Jay H
New member
Participants: Darl58, Jay H, Juniper, Swamp.
Sunday was supposed to be the nicer day, so after the mudfest on saturday, the plan was to get a somewhat earlier start to drive over to Elk Lake and hike the 5 Dixies via the Macomb Slide and out. The drive over to Elk Lake went well, pointing out the Bison/Buffalo farm and discussing the culinary aspects of Buffalo meat vrs Cow meat vrs Venison. Moo. In a short time, not only do we find a full lot at the end, looks like we just missed the last spot but it also starts to sprinkle. After driving back down to Clear Lake where the gate is, we park and discuss what the plan was. While we're checking out the map and alternate ideas, we see a PU truck with a canoe that seems longer than most lakes, pulls up and we tell them that the lot at the end is full. Since we were wishy washy on our plans at the time, Swamp offers to give them a ride over to the end, somewhere around 2 miles back. By the time Swamp comes back, Juniper, Darl58 and I have decided it makes no sense to drive all the way around to Keene Valley or so to try for some other peaks and we decide that we'll at least do the 4 bushwacks and at Hough, we can decide whether to do the extra elevation and distance (6.6 miles from the Beckhorn out via the steep Beckhorn trail) or go down the Lillian Brook herdpath.
Off we go, with the bostonians surely thinking there isn't an ADK peak without a road walk! It still is cold and drizzling, but kind of spotty and it looks to be somewhat clearing up. We get to the actual trailhead and after a short break we take off around 9:15am.
Mudfest II-
The walk to slide brook leanto is in a nasty wide road walk that is generally kind of rocky, kind of wet. Maybe Miles Davis-like Kind of Blue.
Anyway, I get to the herdpath, noting the large cairn and the campsite still there, we follow Slide Brook on a pretty nicely maintained herdpath, fairly devoid of mud so far, a welcome break I guess from the trail from Elk Lake.
Macomb Slide
Slide was fun, as usual, the skies have cleared up and we had views back towards Elk Lake and up towards the western Great Range.. There is a glimmer of snow/ice that Juniper sees once the slide comes into view and we run into little itsy bitsy pockets of snow pellets and some cold running water, no verglas or ice on the slide itself, but some thin ice were seen above the slide in the woods again, in the shady spots where still water would freeze. The summit of Macomb is not far past the slide and all of us get there around 11:30am, for a quick bite to eat. It is fairly windy on the summit, but the views are very nice and we all gather for one of Darl's summit shots.
Passing South Dix/Carson, we completely pass the summit, the summit disc appears to be gone and I forgot the actual summit view til we were headed down the other side, so since I knew we had to go back, we continue to Grace/East Dix figuring we'll go back, I've already made a mental note of where the Hough herdpath is which I know to be closer to Macomb than Grace. Dropping down off Carson, the mud returns and some nice little rock ledges appear.. Grace is windy but beautiful, and it has a small spot that is sheltered from the windy, so we stop, eat lunch, go out to the other viewpoint just past the summit and note the Blue Ridge Parkway below.. Thoughts of pizza and ice cream flow through our heads....
The decision:
Back to Carson, we do finally get to the top of Carson and stop to note the tree the disc used to be on, marked with a giant cut X, and the small viewpoint next to the summit. we continue down..down to the Lillian Brook campsite/herdpath spot and up the steep climb to Hough. Running into a few backpackers and up to Hough at 2:30pm. After a bit of discussion, we decide we have daylight to burn and we figure we should be able to get down off the beckhorn before dark and get to the "relatively flat" trail back to Elk Lake. So off we go...
The cool thing is that when Swamp and I got to the Beckhorn itself, a V-formation (loosely!) of geese flew by, almost eye level with us, flying towards Haystack and the Great Range, it was cool to watch them swaying with the thermals, close enough that you could see them swaying back and forth. Darl58 even has some photos of it which she took while ascending the Beckhorn... From here, you can see the 4/10ths to the real summit, something you really can't see from Hough, the Beckhorn is not the summit!
So, a short drop and across the ridge to the summit is nice, very windy, gusts that sometimes want to push you over the edge. But we stop and get our usual summit shot and return to the Beckhorn for the descent down, a steep slabby rocky top section that gives way to a rocky and tricky lower section to the intersection that is 3.8 miles from Elk Lake.
Relatively flat:
The 3.8miles back goes past Dix lake and back towards Lillian and Slide Brook and is relatively flat.
Swamp and I take off, thinking that we'll at least get out and run to Clear lake to pick up the cars there and drive back so we hike that 3.8 miles in a bit over an hour, up some PUDs and over to the lake. At the trailhead, we actually run into the lady who Swamp gave a ride to in the morning,her husband was getting the PU truck and they offered a ride back to Clear Lake. Karma! So swamp went off while I waited for Darl58 and Juniper. By the time Swamp came back, the two ladies arrived and off we went to pizza at Schroon Lake.
