Thought it has never been a problem in the past, something tells me to call ahead to the Wilmington KOA and it is good I did. On the phone they say there are two, wait no, one site remaining. (Out of a couple hundred) This is the weekend of the Ironman Triathlon. I knew that this event was in Lake Placid, but thought it was a couple weeks before. My site was a little spot in the corner of a slightly crowded overflow area.
While visiting the camp office and store I asked about the Ironman course and road closures around the area. A list and map was handed to me that basically said everything in the area was shut down from shortly after sunrise until about 5:00 PM. The course consisted 2.6 miles swimming, 112 miles riding and 26 miles running. For a few moments I panicked until I realized that I would be out of the area and hiking in the hills for the entire time. The only problem this caused me was that I didn't sleep well worrying that I would oversleep and be stuck at the campground all day.
After a not too good night of sleep my alarm went off and I was up and on my way in the early morning light.
Morning fog in the valley north of Keene.
I arrived at The Garden parking area and put my $6 fee in an envelope. My backpack was already set to go, so after a cinnamon bun, coffee and as much water as I could gulp down I signed the trail register and with the sun just showing over the horizon at 6:10 I was heading down the trail. The sky was partly cloudy and carrying a slight chance of afternoon showers. The air temperature was comfortable but humid.
Johns Brook trail from The Garden to Johns Brook Lodge is about 3 miles, but walking at an easy pace it took me over 2 hours to get there. Across this distance it gains about 600' which is hardly noticeable with mostly gentle up and down and small bridges to cross a few streams.
Arriving at Johns Brook Lodge I spent a little time looking about. It has a few rooms with bunks that can accommodate 28 people, and large room with tables and fireplace and there is a kitchen where meals are made for those overnighting. There is a deck with chairs. Potable water is available for hikers.
Before 9:00 I was leaving JBL and on the trail towards Lower Wolfjaw. This trail goes around the NE base of Upper Wolfjaw and on the way crosses some large slides. I could see high above me a section of the peak and what looked like the top of the slide and far below me the bottom. It would be interesting to see this from the air. Crossing a second slide I am almost at the lower end of it with trees piled up and pushed down. The dirt that is piled up only has what appears to be small first year growth. This must be one of the new slides caused by Irene.
On the way up I caught a glimpse of Lower Wolfjaws' upper section. It is steep! I decided that if I went up and back down that, it would probably be the last thing I do on this hike. Instead I would save that for another walk, possibly with my son David in a few weeks, and turn towards Upper Wolfjaw, Armstrong and if time permitted continue to Gothics and back on the Ore Bed Trail. As I was getting up to continue I was joined by Ron, who was with a group that was right then on Lower WJ. He was concerned with some muscle cramping in one leg and decided to save his energy for the other peaks ahead. Together we started towards Upper WJ.
On what I thought was the summit of Upper WJ at 11:30, I was a little disappointed as there was no view. I leave Ron behind. He will wait for his party there. He says they move pretty fast so I'm sure we will meet up again before too long.
A half hour later I come across a sign that says "Summit Upper WolfJaw 20 yds ->" OH!I leave the trail and climb onto a big rock with a nice view back towards Lower WJ and the small peak I had mistaken for this summit. In the other direction Armstrong is visible about an hour away with quite a bit of down before heading back up. I hate to trade off any altitude when hiking, even if it is only a rock on the trail I've stepped up onto.
Coming down Upper WJ the trail gets quite steep and I came close to having to sit on my butt to work my way down, but fortunately there were just enough notches and hand holds to make it down.
At 1:25 after 15 minutes on the top of Armstrong I'm ready to head on towards Gothics when Ron and then his group caught up with me. After a quick hello I am off. There were some quite steep descents but at least they were short. A couple steep rocks required the "butt on rock" technique. Rocks in the high peaks are very hard and have great traction, but to be on the safe side I got down to the ground. It looks like a pretty quick walk to the next summit.
I reached the summit of Gothics about 2:20 with Ron's group. The atmosphere is slightly hazy but still have 30+ mile visibility. Can see Giant, Dix, Marcy and in the distance Whiteface. I took some pictures for Ron and his group and gave him the address for this blog before heading out.
After resting I continued along to find the cables down the west side. It was about 3:00 and I guessed a couple hours to get back to JBL, then a couple back to the car.
Though the trail down was steep, traction was very good. In spite of this I used the cables anyway. I worried that a misstep, trip or just a slip would result in a bad enough fall that I would regret not having held onto the cable. I could see the newspaper article: "Stubborn Hiker Rescued from Mountains, should have used the cables..." Besides it had already been a long day and in using the cables I was able to lessen the load on my knees on this long steep descent.
The slope eased and normal walking was possible. Again I found myself at another slide. On this one a set of stairs, hundreds of feet long made this section much easier.
From here the walking became quite easy. I made great time going along the Ore Bed Brook trail. Crossing Johns Brook back at the Lodge I walked right past a grazing deer. It must be used to people...
The walk back to The Garden was uneventful, and long. 13 Hours after setting out I was back to my car. 7:19 Tired. A great hike!
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