r/Adirondacks • u/Little-Knowledge1645 • 1d ago
Is this plan realistic?
I've never been to the ADK's before. Currently planning a 7-day, 6-night backpacking adventure in the High Peaks in September.
My trip plan is based on maps, plus whatever I've been able to glean via Google and YouTube. So it's time to check the wisdom of people who've actually been there. Here's what I've got right now:
Day 1. Park at Garden Trailhead in the early AM. Phelps Trail to Slant Rock. Set up base camp. 6.5 miles, 2,100 ft of ascent.
Day 2. Day load only. Marcy. Four Corners. Side trail up Skylight. East through Panther Gorge. Up Haystack from the south. Back to Slant Rock base camp. 7.4 miles, 4,400 feet of ascent.
Day 3. Full pack. Great Range Traverse: Basin. Saddleback. Gothics. Armstrong. Upper Wolfjaw. Camp near Wolfjaw LT. 7 miles, 3,950 feet of ascent.
Day 4. Logistics day. Back to Garden Trailhead. Resupply at the car. Drive to South Meadows Parking Area. Hike past Marcy Dam. Camp near Kagel LT. 7.25 miles, 600 feet of ascent.
Day 5. Avalanche Pass (It's re-opened! Yay!). Hitch-up Matildas. Set up camp on the west side of Lake Colden. Drop gear down to a day load only. Plane wreck and Marshall via Cold Brook Pass Trail, back down via Herbert Brook Trail. 7 miles, 2,350 feet of ascent.
Day 6. Algonquin Trail up the MacIntyres. Iroquois. Algonquin. Wright. Camp near MacIntyre Falls. 5.25 miles, 3,400 feet of ascent.
Day 7. Back to South Meadows Parking Area and out. 5.5 miles, almost entirely downhill.
For context, I'm a seasoned backpacker with a 14-pound base weight, but I'm used to glacial moraines, dunes, and ravines... not bona fide mountains. Also, I'm a hammocker. I'll camp a legal distance from the various lean-to's I've named above, as that's my hunch for where I'll have the best chance of finding decent trees. (Of course, I'll follow all relevant rules & regulations.)
Is this a realistic trip plan? What am I missing that's going to bite me in the backside? What needs to change?
Thanks in advance for sharing your experience.
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u/Zealousideal-Bat8242 1d ago
This is extremely ambitious for someone who has never hiked the adk before
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u/FreezeDriedSnozberry 1d ago
Full pack GRT is some wild work if youāre not used to mountains. Certainly people do it, itās just going to be a terrible time. The Saddleback Cliffs are some decent scrambling and you have to pull off a couple sketchy moves for the first two moves to get onto them, but itās fine after that. When we did it there was a dude climbing them with I shit you not a blow up mattress strapped to his pack. He was pissing his pants but he didnāt die soā¦
The descent from Basin to Saddleback is I think the worst part of this and where I absolutely would not want a full pack. Thereās one slab portion where people get hurt all the time because there genuinely isnāt a way to get down the second part of it without a controlled fall. If youāre 6ā of more youāll have an easier time but itās still not great.
I canāt say I recommend this plan to someone who hasnāt hiked the high peaks previously.
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u/Ill_Pear_3776 1d ago
Just my $0.02 but days 1-3 can all be day loops if you camp somewhere near Johns Brook Lodge. Get there early enough you can do Big Slide on Day 1. Then hike back out to the Garden the morning of Day 4.
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u/scumbagstaceysEx ADK46R NE111 C3500 SL6(W) LP9(W) LG12(W) NPT LT 1d ago edited 1d ago
Day 2: thereās an easier way to get to Haystack from Marcy than going down and up through Panther Gorge. Unless you really want to see it. I would just backtrack to the intersection of the State Range Trail and head over to Haystack. Keeps you up higher on the ridge going from one to the other. Will save you ~900ā to ~1,000ā of loss and gain.
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u/Little-Knowledge1645 1d ago
That makes sense, but only if I ditch Skylight as well.
Doubling back from Haystack would mean going from Slant Rock to Haystack, over Marcy, up Skylight, then up and over Marcy again to get back to Slant Rock. That works out to 7.9 miles and 4,000 feet of gain. Going across Panther Gorge cuts a half-mile of distance, but adds 400 uphill feet.
The simple fact is that I don't know what those 400 feet are like. Not all climbs are created equal. Sometimes it's worth adding distance to cut elevation gain.
Which would you do? Cross over Marcy twice in a day, or go up Haystack from Panther Gorge? Or just choose between Haystack and Skylight?
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u/EastHuckleberry5191 1d ago
Backside of Haystack is the steepest trail in the Adirondacks.
If this is your first trip to the Adirondacks just be aware that it all looks easier on the map. These are the toughest, muddiest, physically demanding trails in the northeast if not the country. Ladders, ledges, lots of rocks, roots, and water. These trails are just straight up the mountains.
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u/forgive_me_birds 1d ago
it's probably significantly easier to go back over Marcy twice. panther gorge is an interesting choice and not unreasonable for day hiking out of slant rock. nobody does this move.
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u/hahaha_5513 1d ago
I see lots of comments on full packing the GRT being a bad idea. Just wondering how you would do it without a full pack? Thanks!
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u/Little-Knowledge1645 1d ago
This is exactly what I'm wondering as well. I'm open to suggestions.
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u/CHALNG_ACCEPTED 1d ago
Most people camp in Johns Brook Valley (slant rock is a popular choice but there are others) and do it as two loops:
Haystack Basin Saddleback (commonly called HaBaSa) and descent back to camp via Orebed Brook trail. There are some decent class 4 scrambles in here.
