ADKatie
New member
Will try to make this nice and complete despite my handicap...)
Started out at Elk Lake trailhead with myself, EverestNBD, MarcyGirl, Rivet and his beagle Howie. The parking lot was packed but we made-do and headed out at 7:00am.
Found the trail in was quite a bit wetter and sloppier than it had been when we went up 10 days before, but before long we were at the base of the Macomb slide topping off our water.
I'm SO glad we decided to redo Macomb, the views were so great all the way up the slide and on the summit! (We had seen nothing but white the last time.) No problems getting up the slide, which had a trickle of water working it's way down today, and the loose soil was a bit moist, which made for interesting climbing. But the climb was made so much more fun when we could turn around once in a while to see the views.
Atop Macomb we met up with a group we'd been playing leap-frog with as well as another group. We stayed a bit, then headed off to our next peak, Carson. It was a pretty quick traverse, down to the col and back up the boulder scramble, which was SO fun! We were very energized about that, and the kids loved every second! I snapped some super pictures of the tremendous views, and off to Grace we headed. The crowds were thinning as a few of them didn't have the entire range in their plans and they were turning back.
A very pleasant, gently rolling walk to Grace brought us to a very impressive rocky summit with superb views to the East. Here we had our lunch and checked in via cell phone with Mavs, who was happy to hear from us. He mentioned an impressive cliff and a view toward Dix that he'd heard of but had missed when he was up there, so we decided to check it out. OHMYGAWD, I'm really glad we did, that was a view not to be missed! Grace dropped down into the Bouquet River gorge seemingly straight down, with the full ridge of Carson, Pouch, Hough, and Dix in complete view looping around to our left. Dix's backhorn shot up like a mountain god across the gorge, and we had a look at exactly where we had yet to walk. It's time to go!
Back to Carson we trekked, and immediately from there to Pough, which offered little to mention. Then down into the col where we came upon a well-used campsite. Here we rested a bit and chatted with some hikers who had just descended Hough and were headed for the Lillian Brook bailout. I thought they were nuts to be skipping Dix. One of the men mentioned that he PREFERRED the substantial blowdown area he'd heard he was in for, over proceeding up Dix!! I'll say it again, I thought they were nuts.
Hough, oh MY! I am still catching my breath! That was a steepy! WOW! It felt like it took me forever to get up there! But once I did the payoff was oh, so sweet. We loved the views from this small summit and it was so cool to see Dix rising on up ahead. We hit the Dix ridge and on we trekked, stepping out to the ledges for views on occasion, then picking our jaws back up off the ground to continue...
Finally at 5:30pm we summited Dix. There were some young fellows up there on the Beckhorn enjoying the solitude so we didn't linger. On we pressed to the summit, where there was a stiff chilly breeze but we had it to ourselves. Checked in one last time with Mavs00 and then started the very steep descent.
After a long day, climbing up and over 6 peaks and finally heading back down to car-level, we all hiked with purpose. Getting out with as little headlamp walking as possible was our goal.
We looked forward to the flatter walking that the bottom would offer, but again the evident recent rains prevented that, and our flat areas had become waterways. Dusk was approaching. It was sometime around 7:30 or 8pm. Approaching the Dix pond junction, perhaps 50 yards before it, I twisted my ankle and went down hard and probably ugly, landing on my right hand, breaking the 5th metacarpal. MarcyGirl was my walking companion at the time and Everest and Rivet were at the junction waiting for us. After sitting for a spell to try to avoid passing out, fairly sure something was broken, MG and I proceeded down the trail to inform the others that I'd been injured. Now the others REALLY wanted to hike out with purpose! Trouble is, that wasn't to be for me. My hand was in a lot of pain and the wet conditions only made me need to be more slow and cautious.
Now I was miserable and desperate to get to the car, still over 3 miles away, and darkness is approaching FAST. It became a chore to hold back the tears for the remaining miles--I felt it was a bad idea to rattle the kids. Little did I know they were aware of my misery, but keeping quiet.
