This coming holiday weekend, I'm going to be doing an ambitious hike to red-line a few more trails.  First, I am going to hike in to Panther Gorge from Elk Lake on the afternoon/evening of July 3.  Right now the weather looks like thundershowers, but nothing too bad.  This is going to be the first time I have ever hiked this trail, and the 8.75 miles will be interesting as it is going through Marcy Swamp, that supposedly has a lot of boards and low bridges that sometimes are out.  I'll be doing this with a full pack, twice.  

The next day, I'll be hitting 3 of the top 4 points in New York, Haystack (3), Marcy (1), and Skylight (4).  I'd hit Algonquin (2) if I could, but that's just not a realistic thing to do.... too far away.  This will again be a day of red-lining as I haven't ever hiked from Panther Gorge to Haystack (1.2 miles) or the last bit of the Phelps trail between the Great Range trail and VanHovenberg (0.6 miles).  I will also go from 4 corners back down to Panther Gorge (1 mile) but I did that in my late teens.  The second half of the climb up Haystack will suck.  It's 1200 feet in 0.6 miles.  That's f'ing steep, even for the 'Daks, but once I get past that, it'll just be rugged trails instead of kill me now rugged trails.  At least I'll be fresh for it, and can get it done before it gets too hot out.

I will definitely be taking a side trip from 4 corners to Lake Tear of the Cloud to get some sacred waters.  It's long past time for us to renew them.  I may not take the hike up Grey though, which will save about 0.8 of the planned 7.2 miles.  Then when I get back to the tent, I will decide if I spend a second night out or head home.  If I decide to spend a second night out, I'll probably retrace my morning's tracks and head over towards the trail up Sawteeth to red-line another 2.3 miles, but I may not, as that would be a nice loop to do as a day hike (going over Pinnacle and Blake, down the Elevator Shaft, and back out through Marcy Swamp).

So, I plan to red-line about 11.5 miles of trail this trip.  I also am doing this for my winter hikes so that I can mark all the navigational cairns.  The 3 peaks all have them above treeline.  There realistically is only one more hike I need to take to get the last of the cairns, and that's the MacEntire range (Wright, Algonquin, and Iroquois which I also haven't been up on a clear day), and with that I can also redline about 2 miles if I make it a loop through Lake Colden and Avalanche Pass.  So many miles of trail hiked, and yet there are still pockets of mostly connector trails that I just haven't ever hiked.