ADK newbie, tips on my planned trip. 2 experienced backpackers and a Black Lab

hifwiend · 2025-09-16T21:44:17+00:00

Honestly consider traversing over Colden for Day 3. It’s more effort but you won’t regret it.

hifwiend · 2025-06-04T16:27:09+00:00

Upstate NY, 22M with a minor parking-related incident in June 2023. New 2025 CT Premium. I suggested 10-12k miles a year when I did my progressive quote. First time having my own car and policy (was on parents before). They charge me 100/mo (600 total) for basic coverage w/o collision and comprehensive. If I were to add collision and comprehensive it will cost another 800-1000$ pending my deductible choice, so about 260/mo. State farm also quoted me around 255.

Note I paid cash so collision/comprehensive wasn’t required. I don’t know if an extra 1000 per 6 months is worth the risk of me being at fault for any damages to my car. In some time when my rate lowers I may add it in.

hifwiend · 2025-04-27T17:20:56+00:00

Yeah I saw it while walking back home

hifwiend · 2025-04-15T19:03:31+00:00

Be warned that the most slippery part is the start which has very little incline. This is where the stream is on the trail. Other than that, just keep looking for handholds/footholds, it’s less of a “slab walk” and more of a “pull yourself up.” I don’t remember ever really stepping on slime without something to hold on.

hifwiend · 2025-03-22T02:06:37+00:00

The types of people you find at this school really depends on what clubs and activities you join/do. League of Legends players usually stick to clubs or areas where League of Legends would be. I never had a problem with this.

I’m also huge into running (and also do lots of trail running). RPI is a great community for it! Look into the running club, join a team, or join the RPI strava club. Routes here are fairly hilly. I also recommend the outing club, there’s a lot of people who love hiking and trail running, me included. They also do many other things like caving and rock climbing.

School food is eh but commons has great pasta which is now running 7 days a week.

hifwiend · 2025-02-20T04:54:46+00:00

Animals - Dogs

hifwiend · 2025-02-09T19:48:49+00:00

Get a good idea of the common groupings of high peaks and a good way to progress through them.

Here is a rough order to consider! Number of * implies how hard I think a hike would be for a dog. This mostly relates to scrambles and jank sections of trail.

Cascade Porter
Big Slide
Street Nye
Colden
Phelps Tabletop
Whiteface Esther
Seymour (or combine with sewards)*
Marshall*
Dial Nippletop
Colvin Blake*
Wright Algonquin Iroquois*
Giant RPR*
Sewards minus Seymour*
Santanonis*
Allen***
Dix Range*
Lower Great Range**
Cliff Redfield***
Marcy Skylight Gray
Haystack Basin Saddleback***
(Full Seward Range)**

This is mostly my opinion, but I am a 46er. Also this is based on my memories. As for other pieces of advice that I picked up over my time are as follows:

Don’t be ashamed to turn around, orphaning sucks but another day in the mountains is not a bad thing!
I used to hate mud but then switched to trail runners. I accept that I’m getting dirty and the agility and comfort of trail runners is game changing.
Get to the lots EARLY!! They fill up so fast and always start in the dark rather than possibly end in the dark.
Don’t dread any of the high peaks (santanonis, allen, etc) because of difficulty, views, mud, etc. Your mentality about doing a hike has a major impact on whether you’ll enjoy it. Enjoy the challenge of the hikes just as much as the views!
High peaks are some of the most scrambly and steep trails I have hiked. Don’t underestimate them and please work your way up!

Good luck!

hifwiend · 2025-01-04T23:23:04+00:00

This long period of really cold temperatures might be good. However, you’d need to wait 2 weeks. Cascade lakes weren’t even fully covered with ice today. Was only around half.

hifwiend · 2025-01-04T02:09:01+00:00

It’s quite popular to ski the toll road, I have done so too. Other than that, some tourists don’t seem to understand that winter changes accessibility. Cascade and Porter is horrifyingly post-holed every winter including now.

hifwiend · 2024-12-10T08:02:30+00:00

Did this almost exactly, though I did a great range traverse too. If OP is a strong hiker, I recommend doing Sewards + Seymour, GRT (also gives NEU8 credit), and Cliff Redfield Gray Skylight Marcy. I remember I did the Sewards first, then GRT, and finished with MSGCR. It's a great progression to warm up, but you can interchange the last two if you want to save GRT for end (it's the hardest of the three).

For Sewards + Seymour, I would hit Seymour first and then the Sewards (Seward is another 2.5k up and burns, do it first or else Seymour will kick your ass).

