February 14, 2013

The worst part about living so far away from Upper Works is the unforgiving early AM, in the dark, icy road, white knuckle drive to get in that specific hike. Well, specific I guess is kind of misleading about this trip, the only specific thing we had in mind is where we were going to park.

Once at the trailhead and we stretched out our compressed muscles from the drive and felt much more awake and good to go for a modest days hike. The road as usual, not much excitement there, but it had to be done. We always look at the large boulders on the way in and wonder; where did they start out before getting dropped here?

It didn't take us long before we reached the actual foot trail for Bradley Lean-to and Duck Hole – which just so happens to be the trail we needed for the herd-paths into the Santanoni Range. The ground and the wee-bit of snow that was there at the time were very hard. This came to prove our theory correct that all we would need were our micro-spikes. We had just gone through a rather warm spell that lost much of our snow and left most highly used trails like skating rinks. All this, prior to snow that was recently received over the last weeks.

The foot trail always pleases me after that long walk on the approach road, so we wasted no time moving quickly up the route. We decided not to chance the initial crossing of Santanoni Brook, it looked frozen, but the water was flowing very rapidly beneath and when you can hear it, it kind of makes you think a bit, so we decided to take our chances on the slippery bridge. The second crossing of Santanoni Brook was not an option, bridge only. Not only did it just make since, but the water was open more than not and you could see water running over the ice in spots.

Atop the steps that were now a luge run we kicked it into a higher gear, locked ourselves into conversation and make near record time to the "New/Old Trail" up Santanoni. So, our plan was to use this trail if the brook crossing allowed us to do so. If not we would follow the Times Square herd-path to the ridge. We could hear the water flowing as we approached the shore of Santanoni Brook for a third time, this time it was open water with glazed rocks for the hoppin'. The crossing wasn't too bad, a bit slippery, but rather uneventful.

Along the New/Old Trail

On the opposite side of the brook we knew that the hike would slow a bit – we prepared ourselves for a very steep ascent to the ridge. Not far up the trail we arrived at the beaver marsh, which had all but swallowed the trail, we also wanted to avoid being swallowed. After a bit of looking we managed to find a very faint herd-path off the herd-path that led us back to the herd-path on the other side of the beaver shallows – yes that right, I said what I meant and meant what I said. From here we started to climb and climb and climb. The herd-path was rather easy to figure out and stay on, but it was relentless.

View from along the heard-path

The climb was rather uneventful aside from that; we took in some nice views when we could – before the clouds hindered that a bit. Once on the ridge we had to make a simple left to hit Santanoni Peak. Right would have brought us to Panther Peak, Harold Square, Times Square and eventually Couchsachraga Peak. We had an itch I the back of our head to get the other two, but it turned out it was just our wool caps. We sat atop Santanoni Peak for a bit with no wind to speak off to drive us off. We re-energized our bodies for the stroll out and returned to the herd-path. We felt it was in the best interest of the group to return via our route in. The descent was so fast we literally fell off the mountain. Once back at the Santanoni Brook crossing I opted for a different approach to the ice cold water. I used the "garbage bag crossing" trick to get back across. This works well, but makes the crossing very slippery. Just slip a heavy-duty garbage bag over each foot, grab the top and you have instant waders. We returned to the car and put another notch in our belt for a great hike, safely completed.

Garbage bag crossing

Interested in a great place to stay prior to your trip to the Santanoni's, check out Lake Placid's lodging options or check out Aunt Polly's in Newcomb. Interested in a guided trip of the Santanoni's, check out our local guides in the Lake Placid area. Spencer Morrissey is a guide at High Peaks Mountain Guides in Lake Placid and Rock and River Guides in Keene. He is also a two time winter 46er.

Santa map
Along the New/Old Trail
View from along the heard-path
Garbage bag crossing
Santa map

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