MacNaughton 1/23/08

[Walt&Mike]

Finally! After missing all of last winter's season for one reason or another, we've gotten up and out on the trail for the first time since climbing Allen on valentines day of 2006.
Read that a climbing group from Rochester had done MacNaughton a couple of weeks ago and decided that even though there has been some snow almost every other day, that there haven't been any major storms and that the route should still have been easy to follow. Didn't exactly turn out that way.
After a slow. slippery drive ( a couple on inches of snow overnight on Tuesday ) from the Econo Lodge in Lake Placid to the ADK parking area, we finally got packed up and on the trail at 5:45am. Two to four inches of snow on the trail around Heart Lake but still rocky enough underneath to clap with the snowshoes until after we had passed the old Nye ski trail junction. Forecast was for intermittant snow showers during the day, but it snowed lightly all day until the late afternoon, accumulating another inch or so by the time we returned.
Indian Pass trail had been used recently by some cross country skiers and was fairly packed down with snow depths gradually increasing until there was about six inches by the time we reached Scott Clearing. We crossed Indian Pass brook below the old dam with no problem, below zero temps a couple of nights last week have solidified the ice nicely.
I had the height of land between the brook and Scott Pond set as a waypoint on the GPS and about a mile past the brook reached for it to check how much further we had to go to that point only to find it missing. We had used it at the leanto when we stopped for a drink and a short rest and must have dropped it there. We decided it would be too much trouble to go back for it then as the trail was still very obvious from previous hikers. Besides, we could always just use the map and compass as we had on our previous MacNaughton trip on the day after hurricane Floyd.
Almost as soon as we topped the first hill, the trail all but disappeared. The DEC trail markers, which had been about five feet above snow level going uphill, got gradually lower and lower until by Scott Pond the were barely at the level of the top of our poles. And, any sign of the packed trail from the Rochester group was completely gone. We had made what we thought was very good time - three hours to the old dam - and still thought it was going to be an easy day and that we would be back to the car by dark.
We had trouble finding the route just a couple of times and lost ten or fifteen minutes here and there going back and forth until we found a trail marker that wasn't covered with snow. Really like the new larger size DEC markers by the way - thanks! - us old guys need all the help we can get sometimes.
Reached the end of the blazed trail and the largest of the Wallface Ponds at about 10:00am and were still enthusiastic about summiting. It was still cloudy and snowing lightly but we could see the top and were going to take a compass bearing to follow as we had on our first trip. We followed the shoreline around to the outlet, crossed over the beaver dam, and down to the lower pond. When we went to cross the sawmpy area before the start of the climb through the woods, we were stymied by a six to eight foot deep channel where the heavy rain from a week ago had cut all the way down to the bottom of the snowpack. We had to detour for quite a distance up and to the right before we could find a place to get across. In retrospect, we should probably have just cut straight across the upper pond and headed up from there.
The half mile climb to the ridgeline took us over two hours! Unlike our last trip after Floyd there was minimum of blowdown but the snow was loose and powdery and anywhere from knee to waist deep over a hard crust underneath. Once on top we spent an hour searching from the center to the north west area of the ridge where the cannister had been, looking for the summit sign. Passed over both to the north and west until the terrain dropped off sharply, and decided that the sign was either completely buried in snow, or that the heavy snow on the branches of all the trees had it hidden from view.
Left for the return trip at 2:15pm and followed our own tracks back the same way we had come in. The sun was just coming out as we reached the lower pond and I took our only picture of the trip with Wallface Mountain in the background. It had stopped snowing, but the wind started to pick up and had already erased our tracks across both ponds.
Probably pushed a little too much on the way in, because I was a bit winded and had to stop every fifty to a hundred yards to puff and blow to catch my breath before continuing. Found the GPS almost buried in the snow by the leanto, and continued to stop and suck wind every couple of minutes all the rest of the way back to the car which we reached at 7:45pm.
Saw on the forums that a trip to MacNaughton is being planned for the first week of March and that a group of ten or so would be ideal to break trail. Just wanted to let you all know that if a couple of old guys ( 62 plus ) can do it by them selves, that you shouldn't have any trouble at all.
The parking lot and road were well plowed and sanded by the time we got back, as they usually are - the road crews do a great job, much better than back home in New Jersey - of course they get a bit more practice.

[mirabela]

Hey, good report! I've been trying to talk a few of my pals into a MacNaughton attempt for 2/23, but maybe I'll try to hook up with this group in the works for March.

Matt

[RTSpoons]

I agree, nice trip report. Nice job.

[Highonlife]

Awesome job, I love McNaughton.

[phoenixfighter]

Thank you very much for the detailed trip report.

[Gary]

Inspirational and informative. Great job. Thank you!