Couchsachraga and Panther

October 10, 2009

Katharina, Wendy, and I drove down to the Adirondacks on a drizzly cool morning. We arrived down at the trailhead and started hiking at precisely 11:00. The first few km were down a gravel road which went by quickly enough. At one point a large red weasel of some sort rand across the road in front of us. We finally began the real trail, which immediately crossed two substantial creeks via rickety wooden bridges. Bursts of rain were intermixed with sunshine, so it was hard to decide what to wear. In the end I just settled on a t-shirt because it was warm enough while we were moving. The trail got very muddy, and stayed like that the entire day. At one point I stepped on a slippery log, slipped, and plunged face first into the mud. I was then very muddy. As a final insult I immediately splashed more mud into my eye when we moved to leave. A little further down the trail I found a little trickle of water where I could wash up. The trail got worse. It became a game of rock hopping, log hopping, and testing the way with poles, as some of the mud holes were deep enough to swallow all three of us at once. We arrived at the lean-to. We searched around for a bit and found a reasonable campsite with a small stream flowing through. Not much space for tents, but the mud was not too bad. After supper we went up to the lean-to to say hi to our neighbours and sit around their fire. The fire never really got started as the wood was wet so we just chatted for about an hour before heading back to the tents to get warm, as the evening was getting very cold.

Saddled up and ready to go.

Fall colours along the gravel road approach.

Slippery bridge.

Santanoni Brook.

Muddy trail of doom.

Mike the mud-man after taking a swim.

Base camp for the next two nights.

October 11, 2009

After a cold night with some light rain, we got up slightly before dawn to a very chilly morning. I had some trouble locating the food bag in the dark, but found it after a few minutes of searching. I got the coffee going and then we lit a candle in a chunk of bannana bread to sing happy birthday to Wendy. After a quick breakfast of coffee, oatmeal, and bannana cake we set out. We sloshed through the bog towards the herd path. Wendy unfortunately slipped on a log and plunged deep into the watery muck. Although wet and dirty she was ok, so we began our ascend following the trail around Bradley Pond and then up Panther Brook. This trail, though unmarked, was much nicer than the mud fest yesterday. After some small scrambles and a couple hours of travel we reached the knoll below times square. Some engraving on the rock indicated the initials TS both down the left path and the forward path. We took the forward one, which turned out to be a mistake. The mistake was short lived however because after a short dense bushwack we found ourselves on the herd path to Couchie. It was foggy and cold up here with the ground slightly frozen and covered with a thin layer of snow. After a short break however, the fog parted, the sun came out, and we could see the summit of Couchsachraga below us, a couple of km away. This trail was tough going. Lots of steep parts that had to be down climbed. When we finally finished the descent to the saddle, there was a deep bog, which with some amount of cursing (in both German and English) was crossed without mishap. Now began the ascent, which was fun with quite a few short scrambles. We reached the summit about 4.5 hours into the day and had a brief lunch in the sunshine as it was pretty cold and windy. Despite what I had heard, there is a decent view from here, you just have to look over the trees. We began our way back, stopping to take a second lunch at a viewpoint overlooking the Seward Range to the north. A couple hours later brought us to Times Square and back to the Knoll. We fixed the markings on the rock by scratching out the wrong arrow, and obscuring the path in this direction. The day was getting late so we decided to skip Santanoni this trip and just ascend Panther. The heel of my right foot was also bothering me so I really did not want to push it. The ascent up Panther was muddy, intermixed with short rocky scrambles. It took very little time to reach the summit. There was some great view points up here, but we did not stay long as it was very windy, icy, and cold. We hurried back down to the knoll and took a final food break before the two hour descent down Panther Brook. We reached camp just before dark after a 9.5 hour day. Cooked up a spaghetti supper in the dark and the retired to bed in a light snowfall.

Bradley Pond.

We met a couple on Panther Brook that took our picture for us.

Snow at 3500 feet.

As the fog clears, Couchsachraga appears in all its glory.

View of the Sewards from the approach to Couchie.

Mud scrambling.

Summit of Couchsachraga.

Summit of Panther.

October 13, 2009

It was a very cold night. We awoke to a light dusting of snow on everything, and some frozen equipment, but a clear blue sky. The muddy ground had even solidified somewhat. Boiled up enough water for coffee with only a few drops of fuel to spare. After breakfast we broke camp. My right achilles was bothering me so Katharina taped it up which helped immensly. The descent down was fairly uneventful. As we went the day got warmer, and eventually the sun and altitude drop melted the ice. About three hours later we got back to the parking lot and drove home in time for Thanksgiving supper with my family.

Icy trails this morning.

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