Lower Wolf Jaw, Upper Wolf Jaw, Armstrong Mountain, Great Range, Eastern High Peaks, Adirondack Park

View to Gothics from Armstrong Summit

It has been slow going on my ADK 46er list. Some people crank out all 46 in a couple of weeks. I think the record is a couple of days. Me. I'm taking it slow. There are hundreds of smaller peaks and lower elevation trails in the Adirondack Park without the seemingly-constant pressure and congestion of the High Peaks. Many days, I'd just rather take one of those than contest with the Marcy Dam Mobs. In other words, I pick the days for my 46er outings VERY carefully.

Fall is a great time of year for them. I chose a crisp, sunny Columbus Day to tackle part of the Great Range -- Lower Wolf Jaw, Upper Wolf Jaw, and Armstrong Mountain. Knowing most holiday hikers out of St. Huberts would be going to Gothics, I specifically left it off the day's itinerary.

At the Wedge Brook Cascades

I did the mile from the St. Huberts parking area to the Ausable River Club gate at dawn. From there, many people use the easy-graded Lake Road to quickly cover the distance to the many climbing trails. I opted for the West River Trail which is a lot more scenic. I took it to the Wedge Brook Trail, which goes up to the col (or maw) of the Wolf Jaws. It's a nice trail that offers a dramatic look at the head wall of the peaks before you start the serious climbing. Reaching the Adirondack Ridge Trail, I did a quick up and back to the wooded Lower Wolf Jaw summit.

Upper Wolf Jaw Summit

After that, I followed the ridge to Upper Wolf Jaw (keep an eye out for a short side trail to the viewpoint) and then went down and up again to Armstrong. The climb to Armstrong is seriously steep, with hand over hand boulder scrambles and ladder climbing needed to negotiate the trail. At the summit, I ran into a couple of hikers who had come in from the Garden and were heading back via the Jaws, as well as three Quebec fellows who I had seen earlier and seemed to be doing the entire Great Range over their Canadian Thanksgiving holiday weekend. I couldn't really tell. My French is terrible these days.

Ladders. A Great Range Necessity

After Armstrong, it is down and over a small hump to the Beaver Meadow Trail that winds down and back to the Lake Road. It was a nice trail, made even nicer by the early afternoon sun and fall foliage turning everything a glowing yellow color. There are a few ladders at the top to negotiate the steep pitches, but after that the trail consists mainly of switchbacks making for a fairly easy descent.

Two disappointments. I saw neither meadows nor beavers on the way down.

Peak: Lower Wolf Jaw, Upper Wolf Jaw, Armstrong Mountain
Elevation: 4,175, 4,185, 4,400
Distance: 14.3 miles round trip
Route: Loop, West River Trail, Wedge Brook Trail, Adirondack Ridge Trail, Beaver Meadow Trail, Lake Road.
Conditions: Mostly sunny, 30 degrees F

Mount Lafayette and Lafayette North Peak, September 10, 2019, Franconia Range, White Mountain National Forest

Mount Lafayette summit

Mount Lafayette is one of my favorite of the 4000 footers. I like it because of the above-the-treeline views, especially to the east into the wild expanse of the Pemigewassett Wilderness. I've always had good luck with the weather, as was the case when I did the Lincoln Lafayette Loop a few years back. I also like that if you choose your route and time of day wisely, the Franconia Range can afford peaceful, lonely trails and solo summit experiences. If you do, in fact, want some solitude at Mount Lafayette, then Skookumchuck Trail has to be part of your itinerary.

I parked at the Cannon Mountain Tramway and started off on Greenleaf Trail. I've always used Old Bridle Path to get to Greenleaf Hut, so the Greenleaf Trail was a new experience. It's a pretty utilitarian, no frills trail that stays in the woods all the way up. I made quick time up to Eagle Pass where the semi-truck noise from the highway finally, and mercifully, ends. Why, oh why, did they put an interstate through Franconia Notch?

Eagle Pass, the only highlight on Greenleaf Trail

From there, it's a steady climb up to Greenleaf Hut, where I refilled my water bottles before pressing on to the summit. I passed a good half hour or so enjoying a second breakfast of "mud meals." Made by a new company called Greenbelly, mud meals are high calorie, drinkable meals that require only unheated water to reconstitute. I like the concept since they are light and filling and will definitely use them again. But I hope that Greenbelly will tweak the recipe to make them taste a little less like mud.

Greenleaf Hut from the summit trail

The real highlight of the hike came after the summit experience on Lafayette. Heading north, the trail above treeline to the "north peak" offers wide, expansive views and is very infrequently traveled by hikers. This is also true of the long, meandering Skookumchuck Trail which I used to travel back down into the notch. Skookumchuck is a fantastic trail, descending along mixed hardwood forests, mossy habitats, stone stairs and the pleasant, babbling brook itself.