Rivet forged on in search of other humans and found some camping just before the Slide Brook lean-to. He told them of my plight and they invited us in to offer help. I plopped down on a log and relief swept over me like a shroud, and I allowed myself a small controled meltdown. Still didn't want to rattle the kids. There were three men camping there, and we had seen them throughtout the day up in the range so their faces and voices were familiar. One whittled a stick for a splint, one pulled out duct tape and first aid tape to immobilize my hand and pinky finger, and one found some Advil and handed me three to take, which I gladly did. I'm afraid I don't know their names, or which one did what, I definitely placed myself completely in their care for a few minutes while the advil took hold. They recommended I try the Elk Lake lodge for a (maybe free) nights rest, and that I not drive, and where to look for medical care, and after much "take care" and "thank yous" we were back on our way. Now it was fully dark and we had donned our headlamps. Just a few feet from this camp we got to the Slide Brook lean to and passed on, grateful to FINALLY be at the part of the trail we'd been on that morning.
Out we walked, slogging through the wet, just anxious to get back to the car, which we FINALLY did at around 10pm! We changed out of our dirty wet things and headed for the lodge.
Now, here is where I give credit to the girl at the lodge who helped find out which hospital I should go to and wrote out directions to get there. She was very concerned and offered water, asked if I was okay to go on my own, etc. She never made me feel beneath her so no longer will I feel that particular resort snobbish or elitist. I had NO plans of trying to get a free night's rest so I wasn't even going to try that. As a matter of fact I was against the idea of abandoning our camp at Sharp Bridge and worked towards just finding care, then a return to my sleeping bag, which didn't sound bad at all!
Rivet accompanied us to the Ticonderoga hospital and then he proceeded for home once we got there. After just an hour of being taken care of in the hospital, I was back in my car with a more technological splint, x-rays and some Tylenol/codeine to last me for a few days. With no dinner in our bellies, we headed back to camp and crashed at 1:30am.
We snoozed, a long day of satisfying hiking behind us, with one unfortunate mishap.
Started out at Elk Lake trailhead with myself, EverestNBD, MarcyGirl, Rivet and his beagle Howie. The parking lot was packed but we made-do and headed out at 7:00am.
Found the trail in was quite a bit wetter and sloppier than it had been when we went up 10 days before, but before long we were at the base of the Macomb slide topping off our water.
I'm SO glad we decided to redo Macomb, the views were so great all the way up the slide and on the summit! (We had seen nothing but white the last time.) No problems getting up the slide, which had a trickle of water working it's way down today, and the loose soil was a bit moist, which made for interesting climbing. But the climb was made so much more fun when we could turn around once in a while to see the views.
Atop Macomb we met up with a group we'd been playing leap-frog with as well as another group. We stayed a bit, then headed off to our next peak, Carson. It was a pretty quick traverse, down to the col and back up the boulder scramble, which was SO fun! We were very energized about that, and the kids loved every second! I snapped some super pictures of the tremendous views, and off to Grace we headed. The crowds were thinning as a few of them didn't have the entire range in their plans and they were turning back.
A very pleasant, gently rolling walk to Grace brought us to a very impressive rocky summit with superb views to the East. Here we had our lunch and checked in via cell phone with Mavs, who was happy to hear from us. He mentioned an impressive cliff and a view toward Dix that he'd heard of but had missed when he was up there, so we decided to check it out. OHMYGAWD, I'm really glad we did, that was a view not to be missed! Grace dropped down into the Bouquet River gorge seemingly straight down, with the full ridge of Carson, Pouch, Hough, and Dix in complete view looping around to our left. Dix's backhorn shot up like a mountain god across the gorge, and we had a look at exactly where we had yet to walk. It's time to go!
Back to Carson we trekked, and immediately from there to Pough, which offered little to mention. Then down into the col where we came upon a well-used campsite. Here we rested a bit and chatted with some hikers who had just descended Hough and were headed for the Lillian Brook bailout. I thought they were nuts to be skipping Dix. One of the men mentioned that he PREFERRED the substantial blowdown area he'd heard he was in for, over proceeding up Dix!! I'll say it again, I thought they were nuts.
