Dix Range - Day 1

October 10, 2008

Rob came over after work and we drove down to Cornwall to cross the border. Fairly uneventful with about a 20 minute delay at the crossing. Stopped at the grocery store in the Mohawk reservation and bought very little food as the IGA has turned mostly into a dollar store. Ate a sub at the Quiznos and then drove the rest of the way to the Farm, arriving about 22:00. The parking lot was overflowing, but the hut was only half full, so I guess most were camping in the field. We had time for a couple beers and then climbed upstairs to bed.

October 11, 2008

We got up as the sun was coming up and went into Keene to enjoy a good breakfast at the cafe. We drove out to Round Pond, stopping once at the wrong trailhead by mistake. Not starting off too good by getting lost before we even begin! We found the right trailhead and parked along the side of the road, as the parking area was full, and then began our hike. The first 5 km or so were flat. When we reached a camping area and made a tricky creek crossing, the terrain started going up, and up, and up. We came to an open slide area and had a blast climbing up the rock here. We were having so much fun that we eventually realized that we were no longer on the trail. Studying the map ahowed that the trail was only about 300 meters away so we bushwacked through some incredibly dense forest until we got back on it. The climb now was a scramble for the next couple hundred meters up, and fairly tiring carrying a full load of camping gear. It leveled off a bit, and the climb got easier as we approached the summit. We summitted just before 14:00 and enjoyed the spectacular view as we ate lunch. There were quite a few other people lounging out on the summit as well. We traversed over to the Beckhorn and then found the herd trail that scoots along the ridge towards Hough. This was very difficult going. It was very steep, very narrow, and lots of small drops that were complicated to scramble down. Nevertheless, we passed at least a couple dozen people along here. The descent took longer than I had expected, and we finally reached the foot of Hough at about 15:30. We were beginning to get tired but pushed on. Summitting Hough took a suprisingly little amount of time, where we enjoyed this peak to ourselves. A fairly quick descent to the coulee on the way to South Dix brought us to a deserted campsite where we had planned to spend the night. Total hiking time was 8 hours. The day was fairly hot, but it is rapidly cooling as the sun begins to set.

Fall views.