Gothics, NY - 10/16/2007

[andyzee]

Date(s) Hiked: October 16, 2007

Trails(s) Hiked: Blue trail to yellow and back to blue

Total Distance: 12.7 mile Loop

Difficulty: Medium-Difficult

Vertical: Approximately 3500 feet.

Conditions: 45-50 degrees and sunny.

Special Required Equipment: None

Trip Report: Well, really loving the Adirondacks, this is our third trip in a month. Two weeks ago we hiked Big Slide, this time we decided to try a different Adirondack peak, Gothics (10th highest peak in NY at 4736 feet).

Initially, as always, I plotted the course at home before starting out. This was supposed an 11.3-mile track, however I didn’t take into consideration how far the parking lot is from the actual trailhead, .7 miles. For anyone considering this hike, the parking lot is on Ausable road in Keene Valley, NY. Ausable Rd. begins and ends on RT 73, the parking lot is on the southern intersection of Ausable Rd and 73.

As a result of parking further away, the entire track came out to 12.7 miles. The first part was a fairly simple steady uphill, first on a paved rd for .7 miles and then an unpaved road for 2 miles. At the 2-mile mark you will see a sign for, Beaver Meadows Falls. You make the right on to this trail (Blue) and start the steady uphill hike to the falls which are approximately .5 mile up the trails, the falls are real nice, when we got there, there was a miniature rainbow going across the front of them.



Once you leave Beaver Meadow Falls the trail, you get back on the blue trail. After a little bit you come to a ladder that goes up some rocks, the climb is fairly simple and the uphill grade remains moderate until you get to about the 1.8 mile mark of the blue trail. After that it gets a bit steeper, nothing to bad, but steep. You get to a balance rock at about 2.5 miles:



After this we actually started finding snow:



And started hitting some rock scrambles up to the peak and along the ridge. The trip to the peak from the parking lot was approximately 5.75 miles. Once on top we were rewarded with some magnificent views of the High Peaks Range:





Near the peak, the trail turned from blue to yellow. Going back down we followed the yellow trail past the peak of Gothics and down to Pyramid Peak. This peak also had some magnificent views of the High Peaks Range, the lakes and the valley. Eventually the yellow trail turned back into a blue trail. Trip down was fairly steep and narrow with some rock scrambles. Near the bottom we ran into Rainbow falls:


Video of these falls can be found at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_ZL8D-47vo
Very impressive waterfall, I’m sorry we didn’t get to see it from the bottom. There was a trail going to the bottom of the falls, but it was getting late and I wasn’t sure how far it was to the falls. We eventually got to lower Ausable Lake and then took and nice flat smooth Lake Rd back to the car. Hike took us approximately 9 hours, overall it was an impressive hike with some great views. For more pics go to: http://killingtonaccessrd.com/cpg/th....php?album=105

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

Nice TR and it's cool that you saw snow yesterday when it was 80 degrees in my hood..

[MichaelJ]

Awesome! I loved it when I hiked Gothics. Glad to see you had a beautiful day and got those magnificent views. Pyramid is such a quiet, understated summit but has such an amazing vantage point to see all the surrounding great peaks.

If you want only a slightly longer trip that's not much harder, start by going all the way out on the road to the Weld Trail, grab Sawteeth from the col quickly, then come back over Pyramid and Gothics, and also get Armstrong and Upper Wolf Jaw. Not a lot of elevation to add those in, it's a nice ridge walk, then drop back down to the lake road.

[andyzee]

Originally Posted by MichaelJ

Awesome! I loved it when I hiked Gothics. Glad to see you had a beautiful day and got those magnificent views. Pyramid is such a quiet, understated summit but has such an amazing vantage point to see all the surrounding great peaks.

If you want only a slightly longer trip that's not much harder, start by going all the way out on the road to the Weld Trail, grab Sawteeth from the col quickly, then come back over Pyramid and Gothics, and also get Armstrong and Upper Wolf Jaw. Not a lot of elevation to add those in, it's a nice ridge walk, then drop back down to the lake road.

I considered doing Armstrong and Upper Wolf Jaw, but thought it might be too difficult for my wife. Hindsight, should have done it. Well, there's always next year

[MichaelJ]

Originally Posted by andyzee

Well, there's always next year

Oh darn, you have to go back!

[andyzee]

Originally Posted by MichaelJ

Oh darn, you have to go back!

You talked me into it.

[Mike P.]

Thanks andyzee for the TR, on 11/30 I'm ADK bound, keep switching from Gothics & Sawteeth to Colvin & Blake....

[adamti91]

I liked Gothics, all the great range is fun.