The 46 High Peaks: Gray and Skylight

I love you Garmin Fenix

20.66 Miles. This was the mileage that the Garmin Fenix reported. Our bodies were completely spent and broken. We only had one thing on our minds, food and beer. Ok I guess that is two things. Here is how we got there ( get a beverage, this is a long one )......

I am a gadget guy. Those who know me, know this. Lately on hikes, I have wanted to know a bit more information regarding our current location, how far we have gone, elevation, temperature, etc. Sure, some of this information can be gleamed from my old hand-held gps, but using it can be an ungainly experience. It generally requires stopping, grabbing the device from the pack ( too big to fit comfortably in a pocket ), and going through a number of menus to find the information you need. The Garmin Fenix makes this very easy, because all of that pertinent information is right on your wrist.
      I received the watch early last week, and had a few days to set it up and get used to the interface. Using their Mac based software, Garmin Basecamp, I was able to grab a detailed topographic map of New York State. I could communicate directly with the watch and set waypoints via the included USB connection. Very slick stuff!
     We decided that we would head up to the High Peaks for the weekend and tackle Gray Peak and Mt. Skylight. This would be the longest hike we have ever done, at a prospective 18 miles round trip. After our adventure two weeks ago, to Mt. Marcy, I was sure we could handle this. At home I used the BaseCamp software to set a bunch of waypoints along the prospective trail, most trail junctions, and the peaks themselves. It turns out that this was a very good choice, and saved us from an even longer night than we had anticipated. More on that later.....

Drizzly Day

     Getting out a bit early Friday afternoon from work, we set out for Lake Placid. We arrived around 8pm, and walked immediately down the street from our hotel to Eastern Mountain Sports. I bought a new rain-coat ( mine actually stopped being rain-proof the day before we left .. ) and some fancy new Leki hiking poles ( my old ones were destroyed on the Marcy hike ). A restock of various trail snacks was also needed.

     We woke the following morning at 5am. Grabbed a muffin and bagel for breakfast and set out for the trail-head. The forecast was not as cold as expected, but still chilly and damp. I was glad I bought the raincoat. We arrived at the ADK Loj trailhead, got geared up and started moving at 6:30 am. I made sure to turn the Garmin Fenix gps on, set it to hiking mode, and let it track us. This was going to be a great test to see how long the rechargeable battery will last.

Marcy Dam 

     The hiking was going quite fast. We made it to our first major junction, Marcy
Dam, by 7:35 a.m., covering the 2.3 miles in about an hour( 2mph on Adirondack Trails is considered pretty good). After a quick snack, and removal of some layers, we continued on the trail to the junction for Lake Arnold. Heading left along the trail, we hiked with the Marcy Brook roaring to our right. The air was crisp and cool, and the sound of the brook rushing near us was rather soothing. All of the rain of the past week surely caused all the rivers and creeks to swell. The trail was mostly flat for a mile with a very slight rise. At about 3.5 miles the trail started getting much steeper. The small rocks were replaced by large boulders, and the going started to get slower and tougher. Another mile or so and the trail continues up a river bed. It was zig-zagging across the river and really took our full attention, it would be very easy to slip on a rock and get injured.

      As we negotiated the river, we saw the first group of the day coming behind us. It was a family of 6. Their timing was not good, as Heather was making her way across the river. It can be nerve-wracking when people are behind you, watching you, and waiting for their turn to cross. Heather immediately got nervous and almost lost her footing on a slippery rock. She made it across without incident. The group was very friendly, and it turns out that the mother of the group was completing her 46th peak today. They were doing Gray and Skylight just like us. We let them pass, and would see them later. We continued up the old river bed and came to a section of wooden planks over some water-logged trail. Arriving at Lake Arnold around 9:10a.m., we had already covered 5.2 miles of our journey, and everything was going well so far. We knew what was in store for us though, as the bog area was coming up next.

    From Lake Arnold at an elevation of 3725', we descended for the next mile to about 3200'. This section of trail was through very old growth forest on the side of Mt. Colden. Eventually it brings you into a valley that opens up, and a few streams converge here into the Opulescent river, creating the infamous bog area. The ADK/DEC do the best that they can for trail maintenance, but this area is a challenge. Wooden planks are set across the bog, barely floating at the top. When you step onto a plank, you sink a bit into the water, and it can take you off guard. Slow and deliberate steps are the order of the day at this point. The middle of the bog is the deepest section and probably the scariest. As I shuffled across this area, I put my hiking pole down into the black murky water to see if it touched. I kept going and going until my hand was in the frigid mountain water, and couldn't feel the bottom. I imagine if you dumped it into the water, you would be swimming and be in a potentially dangerous situation( hypothermia ). We made it across just fine, and knew we had to hit this area one more time on the way back.

Cotton Sucks

      At the next junction, near the lean-to we stayed in back on a failed attempt of Mt. Colden, Feldspar lean-to, we continued left along Feldspar Brook. The trail started to ascend steeply now gaining about 1000' feet in a mile. As soon as we saw the lake, we were at the junction for Gray Mountain. The lake is called Lake Tear of the Clouds. Amazingly, this small mountain lake is the origin of the Hudson River. It was pretty cool to think that such a major river starts at this point, but we didn't have time to think about such things, as we had some serious climbing to do. Gray is a "herdpath" trail. It is not maintained officially, nor does it have any trail markers. The herdpath designation comes from the fact that so many hikers traverse the trail, that it is fairly obvious where the trail is. It was here that we saw the family of 6 again. We all had a good laugh noting the shape of Heathers pants. They were full on soaked with mud. The mud ran all the way back up her legs to her butt. She made a mistake, and chose to wear pants that were unknowingly, 60% cotton. Cotton is the enemy of hikers( and really most athletic endeavors ). It soaks you. Makes you cold/hot and takes an extremely long time to dry. Those pants ended up in the trash the next day.