Jay
Sunday was supposed to be the nicer day, so after the mudfest on saturday, the plan was to get a somewhat earlier start to drive over to Elk Lake and hike the 5 Dixies via the Macomb Slide and out. The drive over to Elk Lake went well, pointing out the Bison/Buffalo farm and discussing the culinary aspects of Buffalo meat vrs Cow meat vrs Venison. Moo. In a short time, not only do we find a full lot at the end, looks like we just missed the last spot but it also starts to sprinkle. After driving back down to Clear Lake where the gate is, we park and discuss what the plan was. While we're checking out the map and alternate ideas, we see a PU truck with a canoe that seems longer than most lakes, pulls up and we tell them that the lot at the end is full. Since we were wishy washy on our plans at the time, Swamp offers to give them a ride over to the end, somewhere around 2 miles back. By the time Swamp comes back, Juniper, Darl58 and I have decided it makes no sense to drive all the way around to Keene Valley or so to try for some other peaks and we decide that we'll at least do the 4 bushwacks and at Hough, we can decide whether to do the extra elevation and distance (6.6 miles from the Beckhorn out via the steep Beckhorn trail) or go down the Lillian Brook herdpath.
Off we go, with the bostonians surely thinking there isn't an ADK peak without a road walk! It still is cold and drizzling, but kind of spotty and it looks to be somewhat clearing up. We get to the actual trailhead and after a short break we take off around 9:15am.
Mudfest II-
The walk to slide brook leanto is in a nasty wide road walk that is generally kind of rocky, kind of wet. Maybe Miles Davis-like Kind of Blue.
Anyway, I get to the herdpath, noting the large cairn and the campsite still there, we follow Slide Brook on a pretty nicely maintained herdpath, fairly devoid of mud so far, a welcome break I guess from the trail from Elk Lake. Macomb Slide
Slide was fun, as usual, the skies have cleared up and we had views back towards Elk Lake and up towards the western Great Range.. There is a glimmer of snow/ice that Juniper sees once the slide comes into view and we run into little itsy bitsy pockets of snow pellets and some cold running water, no verglas or ice on the slide itself, but some thin ice were seen above the slide in the woods again, in the shady spots where still water would freeze. The summit of Macomb is not far past the slide and all of us get there around 11:30am, for a quick bite to eat. It is fairly windy on the summit, but the views are very nice and we all gather for one of Darl's summit shots.
Passing South Dix/Carson, we completely pass the summit, the summit disc appears to be gone and I forgot the actual summit view til we were headed down the other side, so since I knew we had to go back, we continue to Grace/East Dix figuring we'll go back, I've already made a mental note of where the Hough herdpath is which I know to be closer to Macomb than Grace. Dropping down off Carson, the mud returns and some nice little rock ledges appear.. Grace is windy but beautiful, and it has a small spot that is sheltered from the windy, so we stop, eat lunch, go out to the other viewpoint just past the summit and note the Blue Ridge Parkway below.. Thoughts of pizza and ice cream flow through our heads....
The decision:
Back to Carson, we do finally get to the top of Carson and stop to note the tree the disc used to be on, marked with a giant cut X, and the small viewpoint next to the summit. we continue down..down to the Lillian Brook campsite/herdpath spot and up the steep climb to Hough. Running into a few backpackers and up to Hough at 2:30pm. After a bit of discussion, we decide we have daylight to burn and we figure we should be able to get down off the beckhorn before dark and get to the "relatively flat" trail back to Elk Lake. So off we go...
The cool thing is that when Swamp and I got to the Beckhorn itself, a V-formation (loosely!) of geese flew by, almost eye level with us, flying towards Haystack and the Great Range, it was cool to watch them swaying with the thermals, close enough that you could see them swaying back and forth. Darl58 even has some photos of it which she took while ascending the Beckhorn... From here, you can see the 4/10ths to the real summit, something you really can't see from Hough, the Beckhorn is not the summit!
So, a short drop and across the ridge to the summit is nice, very windy, gusts that sometimes want to push you over the edge. But we stop and get our usual summit shot and return to the Beckhorn for the descent down, a steep slabby rocky top section that gives way to a rocky and tricky lower section to the intersection that is 3.8 miles from Elk Lake.
Relatively flat:
The 3.8miles back goes past Dix lake and back towards Lillian and Slide Brook and is relatively flat.
Swamp and I take off, thinking that we'll at least get out and run to Clear lake to pick up the cars there and drive back so we hike that 3.8 miles in a bit over an hour, up some PUDs and over to the lake. At the trailhead, we actually run into the lady who Swamp gave a ride to in the morning,her husband was getting the PU truck and they offered a ride back to Clear Lake. Karma!
So swamp went off while I waited for Darl58 and Juniper. By the time Swamp came back, the two ladies arrived and off we went to pizza at Schroon Lake. Jay
