On June 23rd I set out with my co-worker John to accomplish Gray, Skylight and Haystack. My Initial plan was to come in from Elk Lake and set camp at Panther Lean-to. Between the COVID closure of Elk Lake Lodge (closing the closest parking lot and adding 2 miles of road hiking) and the washouts reported on the trail I reconsidered my plan and chose to hike in from the Loj/Meadows Road.
After the usual 6+ hr drive from Western New York we arrived at S Meadows Rd around 10AM on a weekday and had no problems parking (in the exact same spot I’ve parked the last 3 times I went in from here).
The weather was warm and clear, turning to downright hot around noon. We hiked the truck access “road” to Marcy Dam and turned for Avalanche Lean-to.
The plan was to get to Feldspar Lean-to to set camp by going up to Lake Arnold then down to Feldspar. The climb up was a “no-$#@!!er in the heat with a full pack. We made it to the Lake and filtered some more water and took a breather before continuing down to Feldspar. We crossed the infamous “Floating Logs” and managed to not fall in (no photos…sorry I was concentrating). Not far from the logs we found the camping area and set up our tent and hammock.
We still had some daylight to burn so we decided to climb up Gray Peak. There’s a good mile worth of altitude gain from Feldspar to Lake Tear of the Clouds where you will find the heard path to your left where the stream/brook exits the western end of the lake. It’s pretty obvious if you look for it. About a .5 mile climb to summit. The views are not that bad, some trees but you can find some clear spots for great views of Marcy and Skylight.
We took our time till the bugs drove us away. Nothing to it but to return down to Feldspar for food and sleep.
The following morning we went back up to Lake Tear of the Clouds and continued onto Four Corners where left is Marcy, straight takes you down into Panther Gorge and right is up to Skylight. We went right and after an actually (relatively) pretty easy climb came out onto Skylight. The large, bare summit provides spectacular views.
An 1876 (small..you can miss it) benchmark can be found on the summit.
From Skylight we returned to Four Corners and went down (down, down, down, down…) into Panther Gorge. After losing all that altitude it was time to get it all back by taking the south approach to Haystack. The “interwebs” say that the south approach is the longest section of continuously steep trail in the Adirondacks. It was steep in parts and it was long (and hot that day) but we made it without mishap. Again, the views couldn’t be beat.
Since this was my hiking partners first High Peaks experience he decided that he would like to do the loop over Marcy vs the long descent back to Panther then back up to get back to camp. We went down from the summit towards Little Haystack with the intent to take the left turn towards Little Haystack….this is where I share my lesson….don’t take trail signage, trail markers or “obvious” paths for granted. The turn off was not signed and there was a small amount of blow down obscuring the path. I passed by and went a good .5 miles down to the next intersection before I learned my mistake.
Read your map carefully.
Nothing for it but to go back up.
Once I found the trail it was down into the Col between Little Haystack and Marcy then up making this my third ascent of the highest point in New York State.
We descended down to Four Corners, passed Lake Tear of the Clouds and went back down to Feldspar and bed.
We slept in the next morning, ate and packed up for the hike back. We decided to avoid the Floating Logs and went back via Lake Colden/Avalanche pass. The views are always impressive there.
Eventually we made it back to the car and made the journey home.
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