Hough, oh MY! I am still catching my breath! That was a steepy! WOW! It felt like it took me forever to get up there! But once I did the payoff was oh, so sweet. We loved the views from this small summit and it was so cool to see Dix rising on up ahead. We hit the Dix ridge and on we trekked, stepping out to the ledges for views on occasion, then picking our jaws back up off the ground to continue...
Finally at 5:30pm we summited Dix. There were some young fellows up there on the Beckhorn enjoying the solitude so we didn't linger. On we pressed to the summit, where there was a stiff chilly breeze but we had it to ourselves. Checked in one last time with Mavs00 and then started the very steep descent.
After a long day, climbing up and over 6 peaks and finally heading back down to car-level, we all hiked with purpose. Getting out with as little headlamp walking as possible was our goal.
We looked forward to the flatter walking that the bottom would offer, but again the evident recent rains prevented that, and our flat areas had become waterways. Dusk was approaching. It was sometime around 7:30 or 8pm. Approaching the Dix pond junction, perhaps 50 yards before it, I twisted my ankle and went down hard and probably ugly, landing on my right hand, breaking the 5th metacarpal. MarcyGirl was my walking companion at the time and Everest and Rivet were at the junction waiting for us. After sitting for a spell to try to avoid passing out, fairly sure something was broken, MG and I proceeded down the trail to inform the others that I'd been injured. Now the others REALLY wanted to hike out with purpose! Trouble is, that wasn't to be for me. My hand was in a lot of pain and the wet conditions only made me need to be more slow and cautious.
Now I was miserable and desperate to get to the car, still over 3 miles away, and darkness is approaching FAST. It became a chore to hold back the tears for the remaining miles--I felt it was a bad idea to rattle the kids. Little did I know they were aware of my misery, but keeping quiet.
Rivet forged on in search of other humans and found some camping just before the Slide Brook lean-to. He told them of my plight and they invited us in to offer help. I plopped down on a log and relief swept over me like a shroud, and I allowed myself a small controled meltdown. Still didn't want to rattle the kids. There were three men camping there, and we had seen them throughtout the day up in the range so their faces and voices were familiar. One whittled a stick for a splint, one pulled out duct tape and first aid tape to immobilize my hand and pinky finger, and one found some Advil and handed me three to take, which I gladly did. I'm afraid I don't know their names, or which one did what, I definitely placed myself completely in their care for a few minutes while the advil took hold. They recommended I try the Elk Lake lodge for a (maybe free) nights rest, and that I not drive, and where to look for medical care, and after much "take care" and "thank yous" we were back on our way. Now it was fully dark and we had donned our headlamps. Just a few feet from this camp we got to the Slide Brook lean to and passed on, grateful to FINALLY be at the part of the trail we'd been on that morning.
Out we walked, slogging through the wet, just anxious to get back to the car, which we FINALLY did at around 10pm! We changed out of our dirty wet things and headed for the lodge.
Now, here is where I give credit to the girl at the lodge who helped find out which hospital I should go to and wrote out directions to get there. She was very concerned and offered water, asked if I was okay to go on my own, etc. She never made me feel beneath her so no longer will I feel that particular resort snobbish or elitist. I had NO plans of trying to get a free night's rest so I wasn't even going to try that. As a matter of fact I was against the idea of abandoning our camp at Sharp Bridge and worked towards just finding care, then a return to my sleeping bag, which didn't sound bad at all!
Rivet accompanied us to the Ticonderoga hospital and then he proceeded for home once we got there. After just an hour of being taken care of in the hospital, I was back in my car with a more technological splint, x-rays and some Tylenol/codeine to last me for a few days. With no dinner in our bellies, we headed back to camp and crashed at 1:30am.
We snoozed, a long day of satisfying hiking behind us, with one unfortunate mishap.
