Panther, Couschsachraga, and Santanoni 37'th, 38'th, and 39'th High Peak Ascent

Panther, Couschsachraga, and Santanoni Peaks

The 18'th, 46'th and 14'th highest peaks in New York State with elevations of 4,827 and 4,515 ft.

   Climbed Tuesday 8-18-15 with my son Nathan. We left Speculator on Monday 8-17-15 around 1:00 PM and arrived at the Upper Works Parking Lot and hiked into and camped at the Bradley Pond Lean To.

Because the Santanoni Range is remote we planned to hike the first 4.8 miles in and camp overnight in order to get an early start on Tuesday.  The Lean To was occupied but there are numerous other nice campsites in the area.

We set up camp, cooked dinner, and turned in early around 7 PM.

Tuesday morning we got up, ate breakfast, broke camp, and hiked back about a half mile to the trail head. I dropped my overnight pack there and just took my daypack with me. Nathan decided to keep his full pack with him for the day. These three peaks are considered trailless peaks which means the trails are not marked or maintained. The path from the parking lot to Bradley Pond is maintained and in good shape. From this point on we will be hiking on “heard paths” and in many places literally just a narrow path between trees, brush, and rocks. Kind of cool to think that these trails may be some of the same trails that Native Americans and early settlers also walked on. The first part of the trail around Bradley Pond was muddy and inclined gradually.

There were a couple spots that we weren’t exactly clear which direction to go but fortunately we chose correctly and didn’t waste any time walking in the wrong direction. This hike from the start of the heard path to “Times Square” was a bit longer than I expected and you do gain about 1,250 ft in elevation. Near the end it is very rocky which is not as easy as typicall trail hiking. There is a lot of up and down and over boulders which is tough on the knees. A lot of this climb was also in or along a running brook so there is plenty of spots to cool off or get water to pump if necessary.

Eventually we reached the junction where the heard path to Panther Peak veers off to the right and is marked by a cairn. We took the trail at this point and in a short time and with little effort were at the summit. Near the end there was a very steep, rock faced, and muddy section that was a little tricky but not impossible.

After a few pictures we backtracked to the cairn and then headed to T.S. and then straight to Couschsachraga.

I don’t have much to say about this part of the hike except it was long and a lot more down than I had expected. It looks like you give up about 500 ft in elevation in between T.S. and Couschsachraga. I actually don’t mind down on the way out but knowing that all the down on the way to Couschsachraga I had to go back up when we backtracked was discouraging, which I tried not to think about!

The col in between didn’t disappoint and was as muddy and deep as had been reported in every other trip report I had read. Fortunately I hike with poles which were invaluable.

I thought I was at the top of Couschsachraga a couple of times before we actually got to the summit. Again after a few pictures we turned around and hiked all the way back to T.S.

From there we went to the right around the large bolder over to Santanoni Peak. From the map it doesn’t look like that far of a hike but when you actually see Santanoni looming in the distance in front of you it is in reality a long way away.

Again there was a lot of down before you go up to the summit. It appears that there is about 350 ft in elevation difference from T.S. but you do go down at the start so you actually have to climb more than the 350 to get to the summit. Also the climb to Santanoni is over a shorter distance which translates into a much steeper ascent. Fortunately we were going to take the Santanoni Express trail back down to the Bradley Pond trail so we didn’t have to do this down and up again. This was really slow going for me but eventually I did get to the summit and then it was down the Express Trail. Yes Nathan is hiking in sandals. 

The express trail was extremely steep and slippery basically all the way back to Bradley Pond. I took a couple tumbles but nothing too serious. After a couple hours and at the bottom I felt very fortunate to have not had any serious falls.

I kept thinking if I got hurt how in the world would any help to come get me. Hopefully I will never have to find out. When we arrived at the bottom where the Express Trail meets the main trail the only thing left to do was to hike out. I had dropped my pack back up near the start by Bradley Pond. Nathan offered that I should take his pack and strap my daypack to it and start hiking back to the car. He would then backtrack and get my pack and the other cooking stuff we had dropped and catch up with me on the trail. So that is what we did. Even thought I keep a steady pace he did catch up with me before we got back to the dirt road. When we met up we switched packs because his was heavier than mine. I was struggling at this point even thought the last bit on the road was 1.8 miles and pretty flat. At the end of a long day this was not easy for me and I had to keep telling myself the parking lot was right around the next bend. We did finally sign out at 5:30 PM which was 10 ½ hours from when we broke camp this morning. All in all a good couple of days camping and hiking with my son and three more peaks down. I have nothing new to share that hasn’t already been reported by others. The Santanoni Range is long, muddy, and without great summit views. I took lots of pictures because I don’t think I will be coming back to these any time soon.