Marshall

November 9, 2024

Paul had Marshall as his final peak of the 46, so he organized a trip with a few folks who had followed him along the journey to join in on the finishing hike. Paul, Qudoos, and I drove down to Keene Farm together Friday evening, where we met Grant and Cam. Alin was to meet us at the trailhead the following morning.

Early start from the hut as it is a long drive over to Upper Works. We pulled in to the lot to find Alin dozing in the car, having arrived a few minutes earlier. We were blessed with a beautiful day as we made our way up the Calamity trail to the Henderson monument, this trail being a little bit better maintained than I previously remember it, but still retaining its character in a few places with bottomless mud holes.

My favorite section of Calamity trail

Studying the history of Mr. Henderson

After a quick break at the leanto overlooking the Flowed Lands, we picked our way around the lake until we reached the base of Herbert Brook. This part of the hike is always a treat, as the brook is beautiful with the mossy slabs, cascades, and pools that are just begging you to strip down and take a swim. Thoughts of swimming were far away though as a cold wind blew in our faces whenever we were not sheltered in the trees. As we approached the swamp at the source of the Brook I scampered to the front of the pack to catch up with Cam, who seemed to be the fastest of us all. I handed him a festive banner with instructions to scoot ahead to the summit to prepare it for the arrival of the new 46er. Cam, Alin, and Grant continued ahead for this task, while Qudoos, Paul, and I plodded along at a slower pace as we played leap-frog with a couple from Montreal. At about 1100m of elevation we hit the snow line, and shortly after that the spikes came out to deal with the ice. Not too much further we arrived on the summit, completing Paul's final summit.

Tempting place for a swim

Climbing Herbert Brook

A bit of snow and ice as we near the top

A nip of single malt and a bit of bubbly wine might have been shared around as I handed over a well earned 46er patch and we posed for a group photo graciously taken for us by the other couple, after which we headed out to the lookout for lunch with a view. We decided to descend down to Cold Brook pass and check out the airplane crash, and then loop back via Indian Pass. This route proved to be quite challenging. The herd path down to CBP was much more rugged than the nice trail up Herbert Brook, and the abandoned Cold Brook trail is quite grown in, but still fairly easy to follow. The official trail up Indian Pass is rough going and hard to follow as markers are few and far between.

A new 46er is minted!

Lunch lookout at Marcy and friends

Checking out the old crash site

We aimed for Summit Rock for second lunch, but discovered, much to the dismay of our grumbling stomachs, that summit rock is quite a bit further than the summit of the pass. Eventually we did find the correct location and we all sat down for a short break here to refuel as we watched a couple rock climbers working their way up the upper pitches of the impressive cliff of Wallface mountain.

Climbers on Wallface as the sun begins to set

The way down had many more route finding challenges, a few ladders (one of them somewhat broken and quite sketchy) and fading light which did not help in the route finding. Fortunately we found our way onto easier terrain and better defined trail before the light faded completely and the headlamps came on. It was still almost two hours of slogging until we finally reached the parking lot, just under eleven hours after starting, making Paul an official 46er.

Sketchy ladder

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