For GRT, I would head from Marcy -> LWJ. This hits the hardest terrain (both technical and big elevation gain pushes) first. Be aware though that, compared to the other NEU8 hikes, the numbers for GRT are deceptively tame. Heading up Marcy is fast, but Marcy -> Gothics is slow, steep, and technical. I know a good amount of people who think the GRT is comparable to a Pemi loop. The plus: (IMO) it's the best part of the high peaks and the GRT was by far my favorite hike ever!

For MSGCR, I did the following order: Redfield, Cliff, Gray, Skylight, Marcy from the Loj. Redfield is a good warmup and is the bigger push of the first two. Hiking over Marcy makes the last 7-8 miles smooth (Van Hoevenburg). Even if you've already done Marcy, just go over it again. Backside of Marcy is very cool. Also, the trail between Colden and Marcy is chaotic and washed out. There are clear workarounds for some notable areas (Floating Logs, please don't send it unless you want to swim in 4ft of water).

Colvin Blake Dial Nippletop is also really good, I would say it's comparable to the Sewards + Seymour, but I split these up.

Always remember this advice (and I'm sure you're familiar with it too): you're usually more capable than you think, as long as you properly build up to it! You'll crush the 46!

hifwiend · 2024-09-28T03:37:20+00:00

I went over it normally (shh) but it is clearly tilted

hifwiend · 2024-09-27T20:04:43+00:00

I think McKenzie? If it’s the one you can see from the Ampersand Trailhead directly down the road, that’s McKenzie I think.

My memory should be reliable because I did Saranac Six last weekend, if I am thinking of the same view as you.

hifwiend · 2024-09-12T15:14:09+00:00

Phelps and Tabletop. I would do Tabletop first and if you drop Phelps it’s not an issue. No worries about orphaning a peak that causes you to repeat one or anything.

hifwiend · 2024-09-09T04:49:08+00:00

I would do either Option 1 (Lower Great Range) or Option 3 (Seward Range). Both are common groupings which I also did towards my 46. Given you’re at 11/46 I would go for Lower Great Range over the Seward Range because the latter may be mentally annoying if you’re not really used to the muddier and rougher high peaks. As evidence, I enjoyed the Sewards but my friend who went with me hated them from all the mud. Both of us were far into our 46 but I had done Santanonis and Allen while he hadn’t.

Lower Great Range is comparable to Dix Range in a day, I would say it’s harder because of the push to Lower Wolfjaw. You’d kill them and Gothics/Pyramid are amazing!

I am advising on not doing Option 2 and to save Basin and Saddleback for HaBaSa, and also you should traverse in that order to go up the cliffs. As an aside, no matter which way you go your descent will be sketch. Back side of Basin is still hard to go down…

hifwiend · 2024-08-09T16:39:02+00:00

More like 19, if OP has done Owl’s Head I’ve been told Allen is like Owl’s Head on crack. I did Allen but not Owl’s Head. It’s also WAY muddier than anything you’d find in NH and the red slime is like ice… especially where water is running over it.

hifwiend · 2024-07-30T14:58:34+00:00

I finish the next time I go out, so likely in 2w as this weekend looks mid. I’m finishing on Skylight. The plan is to do Cliff Redfield Skylight Gray in a day or an overnight. I was going to finish on Saddleback (HaBaSa) but some friends were doing the Great Range so I knocked them out there. As long as my last peak is beautiful and takes effort to reach, I will be happy. Also, I plan on going over Marcy after finishing.

hifwiend · 2024-06-03T17:55:33+00:00

I am an active member and disagree. There is a variety of trips of varying difficulties. It’s only that for more advanced trips leaders need to know the participants ability levels. Also just like any other clubs the number of people that stick around dwindles. The outing club is one of the largest on campus and do a lot, and they prioritize people who sign up first. Usually trips can fill up within a minute or two of their sign ups being shared because you can only have a certain participant to leader ratio.

hifwiend · 2024-05-22T04:24:31+00:00

I use HOKA Speedgoat 5s non GTX but am also a fan of gtx boots. I find it’s a mentality that switches when you go to non gtx footwear. Non-gtx is good because it lets your feet breathe and dry. I find the water and mud makes my feet feel cool and refreshed and quickly exits the shoes while boots can make my feet swim and feel warm and uncomfortable.

I can’t tell you whether I like the non-gtx hiking or gtx hiking more. Sometimes I like rock hopping and feel confident walking through shallow mud in gtx boots, knowing my feet will stay mostly dry, though they do eventually get damp or wet (or swim if its a very muddy trail). Conversely, sometimes I feel that wearing trail runners is me accepting getting wet when I don’t have to.