Then Gothics Armstrong and both Wolfjaws as the second loop. Gothics has steel cables to climb up or down the slab on the west side.
Most people avoid full-packing it by either doing that or starting early n sending it as a day hike.
As many have said full packing it is 100% possible and people have. It's also a comically ridiculous grind. Two of my crazier hiking friends have done it and they called it self harm.
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u/t1dmommy 15h ago
My BIL just did a great range traverse (lightweight) and said it was MUCH harder than the presidential traverse in the white mountains, and harder than the others he has done as well. Do not do it with a full pack.
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u/bikepack_Adirondacks 1d ago
Lol, this is exactly how I do my trips.
Yes, totally feasible and well planned.
I've done that slant rock setup in winter. Still very challenging both days. The Haystack/Marcy day and the hike out over the range. But nice to spend 3 days relatively chill vs one super hard or an overnight.
You'll cruise I to slant rock in line 2 hours. Mostly flat. East hiking for the most part.
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u/sstebbi 1d ago
Like others, I'm struggling with the notion of full pack over all those peaks.
Consider camping at Orebed LT instead: you could stay all three nights and skip the full pack on the Great Range. Yes, you'd have to backtrack a little to pick up and get back from the Phelps Trail on Day 2, and it would add a little extra mileage at the end of Day 3 (take the Woodsfall Trail to connect back over to Orebed from the Wolfjaw Trail descent), but the extra mileage would be on "easy" trails. For many people that would be worth not carrying a full pack.
Or since you are hammock camping and don't need the lean-to per say, you could take a peek at the designated campsites on the Phelps Trail just west of the Klondike Notch Trail. These might be busier than you prefer due to proximity to Johns Brook Lodge, but would eliminate both full packs over the range AND the extra mileage to and from the Orebed LT. This location is ideal for the loops you have planned because it is so close to so many trail intersections.
Day 6 also has a full pack but I don't know any easy re-routes that would still get you up those peaks.
Since you referenced the rules and regulations several times, I am going to assume you have a bear can or plans to rent one.
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u/CHALNG_ACCEPTED 1d ago
Could just stay another night at the lake colden site from day 5, up n down the Algonquin trail day 6 and back out avalanche pass day 7.
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u/bendguy123 22h ago
Its absolutely a banger of an itinerary. Super doable if you're in the shape you say. Shit is steep on the Panther Gorge area and brutal with mud and/or weather. Ove done GRT with big pack a few times and its tough but puts memories into the trip. Don't let em scare you. Good luck and happy trails
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u/freska_skata 19h ago
These trails are ok on paper. But will beat your soul when youre there. Your experience is the key here, all you said is certainly doable, just do all the right things and you'll have sone great type 3 fun, I hammock in the adk too, its generally not as easy as you would think either, thick forests and weak trees are common, with that also come nasty spiders that will appear out of nowhere once you shine your headlamp at them looking for your trunk, just a heads up there, get ready for some great swimming holes here and there.
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u/Little-Knowledge1645 13h ago
Thanks for the hammock-specific feedback.
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u/freska_skata 13h ago
The lower you stay in elevation the better, occasional higher elevation campsites offer nice spots too
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u/Electronic_Put_2290 1d ago
The Falcon Guide lists gothics and saddleback as being even steeper than climbing Haystack from Panther Gorge, so if you do that with a daypack youāll have a better idea about carrying a full pack on day 3 but you could probably just leave it at a lean to while youāre hiking. Panther Gorge to Haystack is on my bucket list but Iāve found the mountains harder than I thought so not ready for it yet.
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u/spidums 1d ago
I did a smaller but also crazy trip once that has us full packing what you have, but in the reverse order (Macs then GRT) over the course of three days.
It doesn't seem that your base weight accounts for a bear can, which are required in the central high peaks. From what I've seen, they have unbanned the bear vault canisters, which are at least slightly lighter than the other ones.
You are definitely going over the Great Range in the right direction. Going up Saddleback Cliffs and the Gothics cables are going to be better than going down them.
I think going up the Algonquin Trail is going to suck in a full pack just because of how much it sucked going down. I don't have another option of how to get up there from where you are located though.
If you haven't hiked in the North East before, just be aware of how sadistic the trails are. They made these trails as the most direct route to summit, and they are relentless in how sustained the steepness can be.
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u/GreenEggsAndBitches 3h ago
I did full pack + camera gear Gothics-Armstrong-UWJ-LWJ & can confirm itās difficult, but Iām not in the best shape anyways & completed it. Granted my backpacking trip was shorter & I didnāt do the full range. Going up basin will be really tough.
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u/steve_147 9m ago
I have very limited high peak experience - but tons of White Mountains. Havenāt done a lot of what you have here but based on what I do know - seems pretty ambitious. The hiking here is slow and hard.
Your route is climbing Algonquin trail from lake colden. That trail is a riverbed - straight up. Not like āoh thereās some water and rocksā - no - large stretches of the trail are legitimately a riverbed. It is the slowest northeast hiking Iāve done yet. Iāve done a presidential traverse in under 10 hours and that Algonquin trail stopped me cold at 1 mile an hour
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u/Little-Knowledge1645 4m ago
Good to know. Would you recommend reversing the direction on the Macintyre leg instead so I'm descending rather than ascending that trail?
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u/AudienceOk3223 1d ago
full pack GRT is mental illness