Gray, Skylight, and Marcy (again) 22'nd and 23'rd High Peak Ascent

Gray Peak and Skylight Mountain

The 7'th, and 4'th highest peaks in New York State with elevations of 4,840 and 4,920 ft.

On Saturday 10-19-13 my son, my good friend, and two of my son's college friends from GCC set our for the weekend. My son and his buddies drove up earlier on Friday night and hiked from the Loj into Marcy Dam and camped at a lean-to there for the night. Later Friday night my buddy and I arrived and stayed at a lean-to at the wilderness campground at the Loj. We got up before sunrise, signed the trail register at 6:15 AM and set out in the dark to meet the boys for breakfast at Marcy Dam. 

It took us a little over an hour to hike in to them. After a quick breakfast of Starbucks via coffee, egg beaters, and “pot” bacon we set out to climb Gray Peak. 

The hike was pretty uneventful other than the crossing of the Feldspar bog. It appears that beavers had dammed up a section around the bog and it was more like a pond. After wasting some time trying to cross the bog via the official trail, which was totally flooded out. My buddy used his mountain man instincts to get us around by bushwhacking to the left. 

We then continued to gain elevation slow and steadily as we made our way to Lake Tear of the Clouds, the source of the Hudson River. 

The college boys were moving much faster than us two by now and when we finally caught up with them at the base of Gray near Lake Tear they were chilling and brewing some spruce tea and coffee on the camp stove that my son was carrying. 

After a few pictures at Lake Tear we climbed Gray Peak. I’m glad this was our first ascent because it was difficult, muddy, and in two places a bit difficult because of the rock slabs that we had to scale. 

Fortunately I found ways around both of them, but of course the college boys went right up them. We arrived at the summit around 2 pm, number 22 for me, and I was starting to question our plans to also climb Skylight and then Marcy on the way out. 

I met another couple who were basically doing our hike but in reverse. They had already come over Marcy and Skylight and were just now climbing Gray. I expressed my concern to them about maybe bailing out of Skylight and to just head back to Marcy Dam. They assured me that Gray was the toughest of the three and that since we had done that already to continue with our plans to do all three. I must say without their encouragement I don’t think I would have stayed the course. So after descending Gray we continued to four corners.

At four corners we were now at the bottom of Skylight and the trail sign confirmed that the summit of Skylight was 0.5 miles. That meant that in one mile and about an hour we could be back at this sign. Evan and I dropped our packs to lighten the load and we all continued to scale Skylight. I have done some cool climbs and have had some amazing summit views but none so far could compare to Skylight. It is a true bald summit with a legit 360 degree view. The only bad thing about Skylight was that from there I saw Marcy looking imposing in the distance and realized how tall and far away it was and that we still had to climb up and over it on the way out. 

After some summit pictures we headed back down to four corners, picked up our packs, and then headed up to Marcy. I tried to climb some of the way up without a jacket but it got too cold with the wind and fog so I had to stop to break out the jacket, hat, and gloves. I hadn't eaten much all day and I was out of energy on the way up Marcy. I tried to choke down a Clif Bar to get some energy but it didn't taste good and I was spent. I literally had to force myself to put one foot in front of another and slowly and eventually surely summited Marcy. The college boys were probably up there a half an hour before us but my buddy stuck with me and together we pushed upward and onward. 

On the Marcy summit it was now after 4 pm and I knew for sure we would be hiking out for hours in the dark. I was really glad that my son had suggested the Marcy Dam lean-to and was encourage to know that tonight we would not have to hike the last 2+ miles from Marcy Dam to the Loj. The rest of the hike from Marcy was long, mostly down hill, rocky, muddy, and the last two hours or so in the dark. 

We finally got back to the Marcy Dam lean-to at 8:15 pm in a slight drizzle. My son cooked a dinner of pulled chicken fajitas and then we called it a night. I woke up a couple of times during the night to hear the downpour of rain and was thankful for the lean-to. 

We got up around 8 am on Sunday morning, finished off the rest of the egg beaters and bacon and then broke camp and hiked out to the cars at the Loj parking lot. 

The college boys headed back to GCC and my buddy and I headed for a real cup of coffee at the ADK Café in Keene. 

All in all this was probably the longest and toughest hike I have done to date. We hiked from 6:15 am in the dark until 8:15 pm in the dark, climbed three peaks, and traversed approximately 16 miles in a day.  The best thing is that I had another quality outing with one of my sons and one of my very best friends and am now exactly half way to my goal of becoming a 46’R! 

Macomb, South Dix, and East Dix 19'th, 20'th and 21'st High Peak Ascent

Macomb, South Dix, and East Dix Mountains

The 21'st, 37'th, and 42'nd highest peaks in New York State with elevations of 4,405, 4,060 and 4,012 ft.

