Nippletop and Dial - 8/13/12

[JW1069]

Much in the way that weather can become unpredictable in the High Peaks, this report was delayed due to a hard drive crashing and other fun life events. Special thanks to High Maintenance and others who suggested doing this loop by ascending up Elk Pass...good advice. Now I need to get cracking on the Sawteeth/Pyramid/Gothics/Armstrong TR.

It’s safe to say the High Peaks drought has been quenched. After several straight days of rain and downpours, a dry and partly sunny forecast had me juggling plans to get back up to the Dacks. The moisture in the air created pillows of fog from Lake George all the way to exit 30. The sun was just about to spill over the mountains at 6:30 am and I was anxious to get on the trail.

The improvised decision to hike this morning left me with little time to prepare my pack the night before. I quickly assembled the items strewn about the backseat, taped my feet, laced up the boots and set off for the trail head a half mile away from the parking lot. Glancing up, there was a bank of dark clouds coming from the southwest now darkening the sky. What the heck? At least I had a rain jacket packed. Or did I?

Oops. My jacket was back in the car. Even on a perfectly sunny day, it’s best to prepare for drastic weather changes on the summits. Rather than add another mile and get a later start, I decided to chance the weather forecast would hold and hope these clouds would pass on this cool morning without incident. Worst case scenario, I had an emergency mylar blanket in my pack that could be made into an improvised rain poncho. I signed into the trail register at 7:12 am with eight or nine potential hiking partners standing by.

While planning for these summits, several other hikers suggested approaching Nippletop from Elk Pass and doing a counterclockwise loop with Dial. My hike in mirrored the same path as Colvin and Blake: down Lake Road to the Gil Brook cutoff then following the trail to the Elk Pass junction. Heading down Lake Road, the sky above was filled with clouds. The sun briefly peeked through a couple of times and this game of hide and seek would be a constant theme for the day. I made a brief request to the Almighty for clear views on the summit thinking it couldn’t hurt to ask. The lower trails were damp and pleasant underfoot. I had decided ahead of time to stop at Gil Brook to fill my water bladder. The intention was to see if the reduced weight made much difference on the walk in. For anyone planning to hike in the area, this is likely the most reliable source for water filtering. I stopped at a spot just past the cutoff and filled up. This side stop cost me about 20 minutes (mostly from taking pictures) and in hindsight was unnecessary.

I finally reached the Elk Pass junction at 9:20 am and was quickly joined by three hikers on their way to Colvin and Blake. One of the young men was hiking with his son (9 or 10 yo?) who was a fireball of energy! He proudly told me he had hiked 12 High Peaks already and that the hike to “bag” Blake would only take him an hour. We all shared a great laugh and wished each other well. Just before setting off, I met another solo hiker on his way to Nip/Dial for his 31st and 32nd HP’s. He would leapfrog me later, but we crossed paths several times. The Elk Pass trail held much of the previous days’ rains. Puddles, muck holes and water runoff covered most of the trail. The sun poked through the clouds briefly a couple of times, but the nearby peaks were still socked in. I stopped at the Elk Pass pond to change layers and take some more pictures. One good breeze carrying the rank, musty smells of this area quickly put to rest any notion of considering this spot for water filtering.

From the pond to the top of Elk Pass was not as steep as I expected, but still offered some challenging spots with the wet rock faces. It is essentially a gutter of a trail that just seems to go on forever. My energy level felt off today, perhaps due to the two week break between hikes, so maybe that factored into the lack of enthusiasm here. The good news though was catching many glimpses of the surrounding High Peaks in spite of the lingering cloud cover.

The slog up Elk Pass mercifully ended just over two hours later. Another hiker quickly appeared from behind me and mentioned his father was on the way up too. With a quick “See you on the summit”, I finished the easy final approach. My short prayer back on Lake Road had been answered. Although overcast, all of the High Peaks save Marcy were visible. This summit offers commanding views of the Great Range as well as points south and east to the Dixes. It was strange to be looking down at Colvin and Blake and to think these High Peaks were “small” as Nippletop is only another 600 feet or so higher. The two hikers behind me arrived shortly; a father and son tandem. The son was in from Michigan working on his 20th and 21st (if I recall correctly) while his father, who lived locally, had completed the 46 through all of the seasons. It was a great pleasure to share the summit with them and trade some stories before being chased off by dashes of rain. They were back on the trail quickly while I fumbled with my pack and I didn’t catch up with them again until the Dial summit.

Fortunately, the rain ended as quickly as it started. The path down to Dial went quickly with a mostly gradual descent through many muck holes. It took me about one hour and twenty minutes to reach the Dial summit where I caught up with the father and son tandem and the solo hiker. They were preparing to head back down via the Leach Trail already, but the son offered to take a quick summit pic for me before leaving (thank you). For the next 40 minutes I enjoyed the sunsplashed summit of Dial all to myself. It was quite surreal to be sitting there alone with the incredible views of the Great Range and eating a slice of pizza with grilled chicken and roasted red peppers for lunch.

After a very peaceful and satisfying stay on the summit, it was time to start on the final five mile trek back to the car. The Leach Trail from Dial down to Bear Den held several muck spots, but what really caught my attention was how the thick canopy darkend the woods. Birch bark was strewn everywhere as if some juvenile bears had mischeviously TP’d the forest. There was some brief elevation to regain and then I arrived on the treed summit of Bear Den. With none of the namesake bears in sight (fortunately), it was time to continue the descent.

I thought the Leach Trail would offer a quick cruise to Lake Road from here, but was sadly mistaken. It turned out to be a rather unpleasant trail underfoot with a constant decline between moderate and steep, loose rocks and sand plus exposed wet rock faces. I may have had to use my dance moves a time or two to keep upright. Just for fun, the ascent up the Noonmark shoulder left me wondering if I hadn’t missed a turn along the way. I found myself pointed east thinking, “What the heck is going on here?”. My paper map wasn’t zoomed in enough to show the features, but after consulting the GPS for the first time it was easier to see that the map and dotted trail line didn’t quite match up on the ground.

The exposed rock summit of Noonmark’s shoulder does offer some nice views though. Another pleasant surprise was the fresh trail cut descending from this point. This area has begun to make a resillient comeback from the fire damage and the soft ground underfoot was greatly appreciated for a short while. Nice job by the volunteers who put the effort into this section of the trail.

The final stretch home was slow and uneventful other than wondering how Elk Pass was supposed to be considered the “steep” part of this loop. The drop to Lake Road is a constant descent that did not appeal to my feet and knees at all. I was quite thankful to finally hit Lake Road and sign out at 5:30 pm with High Peaks #6 and #7 under my belt. Although this hike took much longer than I expected, my notes show at least 2 hours of stop time for pics along the trail and summit breaks.

Pics and hike stats can be found in my blog at: http://adkhighpeaksforheroes.com/

[c.j.scarborough83]

Did that hike the same way you did. No views from Nip at all and a few from Dial. Rainy and foggy most of the way. I agree with you on the descent down the Lake Road, its deceptive, at least to me. Congrats on getting 6 and 7. Cheers.

[JW1069]

Thanks CJ. Sorry you weren't able to get better views on your hike. I put my chances at 50-50 of the summits being socked in while I was headed up.

Hey, nice new avatar.

[SLHiker]

Awesome job!! I did those this past week the opposite way, and I can tell you it was nice to get the steep miserable part of the Leach trail done first, even though it had me severely questioning my stamina (it was a last-minute change to the plan to do it that way, and the lack of research made the degree of steepness a bit more unexpected and unwelcome than it should've been). Good to hear I'm not the only one who didn't like it too much Great hike though, huh? Congrats!!