Mount Haystack
The 3'rd highest peak in New York State with elevations of 4,960 ft.
Climbed Monday 7-6-15 with my son
Josh. We left Speculator around 4:30 and arrived at the Garden Parking Lot and
signed in around 6:25.
It was supposed to be a clear and sunny day but started
out slightly overcast, which was fine since it made hiking less hot. The trail
was very muddy and sloppy but mostly flat with a slight incline.
Eventually we
declined a short distance and signed in at the T intersection for the Interior
Outpost and JBL. We continued to the right and arrived at JBL around 7:45.
We
didn’t waste any
time at JBL but continued past after seeing several people eating breakfast
through the windows. At about 9:30 we arrived at Slant Rock.
After a short
snack break we continued on. We took the Range Trail or better know as Shorey’s Short Cut up and over towards
Basin.
After a steep climb and decent we kept to the right and hiked away from
Basin toward Haystack.
We planned to return to climb Basin which was only 0.8 miles from this point after we climbed Haystack. We passed three people coming down from Haystack the only other people we had seen since JBL. Little did we know at that time how grueling it would be getting over little Haystack in order to climb Haystack.
We summited Haystack at 12:10 pm. The sun then came
out and it was getting warm. After a short rest on Haystack for pictures and a
snack we decided there was no way we were attempting any other peaks this day.
We spoke with a few other hikers who had done Basin and Saddleback the day before and decided to not head back to the Garden via the Shorey’s Short Cut. After we descended Haystack we kept to the left and continued down and out the slightly longer but less steep route back to the JBL and the Garden lot. It was a long slow hike out.
We stopped briefly at JBL at 4:30 to refill our water bottles and then finally
reached the Garden parking lot at 6:30.
From there we went to our favorite
dinner spot, The ADK Café, for burgers
and a lemon shaker pie. After dinner Josh drove the hour and a half drive back
to Speculator. It was a good hiking day but a long one. In all it took us about
12 hours and we covered 18.1 miles round trip.
We planned to return to climb Basin which was only 0.8 miles from this point after we climbed Haystack. We passed three people coming down from Haystack the only other people we had seen since JBL. Little did we know at that time how grueling it would be getting over little Haystack in order to climb Haystack.
We spoke with a few other hikers who had done Basin and Saddleback the day before and decided to not head back to the Garden via the Shorey’s Short Cut. After we descended Haystack we kept to the left and continued down and out the slightly longer but less steep route back to the JBL and the Garden lot. It was a long slow hike out.