On Monday 8-19-13 with my two sons and I decided to climb Macomb, South, and East Dix. This has become our annual end of summer tradition before they both go back to college for the fall semester. We left Speculator at 6:15 am and pulled into the Elk Lake parking lot at 7:45. My wife and daughter dropped us off and then headed to Lake Placid for the day. We set out on the trail to the Macomb slide after signing in at the trailhead register. 

The beginning trail was mostly flat until we split off at the lean-to campsite. The trail then started to pick up elevation as it paralleled a stream. 

The climb up the Macomb slide was very unique and much different than the previous slide we had climbed on Mount Colden. This so-called slide was much more like the Colden Trap Dike, which was filled with sand and rock. 

There was one really picturesque large bolder at the top of the slide that had to be photographed.

The slide ended before the summit and the final ascent was back on a more typical trail. Once on the summit we rested, ate, and took pictures before we ventured over to South Dix.

The trail to South Dix was relatively easy and we were able to make it without too much trouble. The final ascent to the summit was more of a rock climb than a hike. On the summit we met a father and his two sons who were on their way back from East Dix and making their way over to Hough. We took summit pictures of them and they took pictures for us. We didn't spend much time on South and headed over to East Dix.

Again the trail to East Dix was relatively easy. We spent a little more time on East Dix eating and relaxing and preparing for the long descent back over South Dix and then out. We didn't see anyone while we were on East Dix so we used a tripod to take our summit pictures. 

We summited South Dix again and then traversed over to the trail that would lead back to the Lillian Brook Trail. This trail was mostly flat with a few steep exceptions. We were familiar with most of this trail because it was the same one we had hiked earlier this month when we climbed Dix and Hough.

We signed out at the trail register at 4:40 pm and were picked up shortly by my wife and daughter and then drove to Keene for dinner at the ADK Café. 

Another great end of summer hike with my two favorite buds. Good luck at college boys and back to work. No more fun in the "Dak's" for a while. 

Dix and Hough 17'th and 18'th High Peak Ascent

Dix and Hough Mountains

The 6'th and 23'rd highest peak in New York State with an elevation of 4,857 and 4,400 ft.

8-3-13 For our third climb in 2013 my eldest son and I decided to climb our first venture into the Dix Mountain range. We left Speculator at around 5:45 am and pulled into the Elk Lake parking lot at around 7:00. Things were wet in Elk Lake and the sky was overcast.  We signed in at the trailhead register and set off down the trail at 7:20 am. 

The first three miles or so were flat and muddy but uneventful except for the eyeglass incident. 

 After a short distance my son asked me to look at something on the GPS. I reached for my glasses and they were gone. I was hoping that I had dropped them at Lillian Brook so we went back and sure enough I found them in the water on the far side of the brook! What are the chances? 

The trail was again mostly flat with some slight inclines. There are several nice campsites and two lean-tos along the way. This was all about to change as the trail split off to the right on the Beckhorn Trail. Most describe this trail as relentless, and it is. Not necessarily steep but always on the incline and no sections of the trail that are flat so you can catch your breath. The Beckhorn goes up, up, and up. 

Most of the trail is over forest turf but there are also a couple of rock scrambling sections. 

Finally you come upon the Beckhorn itself. Getting up on and over the Beckhorn was the trickiest part of the day for me. The footing was not great and there were no good handholds that I could find. Needless to say I made it. 

It is just a short jaunt over to the summit of Dix once you are at this point. It was very windy on top and we were getting chilly so we put on our rain gear to keep warm. Kind of a weird thing to say in August but you never know in the Adirondacks and especially in the High Peak Alpine region. 

In Dix we actually found not just one but three summit survey benchmarks. They say you haven’t climbed a mountain until you step on the benchmark so we made sure we touched all three. 

On Dix there is the neatest benchmark I have seen. It is one that is dated 1870 something, maybe a 3, and on it actually has the initials of VC for Verplank Colvin! Really neat to think that we were actually on the same spot as Colvin himself stood many years ago, and how much the world has changed since then. 

Colvin and his men used to drag surveying equipment weighing around 300 pounds up to these summits in order to survey them and now we carry iPhones in our back pockets weighing almost nothing and can do so much more. 

When then headed off the backside of the Beckhorn and on to Hough.

The descent off of Dix and down to the col in between and up to Hough was typical of what you would expect. Overall not too difficult and nothing like the Beckhorn Trail. We actually passed more people coming from Hough toward Dix than we had seen the entire rest of the day. Seems most people were hiking a counter clockwise direction as opposed to our clockwise direction. 

We then headed down off of Hough and down to the Lillian Brook trail. 

The hike out was long and muddy but relatively flat. 

By this time we were both getting hungry. We finally signed out in the register a little before 5 pm. We decided to drive into Keene to our favorite local restaurant for dinner, the ADK Café. 

Happy, Happy, Happy.