    The ascent of Gray started, and was not easy. There was water coming down the "trail" the entire time. Not just slowly, but a small steady stream of it. All of the rocks were soaking wet. Footing was cautious and slow. At many points we had to hold onto trees and roots on the side of the trail. We came to a section with a 12' drop down a small cliff. I dangled my feet over and held onto a natural crack in the rock and ended up dropping down. My ankle turned sideways in the mud, but I kept standing and luckily did not sprain anything. It did not feel pleasant. Heather did the same type of drop, but I was able to catch her fall at the bottom. The climbing did not get any easier from there. It was steady, muddy and slippery. We both agreed this was the toughest climb we had done so far up in the Adirondacks. We peaked out at almost exactly 12pm at 8.2 miles and 4725 ft. elevation. The view was obscured by loose

Resting on Gray Peak

clouds that cleared occasionally for us to see our next goal for the day, Mt. Skylight. We had a quick snack, and a rest, and started our descent. Right at the outset, as soon as I said "Now the fun begins", I stepped down onto a wet rock, slipped and fell backwards off of it, landing right on my lower back. I thought I was done. The initial shock of falling made my back stiffen and going down Gray with an injury would be pretty awful. I continued on and luckily it loosened up. I had a few choice words and was not a pleasant hiker at that point though.
       At the bottom of the Gray junction, we encountered a couple who were quite talkative. The man noted the mud on Heathers pants, and the girl had a good laugh as well. I am sure tales will be told of the woman with the muddiest pants anyone has ever seen. Everyone we encountered talked of the view from Mt. Skylight, and the man was no exception. He talked of the great views up there, coinciding with what we have also heard and read.

Lake Tear of the Clouds

       We made our way along Lake Tear till we got to the Four Corners junction. This is a junction where you can go up Skylight, continue to Mt. Marcy or keep going straight. We of course took the trail to Skylight. As we started our ascent, the sky started to clear. Blue skies replaced puffy white clouds and we were soon in for a treat. The ascent of Skylight was a surprisingly easy 1/2 mile. The grade was steady, rising from 4200 feet and topping out at 4900 feet. We hit the summit at 2pm at the 9.4 total mileage mark and were treated to an insane view. All of the high peaks were visible from here in a beautiful 360 panorama. We met a couple at the top who were backpacking and doing whatever mountains they felt like doing. After we played photographer for each other, we started our descent. At this point in the day, it was likely we were going to finish in the dark, something we both did not want to do( da bears!!! ). I started pushing for us to go as fast as we could safely go to get back.

Beautiful View from Mt. Skylight

       All along, the Garmin Fenix was keeping track of where we were. I occasionally would check and call out our elevation, distance and time. I even purchased a small Ant+ temperature sensor called, Tempe, that allows me to get the current ambient temperature. Very slick having this sort of data as you hike. The other cool thing is that it actually does show a small bread-crumb map of all of the gps track points as it is recording them. The waypoints that I set earlier are all visible here as well. This turned out to be invaluable. As we made our way back along Feldspar brook, the environment started to change. It looked unfamiliar, yet familiar at the same time. Something did not feel right. Looking at the small map on the Fenix, the bread crumb trail was veering off from where we had already traversed. According to the key, we had gone at least a 1/2 mile or so on this unfamiliar trail. We missed a junction!?! Impossible!! We encountered a duo that we saw earlier, and asked if this was the way to Lake Arnold. They replied that it was the trail to Lake Colden and the Upper Works parking lot. Uhhgg! They said the junction is easy to miss from this direction. So now we were a tad lost, had traversed farther than we wanted to, and were certainly going to finish later in the evening than planned. Fear is a good motivator, so we quickly turned around, and I followed the track on my watch. Sure enough, we found the junction to Lake Arnold, there was a tree blocking the sign. We were in such a hurry with our heads down hiking, that we missed it. Had I not had the watch, we would have likely kept going until we reached an unfamiliar trail junction, figuring it out way too late that we took a wrong turn.

Heather crossing the Bogs

      Once we got back on track, the hiking was fast and furious. We were both suffering from fatigue, both mentally and physically. We knew we had to tackle a few tricky sections before we literally were "out of the woods". The bog section went without incident. The river section was fairly smooth. All the while I was looking at my watch and watching the fading light all around us. When we got to lower elevations, being in the lead the entire time, I made sure to make lots of noise. The black bear population in the Adirondacks is 4000 or so strong. There are usually bear-human encounters in the evening near the Marcy Dam area. This was in the back of mind, perhaps more than it should really be. But the darkness and fatigue can play tricks on you. Thinking the odd tree stump looks like a big old bruin.
   The last few miles were a blur, and we relaxed a little bit knowing this particular section of trail so well. It was dark, but our eyes had adjusted and we could see fairly well. We arrived back at our vehicle around 7:30. I stopped the tracking on the Garmin Fenix and saved the track to the watches memory to view later. We were both very happy I invested in the watch after a bit of a misadventure. Amazed and quite proud that we did over 20 miles on a hike. I never thought we would see such mileage in a single day of hiking. After 5 years, we are now 16er's, and that is a beautiful thing.

Mt. Marcy in the background left.