Mud & Redfield from Loj -- 8/18/12

[Makwa]

Cliff & Redfield were two of the remaining four peaks I needed to get to 46. Had kept putting them off in favor of other peaks this summer as I knew they would be a long, long day. Once I saw the beautiful forecast for Saturday I decided to bite the bullet and head up to the ADK Loj.

I chose starting from the Loj rather than Upper Works only because I know that section of trail much better than UW and figured I might be doing the last part of the day in the dark. If it came to that, I wanted to be familiar with my surroundings and be on a more heavily traveled trail. The only drawback is 300-400 feet more in elevation gain for the day. Small price to pay for peace of mind I guess.

Started out at 6:00 a.m. and got to Marcy Dam in short order. There was a group of 16 on the remains of the old bridge who were gearing up for the day and having some sort of group cheer. You could hear them from pretty far away. I prayed I wouldn't be stumbling across them all day. Probably very nice people but the group was just huge. The recently-constructed bridge over the brook still smells like new lumber and is a quick minute or so reroute from the old dam. The trails from the Loj to the Dam and then from the Dam to Lake Arnold are pretty dry with very little mud to skirt around. The trail gets wet around Lake Arnold but isn't as bad as previous years. Got to this point in about 2:30 with stops. Dropping down from Lake Arnold to Uphill LT/ herdpath start took another 1:25 with stops then 5 more minutes to the herdpath split. Door to door in exactly four hours and I was standing at the cairn to C&R. Everybody says the start of the herdpath is directly across from the Uphill LT. I guess that's kinda true but the HP cairn (on your left) is about 20-30 feet before the little side trail (on your right) that leads into the lean-to which is obstructed from view as you're walking the trail.

I chose Cliff to tackle first since I wanted to be fresh for the cliff climbing portion of the day. The mountain is aptly named but could also be renamed Mud. The trail was muddy and stayed pretty muddy. A few difficult route choices to get through the deep stuff but overall not too bad... just inconvenient and mucky. The cliffs of Cliff are actually fun to climb. Some appear a lot worse than they actually are. I had no problems choosing routes, finding handholds, or fearing for my life as I was negotiating them. They do require care and good judgement but not really bad overall. Cairn to summit in 75 minutes. You can't miss the summit as you come to a dead end with signage at eye level. Met a nice family on top as well as two fellow Golden Knights from my alma mater Clarkson University. Stayed on the summit for about a half hour chatting with everybody and eating then made it back down to the cairn in 55 minutes.

Off to Redfield after stopping for 3 minutes to eat some more and check my water levels. The trail follows Uphill Brook for most of the way and is a beautiful path that spends a lot of time in the brook. You climb around, over, and through rocks most of the time on the way up but it's a fun hike. Obviously, plenty of places to refill your water along the way. It took me 90 minutes cairn to summit but hiking solo I was being very careful with each step I took on top or on the edge of the thousands of rocks I had to navigate over. The views from the top of Redfield are simply spectacular, were the highlight of the day, and well worth the climb. Spent a half hour or so on the summit enjoying the view and headed on down.

The way down was mostly uneventful until I took that "one bad step" I constantly fear. I was walking on the left side of the brook where there was a clear rock hop from one big boulder to the next for a bit, but was a good 5 or 6 foot drop down onto some more rocks to your right if you slipped and fell. Well... I grabbed a small tree with my left hand to steady myself as I placed my right foot on the top edge of a pointy roof-shaped boulder. Just as I shifted all of my weight to the right foot and was about to release my handhold my foot slipped out, I lurched forward, and my life flashed before my eyes. I was about to crash down 6 feet onto the rocks! Miraculously, I managed to hang onto the tree with my left hand and it strained and bowed under my weight as I fell toward the rocks below then was sprung back up, hanging on all the while by one hand. I swung around like a monkey until my feet were safely resting back on the rock I initially slipped from. That one bad step almost turned into a painful crash.

Stopped shortly thereafter to refill water and wash off the layers of mud that had caked on my legs all day. Spent 20 minutes or so pumping/ drinking/ resting and continued on down. Summit to cairn in 80 minutes (not counting the stop).

Now I had the lovely walk out which I knew would take me past dark. It was 4:40 p.m. at this point and it had taken me 4 hours in the morning to reach the point I was standing at. Sunset was 7:55 p.m. The last 2+ miles from Marcy Dam would be in the dark. I walked with two different group of two from Canada (one from Ottawa, one from Montreal) for a while but separated from them as I wanted to finish up. Put on the headlamp for the last half hour as it was very dark and was back to the trailhead in exactly four hours from the cairn at the C&R herdpath split.

The temps had fallen to the mid to low 50's by this point and as I reached the trailhead, and with the lights of the HPIC shining on me I could see I was literally steaming. My clothes, my head, my legs... steaming. And I could see my breath. Interesting end to the day. As I signed out I could see there were a bunch of parties who were signed in for the day who were not out yet, including the two groups I had walked with. Not sure if it was a moonless night but it was pitch dark by time I threw the headlamp on a little past 8:10 p.m. Hope they all had flashlights or headlamps as it's awfully easy to crack your head on a branch or trip over a root when it's that dark.

I think the elevation gain for the day was around 7200 feet but that could be a little off given that I was using a homemade astrolabe I fashioned from Campbell's soup cans. My more modern technology had it at around 4000 feet and 18+ miles.

All in all a long (14:40) but great day. Nailed down #43 and #44 on the way to 46. Only Santanoni (which I chose to abort after hitting the wall on Couchie) and a finish on Haystack remain. Hope to get both by Labor Day.

[Faline]

I must have seen you at some point - my friend and I did Cliff and Redfield as well on Saturday. We'd stayed near Avalanch lean-to the night before so we'd have been a bit ahead of you.

Glad you survived the bad step! It is something I fear even with a hiking partner.

[c.j.scarborough83]

Thanks for the TR and congrats on nabbing 2 more.

[JW1069]

What a great TR! Glad to hear you held on to avoid a nasty spill. I solo hike too and have much the same thought process about deliberately picking my steps on the rocks.

Congrats on making it down to the final two HP's...can't wait to read about your finish on Haystack!

[Makwa]

Originally Posted by Faline

I must have seen you at some point - my friend and I did Cliff and Redfield as well on Saturday. We'd stayed near Avalanch lean-to the night before so we'd have been a bit ahead of you.

I think I passed you two going up each mountain as you were coming down. You might remember me... people tell me I remind them of George Clooney - except for the good looks, money, & charm.

Great day to get those two out of the way.

[Blackbear]

Great trip report ! enjoy your last two . Both Santanoni and Haystack are wonderful I think it is really cool you chose to do this Journey solo.