Adirondacks–The Dix Range: Dix, Hough, South Dix, Grace, Macomb

PHOTO: Yours truly, Ann, Jose and Danielle on the wooded summit of Macomb Mountain, elevation 4,405 feet and it is ranked 21st highest on the ADK 46er list. The thunderstorm had just finished passing over us as we reached our fifth and final summit of the day. We were soaking wet and we were still having a good time in the Adirondacks. The rain did stop.

by Amy Patenaude
Outdoor/Ski Writer

Last summer I accompanied Danielle to the Adirondacks and we had quite the adventure. The Adirondacks aren’t just a long drive away from home but their 46 High Peaks are seriously challenging. I wanted to go again with her because they are wild (think wet feet and difficult route finding) and the peaks are beautiful.
This outing was special for Danielle because these were the last five peaks left for her to climb all the 4,000-footers in the Northeastern United States. She’d be completing the ADK 46ers and the Appalachian Mountain Club’s Northeast 111 Club lists. Friends Ann and Jose would be joining us for her finish hike too.
Thursday afternoon and we drove to Elk Lake to access the Dix Mountain Wilderness Area. We put on our backpacks and hiked 2.3 miles into the Slide Brook Lean-to and campsite. In our backpacks we carried our tents and our bear canisters filled with our food and everything else we’d need to spend the night and hike the next day.

We set up our tents, spread out our sleeping bags and readied for a good night’s sleep. Then we took our food up to the shelter where three campers were trying to start a fire in the fire ring. Since all it has done is rain they were having a difficult go at it.
By the mostly smoking fire, we ate the tuna subs we bought on our drive to the trail at the Ticonderoga House of Pizza across the street from the Star Trek Original Set Tour. No joke and the Captain, William Shatner, will be there in November. Who knew, right? And I thought that it was only famous for the Revolutionary War capture of Fort Ticonderoga from the British by Ethan Allen and the Green Mountain Boys and Captain Benedict Arnold and his militia.
As it was getting dark two more hikers showed up and asked the three to move over because they wanted to sleep in the shelter too. We all discussed our hiking plans, everyone was hiking the same mountains. They were all going up Macomb’s slide first. But Danielle explained we were doing the route the opposite way by going up the tallest and most exposed mountain, Dix first since we feared afternoon thunderstorms.
I went to bed and was asleep by the time Ann had arrived and set up her tent at 10:30–she hiked in the dark with a headlamp.
We were up at 5:30 am, ate a little cold breakfast and packed up our tents and everything we weren’t carrying for our hike. We carried our gear up to the shelter to stow for the day. The two late arrivals to the shelter had already left for their hike while the others were still sleeping.
Jose hadn’t shown up yet. We wrote a note and stuck it on a stick in the middle of the trail, a trail billboard for Jose, telling him we took off at 6:15 and since we knew he was fast he would certainly catch us.

With our light daypacks we hiked up the trail planning to filter water at Lillian Brook less than two miles away. Jose caught us and we filled our bottles with water that had to last us the next ten miles and five mountains. There are no brooks on mountaintops.
The trail went straight up and it was hot and humid. My face was red and my clothes were wet from my own sweat. We marched up the mountain climbing over 2,200 vertical feet to reach Dix Mountain’s summit, elevation 4,833 feet. Nearing the top we had to climb up big boulders and near vertical rock slabs. We could see the rest of the Dix Range and Macomb and it looked like a daunting distance. We had grand views of many of the High Peaks, Nippletop was right next door and we tried to make out other mountains through the smoky haze and thick humid air.
I recall we left Dix at 9:30 and we headed to Hough Peak (sounds like Huff). After making our way down very steep rocks we huffed and puffed along the trail trying to make good time since we really weren’t liking how the clouds looked.

We didn’t linger on the ledgy outlooks or mountain tops. Up and over Hough and down and over South Dix. From here Dix looked scary and thunder we could now hear. To reach Grace we had to go nearly a mile each way out and back from South Dix. It wasn’t a hard hike but there were a few monstrous deep mud pits to plod through. We met our first hikers of the day and they had abandoned their ambition to traverse to Dix and were going to head down Lillian Brook Trail.
Almost to Grace we met two more hikers with a dog and they too were going to get off the mountains as quickly as they could. When we got to the bare summit two more people were sitting there enjoying their lunch and they didn’t seem to be concerned about the incoming storm. The cooler air felt nice but we knew with it rain would come soon.
As we zoomed back to South Dix the Heavens opened up and dumped rain on us as hard. We all rushed to put on our rain jackets, more to keep us warm than dry since we were already soaked. As we made our way down South Dix’s open steep slabs a crack of lightning and thunder burst above our heads. It was less than 2/10ths of a mile to reach the trees. Scary.
The path up Macomb was a four inch deep stream of water and mud. The rain was so hard and then as we neared the wooded summit the rain stopped and the thunder sounded far away. It felt like a miracle. It was 40 minutes of rain and fireworks and then it was gone.

Cameras came back out and we mugged for photos beneath the Macomb’s summit marker. But we weren’t out of the woods yet. The slide was ahead.
Jose and Ann had climbed this route before but never down the slide. Ann had wished for the sun to come out and thankfully it did. If it hadn’t stopped raining we would have likely backtracked and descended the Lillian Brook Trail.
We carefully made our way down. The slide is more gravel and rocks with more than I liked of slippery red algae covered ledgy slabs. We picked our way down any way we could–on our butts, crab walking, tiny steps. It went well with only scratches on our hands and some gravel finding its way into our pants.
Back on the trail in the woods felt like a cake walk. We all like cake.
Back at the campsite we gathered our gear and filled our backpacks for the walk out. New people were setting up tents and making room in the shelter. On our hike out we passed a couple more small groups headed in to try their luck at making it over the Dix Range peaks. I hoped the rain would hold off for them.
3 o’clock! We made it back to the parking lot earlier than we thought we would. I guess we all did rush over the peaks. 15 miles and just over 5,000 vertical feet over five big mountains and Jose had a longer day he started from the parking lot at dawn. After we put on dry clothes, all we had left to do was celebrate with Danielle for her big lists finish! Congratulations Danielle!
Have Fun.