East Dix, Spotted, and E-town #4

[Dunbar]

...plus two more slides

Slept in a little this morning so I didn't arrive to the parking area at the North Fork Boquet until 9am. My pack was pretty well together from yesterday's adventure so I tossed some more food in and started down the trail. The herdpath is well established but has a number of branches along the way that can make following it a bit tricky. Nevertheless I soon found myself following the South Fork. There are some awesome campsites and some awesome swimming holes along the stream. The one at 2100' is very nice and is just 100 yards from a suh-weet swimming hole, complete with rocks to jump off.

I had two waypoints for the base of the slides (taken from aerial imagery) and the herdpath was taking me right to them. I finally got to a section of rock that was still 0.1 miles below the slides, but I figured it was a good time to switch over to my approach shoes. A little further, and a left turn at the appropriate time, brought me to the base of the Zipper slide. The slide was very nice - grippy rock (at least the dry parts) and sufficient steepness to be interesting but not scary. Of course, after yesterday's slides, other things don't seem too bad anymore. I powered on up until I was just about out of slide. Feeling I had done enough to justify saying I had climbed the slide, I turned around and proceeded back down (losing about 400' in the process). When I reached contour with the base of the Great slide, I did a quick 100 yard whack to reach the base.

I came out about 20' from the bottom of the Great slide. Based on advice I had received, this was the better slide for reaching the summit. I had also scouted the slide from above on a Dix range traverse a few weeks ago. The Great slide is pretty broken up with a lot of vegetation reclaiming cracks. I actually preffered the less broken Zipper, from an aesthetic point of view. I continued to climb with constant views of Dix and Hough behind me. Another slide with nice, grippy rock and not too steep.

At 3700' the slide proper ended. Isn't there supposed to be a herdpath running from here to the East-South Dix col? I didn't see it, but wasn't really looking for it anyways. Instead I weaved upward through patches of trees, rubble, and rock toward the top of the ridge. The final 1-200' to the top got pretty fun. One could easily have taken a route that required little/no scrambling, but there was enough unbroken rock that I was able to take a route that included some Class 3+ scrambling. Very fun. Proceeded to the summit for impressive views of the Champlain valley and Green Mts.

Next up was a ridge whack over to spotted mountain and Elizabethtown #4. It is a classic Adirondack ridge - tons of open rock sections for constant views. As I had suspected there was a very faint sometimes there sometimes not herdpath that I was on and off many times. It was a pretty slow walk down the ridge but was very, very fun.

On the way over Spotted Mtn I suddenly noticed a blueberry bush with ready-to-eat blueberries on it. Like any self-respecting bear, I couldn't pass up munching on the little guys. The next hundred yards took a good half hour as I moved from patch to patch stuffing blueberries in my mouth. They kept showing up all the way over E-town #4 and I must have lost a good hour of the hike eating them.

Finally on E-town #4, I took one last look around at the spectacular countryside before taking a bearing toward the South Fork and herdpath. Of course, I didn't really use the bearing and just wandered downhill. I hit a mini-slide that nicely dropped me about 200' right into some excellent deciduous forest that made for a nice little bushwack to the herdpath. On the way out I checked out this beaver pond. The beaver dam holding it back was at least 7 feet high! That beaver is undoubtedly one crazy mofo!

-PICTURES-

[Neil]

Pretty smart going up and down the zipper before crossing over to the Great Slide. The Grace-Etown traverse is such a great hike. It seems there are no limits to what the Adirondacks have to offer.

[Dunbar]

Originally Posted by Neil

Pretty smart going up and down the zipper before crossing over to the Great Slide.

Some guy I know said it would be a good idea . BTW, your advice for the herdpath crossing the North Fork at the faded orange paint blaze was very useful. I definitely would have ended up at Rhododendron Pond otherwise.

[AlpineLamb]

Originally Posted by Dunbar

...plus two more slides


At 3700' the slide proper ended. Isn't there supposed to be a herdpath running from here to the East-South Dix col? I didn't see it, but wasn't really looking for it anyways. Instead I weaved upward through patches of trees, rubble, and rock toward the top of the ridge. The final 1-200' to the top got pretty fun. One could easily have taken a route that required little/no scrambling, but there was enough unbroken rock that I was able to take a route that included some Class 3+ scrambling. Very fun. Proceeded to the summit for impressive views of the Champlain valley and Green Mts.

[]

We were there on Saturday and
Actually that herdpath/trail is at the bottom of the slide

Great to relive that again through your pictures (so that what it looks like going up it ) as you may have read we only went down it!

I imagined going across to spotted to E4. Was it difficult?
I mean would it be difficult for average folks?
That is a great area and I want to get back to it.

Thanks
Mary

[Neil]

Originally Posted by AlpineLamb

I imagined going across to spotted to E4. Was it difficult?
I mean would it be difficult for average folks?

Just look at what it did to my pretty leg.



Long sleeves and pants are faculative depending on how thick-skinned you are.

[Dunbar]

Originally Posted by AlpineLamb

I imagined going across to spotted to E4. Was it difficult?
I mean would it be difficult for average folks?

The trip to E4 took a good bit of time - only partly due to blueberries and views. There were a lot of patches of pretty thick and gnarly stuff along the way, but they were mostly short sections before hitting yet another open rock section. If you had to continuously push through it for a mile or two it would be rough, but it comes in very manageable portions. There's a little bit of a herdpath that definitely makes the going easier, but it is very hard to follow and sometimes just not there. It's also very easy to lose with all the open rock sections. There was also a bit of work required to skirt cliffs along the way.

So it could be a significant challenge for "normal" folks. But if you plan to just take it slow and easy it probably wouldn't be too bad. And the reward is view after view after view.

[masshysteria]

Originally Posted by AlpineLamb

I imagined going across to spotted to E4. Was it difficult?
I mean would it be difficult for average folks?
That is a great area and I want to get back to it.

Thanks
Mary

When we did the traverse, it was basically a matter of going from open rock to open rock, with thick scrub between them. There were occasional signs of people having made their mark, but as Steve said, no continuous path. Just stay on the ridge line, easy enough.Still, a fantastic hike!

I don't know if you noticed them Steve when you were on SW Spotted, the higher of the twin peaks, but did you see the bleached trunks of burned trees lying on the bare summit? The remains of the forest that covered that ridge before the 1910 fire, far larger than anything growing up there now. Very surreal!

When we reached ETown4, we contemplated descending the way you went. Instead we headed due east from there, looking for what Barbara McMartin descibed as a "Mayan temple" of rock. In reality, it wasn't that dramatic, no more than anything we had seen already that day. However, if you were ascending the ridge from that direction, that would be the first open-topped prominence of the trip, which would make it special. From there, it was down to the big bend in the South branch, and follow the hunters path out to Rt. 73. A really spectacular area, well worth the effort!

[Beth]

Great TR and photos....that is one hike I hope to possibly do in the fall.