult to walk on the pointy ridge of ice as it was so narrow. Every 10 steps or so I broke thru, sometimes falling in past my waist. This went on for a least a mile. There were some steep sections and it was slippery. One of the girls fell and did a nice tuck and roll and used her pack to cushion the impact with a big boulder.
Finally the snow abated, and the trail returned to normal if you call hiking in a running creek bed normal. It didn't matter though, since our shoes were soaked already, so we trudged on, past slide rock,crossing a few creeks, We finally reached Johns Brook which was raging. We found an old suspension bridge with no handrails, and decided to cross. We all made it just as it really started raining hard and the thunder started up. A while later we made it back to camp. I was soaked even with my rain gear. We changed and got into our bags to warm up. The rest of the group showed up 2 hours later, having some problems coming down, and missing the spot to turn off the trail and head up to base camp.Later we ate a cold dinner in our tents. If the bears were out in this storm, they could have my food!. It rained til well past midnight, and hard too.
The next morning, several in the group had problems with wet clothing and wet sleeping bags. The girls were freezing, and wanted to pack up and head out. I was OK and was dry, just a little water in my tent, my bag stayed dry, but we agreed to head out. After breakfast we packed up and left, stopping at The mountaineer to return the canisters and do some shopping. We headed to the local pub for some giant cheeseburgers and beers. We then had an uneventful drive home, arriving around 9PM. I've got wet gear hanging up everywhere.

Looks like I'll have to head back up soon and do some more of the peaks! What a great area, we were up a little early, so we didn't run into the big crowds that I've heard about. I'm ready for more!”

“awesome trip report. I want to go back up to the dacks, it's been a long time.”

“Hiking in a running creek bed sound perfectly normal to me. I'm glad the rain didn't dampen (no pun intended) your spirits to want to come back for anther trip.”

“Maybe your critter was a marten.



Nice trip.......if a bit wet.

How about September 7 to 12 Slide Brook, Lillian Brook and Dix, Macomb, etc??”

“I think it was a marten. I forgot they have those varmin up there. It was too big for a mink and the wrong color too.

We still on for Friday and WV?

I'm up for another trip to NY in Sept.”

“West Virginia............Friday.

Yes-yes!”

“Sounds like one for the memories. Thanks for the write-up. Bagging out, since you had the option, was the thing to do.

Were your boots not waterproof? Were you not wearing gaiters? ALWAYS pack rain gear...”

“ALWAYS pack rain gear...”
roseymonster
2:59:12 PM
5/18/09

Especially in the Adirondacks where on average it rains every 3 days.”

“Rain, three days out of one??

Any bit of trail in The Adirondacks that is anywhere near level is a black mud bog and any bit that is not level is rock-scrambling.................pretty nearly.”

“Hmmmm, perhaps those are just the places that Zac has led us to.”

“Ha ha. That Bradley Pond Trial is probably the muddiest trail in the Adirondacks. The funny thing was when I took you guys in there, the trail was DRY.”

“Gaiters would have helped for sure. I only have a set of heavy winter gaiters. Need to pick up some lighter ones. I'm afraid the GorTex in my boots may have a few holes by now...Time to break out the spare pair”

“My first encounter with Bradlay Pond Trail was ThanxG 2003 and the mud was frozen.........mostly frozen.

Gem and I(ha ha !!) met all the fleeing refugees as we hiked up to the leanto, where upon we met Da Capn Bobo who was packin' his stuff and hiked out with him.”

“Sounds Awesome Scott.

Ummmm... where are the pictures of the ladies doing the obligatory bare chested summit dance thing hhhmmmm?”

“Ha Ha Harry I offered to take Cherry Lyn's topless summit pic but had to add a quick "just kiddin" after I said it when she gave me this look.....

You guys comin to Cranberry?”

“Cranberry and Gin is a Cape Codder, ain't it?”

“Id like to, but i decided on going to do the Devils Path in the Catskills with No_granola and maybe Lostsoul and Bigload. This will be the second memorial day in the NY mountains in a row.”

“nope! Vodker and Cranberry is a cape codder.”

“that's cape codduh”

“Nice TR . . . looks and sounds very much like a spring day we spent climbing Algonquin last year. We had a nice clear day on Marcy though.”