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Blake, Colvin, Nippletop, Dial Peaks #37,38,39, 40
August 5,6, 2004 (Thursday, and Friday)
What an excursion! We spotted our car on route 73 at the Round Pond trailhead and had a taxi service take us, our gear and our dogs to Elk Lake where we began the hike. The trail from Elk Lake to the designated camping area prior to the ascent of Pinnacle was marvelous. It was soft on the feet and dry, and not rocky. We went to bed early with the intention of jumping on the trail before first light the next day. Friday morning however, was brutally cold for August (we later found that it had been in the upper thirties..brrr!) so we didn’t start the day until 7:30 AM. Starting your climb up Pinnacle when your still cold and wearing full packs isn’t the most pleasant thing in the world.
The two scenic views on Pinnacle may have been the best of the day outside of Colvin’s summit. It was really awesome to be able to look one way and see The Ausable and look the other and see Elk Lake. We had breakfast here and moved on. One comment worth mentioning here is that not once did any trail signs reference Blake peak, only Colvin. Think what you will of the lifestyle and personal friendship between Blake and Colvin, but when you consider the place in the history of the high peaks that Colvin has, it probably was his close companion and aid Mills Blake that did much of the leg work that Colvin is credited with as the leader of the surveys. That being said, the ridge to Blake is longggggg. The ridge is very cool in that it is so narrow that you get many framed views in both directions. As we closed in on Blake the clouds started playing rain and fog dances with us. The views became fewer and fewer. Getting to Blake took much longer and much more energy than we anticipated. As we descended Blake, we ran into our first human contacts.
On to Colvin, which although steep in spots did not take long to summit. From the summit by the surveyor mark was the last great view of the day to the west. I didn’t realize that you could see Marcy from here, I expected Haystack to block it. Indian Head looked so different from this angle. We descended into Elk Pass where we saw a group of young adults doing trail maintenance for ATIS. At this point, it was becoming late in the afternoon, and I suggested to Lizzie that we consider staying at Elk Pass for the night and finishing the next day. She felt we didn’t have enough food for another day and wanted to push on and stay on schedule.
It was a long steep climb to the summit of Nippletop, with absolutely no views at this point due to the rain cloud we were in. That probably was good, because we didn’t stay on the summit long. Finally, we had some downhill to walk! We started to feel a little better now-rejuvenated. We summited Dial around five PM. Again, there were no views, and we were now getting concerned with the most challenging part of our hike.
We descended to the col between Dial and Bear Den, where we began to search for Gravestone Brook. There was no sign of the brook, and looking at the topo, you could see that you had to descend about two hundred feet before you would find it. So we proceeded east to the compass through thick brush and blowdown in search of Gravestone Brook. It seemed we would never find it, so we just kept going East and down further into the col. Finally, we found a small stream and tried to follow it but kept getting detoured away due to the brush and blowdown. After another fifteen to thirty minutes, staying east, we heard a louder sound of running water and low and behold; Gravestone Brook. We were excited that we had finally found it and that the last leg of our journey was here. The Brook appeared to be beautiful and easy to move on…not so. It became very slippery and had many deep pools that we had to negotiate around on shore. Once on the land your leg would sink knee deep on root holes.
Then time started setting in. We hadn’t found the trail, which crosses the brook, and were starting to wonder if it was possible we missed it. We were running out of light and still also needed to filter some water before taking the trail to the car. Finally, at 8:30PM, we found the trail. We filtered our water and took to the trail. We got to our car at 10:30PM-happy, hungry and filthy.
August 5,6, 2004 (Thursday, and Friday)
What an excursion! We spotted our car on route 73 at the Round Pond trailhead and had a taxi service take us, our gear and our dogs to Elk Lake where we began the hike. The trail from Elk Lake to the designated camping area prior to the ascent of Pinnacle was marvelous. It was soft on the feet and dry, and not rocky. We went to bed early with the intention of jumping on the trail before first light the next day. Friday morning however, was brutally cold for August (we later found that it had been in the upper thirties..brrr!) so we didn’t start the day until 7:30 AM. Starting your climb up Pinnacle when your still cold and wearing full packs isn’t the most pleasant thing in the world.
The two scenic views on Pinnacle may have been the best of the day outside of Colvin’s summit. It was really awesome to be able to look one way and see The Ausable and look the other and see Elk Lake. We had breakfast here and moved on. One comment worth mentioning here is that not once did any trail signs reference Blake peak, only Colvin. Think what you will of the lifestyle and personal friendship between Blake and Colvin, but when you consider the place in the history of the high peaks that Colvin has, it probably was his close companion and aid Mills Blake that did much of the leg work that Colvin is credited with as the leader of the surveys. That being said, the ridge to Blake is longggggg. The ridge is very cool in that it is so narrow that you get many framed views in both directions. As we closed in on Blake the clouds started playing rain and fog dances with us. The views became fewer and fewer. Getting to Blake took much longer and much more energy than we anticipated. As we descended Blake, we ran into our first human contacts.
On to Colvin, which although steep in spots did not take long to summit. From the summit by the surveyor mark was the last great view of the day to the west. I didn’t realize that you could see Marcy from here, I expected Haystack to block it. Indian Head looked so different from this angle. We descended into Elk Pass where we saw a group of young adults doing trail maintenance for ATIS. At this point, it was becoming late in the afternoon, and I suggested to Lizzie that we consider staying at Elk Pass for the night and finishing the next day. She felt we didn’t have enough food for another day and wanted to push on and stay on schedule.
It was a long steep climb to the summit of Nippletop, with absolutely no views at this point due to the rain cloud we were in. That probably was good, because we didn’t stay on the summit long. Finally, we had some downhill to walk! We started to feel a little better now-rejuvenated. We summited Dial around five PM. Again, there were no views, and we were now getting concerned with the most challenging part of our hike.
We descended to the col between Dial and Bear Den, where we began to search for Gravestone Brook. There was no sign of the brook, and looking at the topo, you could see that you had to descend about two hundred feet before you would find it. So we proceeded east to the compass through thick brush and blowdown in search of Gravestone Brook. It seemed we would never find it, so we just kept going East and down further into the col. Finally, we found a small stream and tried to follow it but kept getting detoured away due to the brush and blowdown. After another fifteen to thirty minutes, staying east, we heard a louder sound of running water and low and behold; Gravestone Brook. We were excited that we had finally found it and that the last leg of our journey was here. The Brook appeared to be beautiful and easy to move on…not so. It became very slippery and had many deep pools that we had to negotiate around on shore. Once on the land your leg would sink knee deep on root holes.
Then time started setting in. We hadn’t found the trail, which crosses the brook, and were starting to wonder if it was possible we missed it. We were running out of light and still also needed to filter some water before taking the trail to the car. Finally, at 8:30PM, we found the trail. We filtered our water and took to the trail. We got to our car at 10:30PM-happy, hungry and filthy.
