Basin, Saddleback, and Gothics

September 13, 2013

Patrick, Na and I drove down to Keene Valley after work. We arrived just as darkness fell and found one of the last parking spots in the Garden lot. As we were packing our gear, Dianne pulled in and was happy to have found us so she did not need to hike in alone. We spent the next hour and a half hiking up Johns Brook valley in the bobbing pools of light formed by our headlamps. Just before we got to JBL, we crossed a creek and promptly lost the trail in a million reflective no camping signs scattered everywhere in the woods. After following a bunch of dead-end trails, we found a path marker, but it was the wrong colour. We decided to follow it anyway, but after a few minutes and a compass check we realized that we were ascending Big Slide. Turning around, we quickly backtracked to the junction and the correct trail. A few minutes later we arrivd at Johns Brook Lodge, our accomodation for the weekend. We met Katharina and Janet who had hiked in earlier, drank a beer and then bedtime.

September 14, 2013

We had a relaxing start, the six of us getting on the trail at 07:30. The morning was misty and foggy, but at least the rain that dumped all night had stopped. As we ascended, the fog seemed to keep pace at about the same rate of ascent. We hoped that this would continue all the way to the summit so we would have a view. We took a short break at Slant Rock before starting up the steep ascent to Basin. As we climbed we entered the fog, though breaks in it gave us occasional glimpses of Basin summit and the hulking view of Haystack. We finally started the last section of climbing which was a fun scramble up to the summit where we met a fellow who we designated as our official photographer and got some summit shots, unfortunately with little views. The wind was cold so we made a quick descent. Passing by the trail washout was an impressive sight, which was neat to see as I was one of the last people to walk across this stretch of trail last year before it slid. We made our way over to the base of Saddleback cliffs and started the scramble. This was a hoot as always, but in very short order we arrived on the summit. Breaks in the fog gave us fleeting views down into the valley of the Ausable Lakes. Occasionally Haystack and Basin would make a brief appearance, and then cloud over again. At least the sun was trying to peak out as we ate our lunch before heading down. At the col, the sun suddenly came out in full force, presenting Gothics in all her splendor right in front of us. This was too tempting, so Na, Katharina, Janet and I climbed this while Dianne and Pat headed down. This was the first time I had been up the "cable route" on Gothics, which turned out to be very entertaining. I am going to call it the garden hose route as the cables had garden hoses sheathing them. Not ever hearing of live-load rated garden hoses, I did not put too much weight on these and instead free climbed most of the route using the hose for an occasional hand belay. We reached the false summit to spectacular views and then pushed on to the true summit, where we were rewarded with a lunch break in the sun with a nice view. We met a couple friendly young women up here who were just starting out on their 46 journey. After a while we relunctantly left our perch and began the long scramble down the mountain. Had to occasionally use the garden hose as aid, but it fortunately held. A long walk followed down the Ore Bed trail. The new stairway on the slide was quite impressive and got us down this section fairly quickly. The rest of the slog was long and relentless, but finally we arrived back at JBL after about 9.5 hours on the go.

The gang departing John Brook Lodge in the morning.