Caveat here.. this is an amazingly beautiful trail and well worth the camp too.. the top is perfect.. the views are amazing when it’s clear. Weather or not, it’s awesome. However, this is an incredibly busy trail. I had to park a mile down the road to start but I’m on a mission to tackle all 50 highest points in our country.. what happens is the trail is well worn and when Mother Nature calls and rains heavy the trails become tributaries full of mud and often the feel of a cow path.. that’s the human element. Take that away,, and maybe some of the rock scrambling the whole way and it’s awesome.. the upper half of this thing is a wet messs today.. fortunately I’m a hot 🥵 mess 😎😍💪
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Definitely short. But I disagree with calling it easy. In late summer, complex bog navigating at the bottom, then multiple technical cliff-like (see the title of the peak) rock scrambles.
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Difficult, steep trail up to Times Square. From there, quick and easy out to Panther.
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Great hike on a perfect day. Views from the top are some of the best in the ADK. The last 1.3 miles were steep with rock scrabbles and some climbing but totally worth it. It’s a popular hike so there were a lot of people at the top and on the trail.
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A great hike. Awesome views from all 5 peaks. The only annoying thing was the upper parking lot was closed which added a two mile walk in to the trail head and another 2 miles on the way out.
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Great hike, decided to do the range in two parts, rather than one marathon. The road section goes quickly and is a good warmup and warm down. A little muddy after a rainy day previously, but certainly moderate by Adirondak standards. Bradley Pond trail is very nice, if a bit wet. The herd path up Santinoni was very easy to follow and classic roots, rocks, and brush. Wooded summit but look over your shoulder to get great views of the high peaks to the north as you ascend. There are also a couple of turnoffs to get some nice views, and a rock to stand on at the top. The Santinoni brook is very nice, and you travel along it most of the trip; several spots are available to rest or freshen up. Be sure to check out the industrial archeological site (1855 iron smelting) up the road. Bring bug spray, we had black flies, mosquitoes and horse flies; surprisingly worse along the road than in the woods.
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Very backpacking loop. 20+ miles of never ending ups and downs with some flat areas along the flow lands. Hardest parts are definitely the one around Avalanche and Colden Lake and the ascent and descent to Indian Pass with a lot of scrambles on rocks and very wet slippery areas. Trail in some of those spots is not well marked and it is hard to follow especially when going down the ravine from Indian Pass. All along the loop you can find water has you will be near a lake or follow a brook most of the hike. There are campsites and lean-to scattered along the trail. In some area of the trail carrying larger backpacks makes it for an interesting challenge and definitely a burden for the legs. LOL
This time of year we found a li
Scattered along the trail we found a lot of flooded areas with bad mud. Mosquito and black flies where, in some area, very aggressive. We left from Heart Lake ADK Loj Wednesday June 10th at around 2:30-2:245pm and returned to it Friday June 12th at around 4:30pm tired but excited about the adventure we have just completed.
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There is blowdown all over from the Halloween storm. Whole groups of trees blocking the path. The river flooded and deposited debris on the final 2 miles until the climb. Climb up was hard to follow path. Ended up staying on the slide a lot on the way down. Some ice on slide woods had a dusting of snow
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Trail is a nice one and the pay off are nuce view from the top. Season is changing and up above 3000 ft is winter already. The trail this time of here is very muddy and slippery but I would not consider this trail hard. Challenging maybe but not hard. We did both peaks and the one to Porter was muddier and at moment very narrow. It is a great hike probably better for beginners at a better time of the year.
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This was an excellent hike that took ADK high peaks. The ascent is a little steep but once you get to dial mountain the walk over to Nippletop is essentially all along the ridge line I would recommend a side trip to Indian head on the walk back to the Au Sable parking area
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This was a very challenging but spectacular hike. Background : we are both in our early 60s, very experienced regular hikers.We went with our able hiking dog via Avalanche Lake, which is amazing. You need to traverse several ladders and catwalks bolted to sheer cliff down to the water. This section is only a mile but took us 45 minutes due to many boulders to scramble over. IF YOU ARE BRINGING A DOG: there are vertical ladders. Be prepared to be able to lift or boost your dog up. We used a RuffWear harness with a handle, which was excellent. Be prepared for amazing scenery.
The 2.1 mile trail up to the col between Iroquois and Algonquin is unrelentingly steep and pretty much wore us out. At the top we took the unmarked trail over to Iroquois and Boundary Peak, about 2 miles out and back. This is an unmarked trail but very easy to follow. There are some scrambles.
Returning to the main trail we continued about a half-mile to the summit of Algonquin, 2nd highest peak in NY. This is all exposed alpine summit but well marked with paint blazes and rock cairns. Phenomenal views 360 degrees.
The 3 mile trail down from Algonquin was a workout on 60 year old knees; we watched as young hikers rock-hopped down while we picked our way down. Seemed a lot longer than. 3 miles down. But all in all a great hike.
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Pretty challenging. Cold Brook trail is very tight lots of wet evergreen to fight through. Plane wreck near too is very cool and right off the trail. The hike to Marshall had me turned around a couple times trying to get over the first peak. Someone had it marked with pink tape. I think there is a second trail down the path a small ways. Foggy summit but would have not been a lot to see anyways. Hike down the brook and out to Indian falls trail very nice. Rocky Falls is an awesome spot for a swim.
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Very scenic, however a long difficult loop. Was closer to 14.5 miles.
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Round pond lot is small - show up early. Bushwhack up Gravestone Creek is easy to follow, just follow the creek (duh) but can be tight in places if you don’t pick your spots. Keeping the creek on your left seemed the answer.
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Easy hike to the two shelter lean-tos near each other (.8 mile)
Seymour is first very easy until the last thousand feet of elevation, but steep slabs do offer easy enough traction with good soles and plenty of handholds.
Coming down was much easier than expected!
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Calkins Brook trail is a great way to get out to the three peaks in the Seward Range. I don’t recommend coming down the backside of Seward though. Very wet conditions as you walk down a cascade and through an abundance of mud. If you want to do the loop, go up this way if needed. For all four in the Seward Range, I’d recommend hitting Seymour and then going up Seward.
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Trail was easy to follow. Depending when you get to Skylight Brook, the crossing will need to be waded across. I ended up having to take my boots off. Other than that, the trail map was spot on throughout the hike!
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