Stone stairs on the Skook

Skookumchuck dumped me out at the parking lot for the Recreational Bike Path. The bike path is right alongside the highway, so the last three miles of the hike to complete the loop were horribly loud. I hoofed it on the double-quick back to the Tramway parking lot, glad that I had found a new favorite route to a favorite peak.

I'm calling it "The Skook."

Peak: Mount Lafayette and Lafayette North Peak
Elevation: 5,260 feet (Gain: 3,400 feet)
Distance: 11.9 miles roundtrip
Route: Loop, Greenleaf Trail to Garfield Ridge Trail to Skookumchuck Trail to Franconia Notch Recreational Bike Path
Conditions: Mostly sunny, 50 degrees F

Pitchoff North Peak, June 20, 2019, Eastern High Peaks, Adirondack Park

Rocco admiring the view of Cascade Mountain from North Pitchoff

I'm taking my sweet old time hiking the 46ers of the Adirondacks. The reason? There are so many other trails and peaks not on the list that I want to hike. More importantly, the ones NOT on the 46er list are the peaks that you can actually hike and not see a single person, even on a beautiful day in the busy season. Such is the attraction of Pitchoff Mountain.

There are two trailheads for Pitchoff. Both are on busy Route 73 from I87 to Lake Placid and the High Peaks. One trailhead shares a parking area with the trail to Cascade - the most accessible of the 46ers - and is therefore always jammed with cars. The other, however, is just a small, two-car pull off and is almost always empty. I chose the latter.

The hike to the north summit of Pitchoff is short. Only 1.4 miles. But in 1.4 miles you have to cover 1,400 feet of elevation. The trail goes right up a steeply-pitched, rocky steam bed pretty much the whole way to the summit.

Fortunately, the Rock is part dog and part mountain goat. He negotiated the trail with ease and adventurous aplomb. At the top, he even took his time to sit back, relax, scan the horizon, and admire the view.

Good boy.

Peak: Pitchoff Mountain
Elevation: 3,323 (Gain: 1,400 feet)
Distance: 2.8 miles, up and back
Route: Up and Back, Pitchoff Trail from Northeast Trailhead
Conditions: Partly sunny, 70 degrees F

Iroquois (and Algonquin), June 18, 2019, MacIntyre Range, Eastern High Peaks, Adirondack Park

Iroquois summit cairn, view back to Algonquin

You don't get cell coverage in much of the 'dacks... below 3,500 feet that is. When I head out on a solo jaunt, I usually send a text back to K when a trail is starting to reach elevation just to let her know that all is well. This time, I got the phone out after just negotiating several nasty hand over hand scrambles on the rocky shoulder of Algonquin - the second highest of the 46ers - only to find multiple texts and calls. The message: "Locked out of the cabin!" Fortunately, we were able to work out a solution on the phone without the need for me to ditch the hike. So I pressed onward and upward to the top of the Big A.

Algonquin Trail

I'd been there before, but that hike led to a summit totally encased in the clouds. This time, the weather was such that I had the amazing 360 degree views for which the peak is known. I probably would have come back just to experience the great vista, but this trip to Algonquin had a purpose -- you have to go up and over Algonquin to get to Iroquois.

View from Algonquin Summit

It's not far - only 1.1 miles - but you have to go down and up to a little knob called Boundary Peak and then down and up again to get to Iroquois. Normally, that wouldn't be too bad, but the initial climb to Algonquin is so tough that this last leg can seem hopelessly grueling. I pressed on, missed the herd path that I needed to take, and started down towards Lake Colden on the wrong trail. Fortunately, I realized it fairly quickly and reversed course.

At the summit of Boundary, I encountered my first hiker of the day. He was relaxing with his little dog after having already made it to Wright Peak, Algonquin and Iroquois (he left before dawn and was on Wright Peak at sunrise). He was clearly an experienced hiker, but was just starting the 46er list and didn't know the geography very well. I pointed out Marcy and Colden and some other peaks and told him about the names Algonquin, Iroquois and Boundary being chosen because of the two main Native American nations that converged in this area (hence a "boundary" line between the two). I also told him that some historians dispute this.

After a fifteen minute break, I pressed down and up (yet again) and had time to enjoy the summit of Iroquois all to myself. As usual, I hit tons of hikers going up when I was going back down to the Loj.

Early bird gets the worm.

Peak: Iroquois Peak
Elevation: 4,840 feet (and 5,114 feet) (Gain: 4,360)
Distance: 10 miles round trip, trail time: 6 hours.
Route: Up and back, Algonquin Trail to Boundary and Iroquois herd path
Condition: Partly sunny, 70 degrees F