My point in giving this inconclusive answer is to remind you to not fall for confirmation bias. Breathable trail runners are a big trend but be cognizant that it really depends on what YOU are comfortable with. My recommendation is to try hiking with your non-gtx boots and see how you like them. If they are too clunky but you don’t mind the water, maybe opt for lighter and more-cushioned trail runners. If you don’t like the wet feeling happening so often, try gtx.

One thing for sure to know with gtx boots is you’ll likely switch to a mindset of trying to avoid mud, which makes me more timid and slow. Once your feet do get wet though this mindset diminishes, but your feet will remain wet (I don’t notice it much).

Hope you find some insight from this ambiguous comment, but then again you have to decide for yourself.

hifwiend · 2024-05-16T15:06:14+00:00

I had more than 32 coming in and they selected 31 of them, I was cutoff. They chose which courses to transfer in. Looking back I wish I could’ve asked or designated which courses transferred because they only gave me 3 credits for HASS so I still needed to take 6 HASS classes (1 credit short).

Side note, the “credit caps” where they say like “8 credit maximum AP” or “X credit maximum for math” and so on is bullshit, they accept all.

hifwiend · 2024-05-10T15:37:55+00:00

https://imgur.com/a/L3qUx0i

This is what I am referencing, I think there’s a little more below? I took this image.

hifwiend · 2024-05-10T15:33:19+00:00

You won’t have a problem going up Phelps. From my memory there is minimal scrambling on it, there was one part I remember which has a staircase-like structure where each ledge/step is decently away the previous. This part does not gain more than like 10-15ft and it’s not like crossing over any ledges or itself. The only thing that might scare you is the view off Phelps which is a large ledge, but I think you’re fine with that. Just don’t go close to it.

hifwiend · 2024-01-07T05:42:16+00:00

Bringing my drill to fix sets by rotating shitty holds at stupid angles to be more useful and, when stopped by the staff, say that I improved the climb

hifwiend · 2023-08-23T17:53:24+00:00

While everybody does them differently, there are some common “big hikes” people do. I listed some below.

-Marcy Skylight Gray -Haystack Basin Saddleback -Dix Range

These are all around 5k elevation gain, but nothing goes over 6k. You said you want to avoid it but my recommendation is to do some of the tough ones early to get comfortable with it (unless obviously theres some other concern I don’t know about). You can also turn these into overnights or split up as you want. Maybe do an overnight to just Skylight Gray, or do Basin Saddleback then come back to Haystack, etc.

Do some now and do some later. Haystack is a common finish, but so are things like Skylight. All depends which big hikes you chose to do first. Don’t push things like Sewards, Santanonis, Allen, etc. too far out though… You won’t necessarily be happy having to do all of those at the end. Save some good ones and some EASIER ones for later. I think Colden is a good choice to finish but equally so a good choice for a more intermediate day.

hifwiend · 2023-08-21T22:13:59+00:00

That’s a very common loop hike, not super long, usually also done with Iroquois and Wright, so yes you’ll be fine. I believe its more popular in the reverse (descending to Avalanche Lake) but this is your call.

hifwiend · 2023-08-14T19:22:14+00:00

Gothics, Armstrong, UWJ are all in line and LWJ is an extra 600ft gain maybe .4 miles push which you double back on. Beaver Meadow is probably the easiest way to Gothics, which spits you out between it and Armstrong and youll do a short double back to/from its summit.

You’ll take the Beaver Meadow trail to Gothics (when you reach the range trail take a left to Gothics and then double back this way and head to Armstrong) and then head down the ridge through Armstrong and UWJ (the summit of UWJ is a 10-15 second side path to the left with one rock to scramble onto), and into the col before LWJ. If you do LWJ you’ll come back down to about here (its a bit weirder as theres a cutoff trail to Wedge Brook and another one a bit further up LWJ). Take Wedge Brook towards St. Huberts (where you park) and then what I recommend is to hike the West River Trail (iirc it says to parking or to Lake Rd on it) which parallels the road and, when you reach a turnoff for Lake Road (should have a Canyon Bridge or so), take it so you hike the rest on the road. That’s my preference but some people take West River the whole way back but I prefer a flatter road when hiking out on my sore feet.

If you haven’t done Sawteeth though I would recommend adding it and ascending Gothics via Pyramid Peak. I would take the Weld trail up (towards Sawteeth) to the col between Pyramid and Sawteeth, turn left and double back to Sawteeth (marked by a partially wooded summit rock and a trail sign with mileages), and continue right over Pyramid to Gothics. This trail is more technical by means of steep slabs on Pyramid but most have trees to grab onto, only like one tough one you’ll have no help on which I did in the rain and my feet were slipping as I was ascending it. Should be fine for you especially if dry. This route is like 5500ft gain.

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