Haystack

October 12, 2013

Had a very poor night of sleeping at Keene Farm thanks to several inconsiderate people and a huge school group who arrived after midnight. Alarm went of at 04:30 and I bleerily rolled out of my sleeping bag and put on some coffee. After that and some breakfast I felt a little better. Katja drove me to Keene Valley and I met the others; Jean-Guy, Maurica, and Dianne at the Rooster Comb Inn. After another coffee, Katja drove us up to the Garden and dropped us off in the packed parking lot. The four of us started hiking just as there was enough light to see so we did not need to switch on our lamps. We made good time to Johns Brook Lodge with Jean-Guy setting a brisk pace, and then continued up on to Slant Rock where we took a short break in the warm sunshine. Now the climb began, and with the cloudless skies, our spirits were high as we knew we would be in for a treat of a view from the summit. We climbed on upwards and upon breaking above the trees we saw the magnificient double hump of Haystack Mountain. The hiking poles were ditched at the base of Little Haystack where the scrambling began. This was fun as always and quite easy today with the dry rock. In a little while we arrived on the summit with 360 degree views which stretched for miles. We sat down a little bit below here on a ledge and enjoyed our lunch with a panoramic view of Basin, Saddleback, Gothics, Pyramid, and Sawteeth mountains. Several other groups of people arrived as we hung out, some of them staying a while, others just tagging the top and leaving. After a while, we decided it was time to go, so we descended back down and took an alternate trail down to Slant Rock. We were briefly tempted to return over Basin and Saddleback, but that temptation was not strong enough to make us give in. We met a father with his young son who was excited to be climbing his first high peak "just like his big sister". They told us that mom was heading back with another kid who had sprained an ankle. Sure enough we found these two limping slowly along the trail a short while later. After ensuring that they did not need any assistance, and finding out that they were staying at JBL, we continued on. Another quick break was had at Slant Rock, after which we pushed on to JBL where we took a longer rest on the porch with some coffee. We informed several others of the difficulty that was happening on the Haystack descent by one of their group members, just in case that they did not arrive back before dark. The group was rather unorganized as they had trouble figuring out just who of their friends might be up on Haystack at all. Oh well, at least the problem was passed out of our hands at this point. We sped off down the trail to the Garden, but even though we moved quickly, this stretch of trail always seems to take forever after a long day. All good things come to an end however, and after 10.5 hours on the go we arrived to a zoo of a parking lot and we started to try to figure out an easy way back down to the Rooster Comb. Fortunately we met three French Canadian women who had four spare seats in their mini van. We had an entertaining ride back to town with these friendly folk and then celebrated our hike with beers on the deck of the inn. Jean-Guy drove me back to Keene Farm later where I had supper with Katja and the kids, promptly falling into a deep sleep shortly after.

The gang at Slant Rock.

Climbing the trail to Haystack.

Haystack appears in all its splendor.

Scrambling Little Haystack.

Traversing down to Haystack proper.

Summit of Haystack.

Lunch with a view.

Looking over at Skylight and Marcy.

The long slog back along Johns Brook.

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