So, I planned to do the Great Range this weekend. As of this moment the Gardens parking lot is marked as full, so I may not be able to. If that is the case, I'll come home tonight and go right to bed when I get home to get up early and try again Friday morning. I suspect there are just a bunch of day hikers out today and when I get there I'll find a parking spot.
The great range of the High Peaks is one of the most rewarding things to hike in the park. The range itself is 7, mostly close peaks with a side peak of Sawteeth that also hits the 4000 mark. This is not one of the easier hikes to do. I know from experience as I've done 4 of the peaks back in College, and we had an Alaskan with us that was used to backpacking and hiking in Alaska, and she had trouble with our trails.
Sunday, I had an ambitious day planned. Dial, Nippletop Colvin, and Blake (with a repeat of Colvin and Bear Den which is not a 46er on the way to Dial). I got to the AMR parking lot about 630, and was on the trail shortly after. When I got to the trail register, about 1/2 a mile of road hiking in, I realized I left my poles in the car. That mistake made some of the downhill a bit slower than I usually do...
This weekend I am planning on doing Blake, Colvin, Dial, and Nippletop from the AMR/Roaring Brook parking area. This can be done as a day hike...
This weekend, I did the Seward Range, the 4 furthest most west high peaks. This area is actually slightly familiar to me as I worked at a summer camp not far from there when I was in my teens. I also had hiked Ampersand mountain, which is just north of the Sewards, when I was 12, camping at that scout camp my first time. These being the furthest west, that also meant they took about 3 hours for me to reach, unlike everything else I've done that has been 2-2.5 hours. I went up via Indian Lake, Blue Mountain Lake, Long Lake and Tupper Lake, the latter 3 being tourist areas, and definitely
Thursday, I hiked the Santanoni range starting around 645. The hike starts with an old forest road that has a couple washouts, but nothing bad. When you get to the trail, the first half mile or so was amazingly good. You see a sign why shortly in, it's the site of active trail crew work, so I expect this trail to get better over the year. Overall, the marked trail is easy to moderate. The only really bad spot is the half mile before you reach the Santanoni herd path where you're rock hopping up a stream.
This coming weekend, I'll be doing the Sewards. Here I will be parking at the end of Coreys road, and hike about 4.5 miles in to set up camp on Friday afternoon. Saturday, I will then go up Seward (4361', #24), Donaldson (4140', #33) and Emmons (4040', #40) then back over Donaldson and Seward for an 8.4 mile hike. Alternatively, as the descent is easier than going down Seward per reviews, I may go back up Donaldson, and then go down the trail there and around, making it at 13 mile day (most on relatively flat land). This is the loop shown on the map below. Sunday, I'll pack up, go up S
Thursday, I plan to do the Sananoni range, something I had planned to do this week as part of the week long camping trip, but planned to do as a multi-day trip. It can be done as a single day though running about 15 miles, half of which are on herd paths. The plan is to get on the trail by 7, ideally 630, and go in, up Sanantoni via the "Sanantoni Express", cross over to Panther, and then do the 4 miles (2 in and out) to Couchsachraga, which involves going through a high elevation muddy marsh/swamp once I get to the col between the mountains. The worst part is that I need to cross this,
Sunday, I set out for what I expected to be a very long day...
Saturday, I started what I had hoped to be a week long trip to the high peaks (see Allen for why it wasn't). The hike in to the flowed lands was nice. Took about 2.5-3 hours with a 60 pound pack. The weather was wonderful and the trail is a well traveled and easy to moderate trail. I got to the Calamity lean to and found a campsite a short ways away and set up camp. By 10 AM, I was on the trail to go up Marshall.