The Things Worth Believing In

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.

I’ve recently become one of those Hammock Campers you may (or may not) have seen out in the woods. I was sort of peer pressured into it by my buddy Paul who had been experimenting with them before I had any interest. I had a tent already and I was (ok..maybe “am”) a bit of a tightwad who wasn’t all too interested in spending the money on an entirely new sleep system when I already had a working one.

Eventually I caved in, and have left the tent at home in favor of my hammock set-up ever since. Are they “better” than tents? Well, like everything in life your decisions/choices come with advantages and disadvantages and those will change depending on the opinions of the person you are talking to. Personally?

DISADVANTAGES:

• Setup Time: This will vary depending on your experience and rig, but it does take longer to get everything set up vs most tent systems. There’s definitely more of an “art” to set-up vs popping up a tent.
• Weight: While not really a “disadvantage”, the overall weight of the hammock, tarp, tree straps, underquilt, bug net, etc is not all that much lighter than a tent. And unlike a tent where you can divvy up the poles, stakes, fly, footprint, etc, for 2 or more people who will be using the same tent; if you are all using hammocks you all have to carry your own gear. Sure you could sleep two to a double sized hammock, but that will depend on just how close you are with your camping partner (and it wont be comfortable).
• You need trees (by and large). Sure there are ground set-up techniques where you can use the hammock on the ground or you can use poles, branches, etc to rig something up but if you are in terrain without a lot of trees hammocks wont be your best option.
• Exposure: Again, not really a disadvantage as much as it’s a preference, but even with a tarp over you, there is more of an “under the stars” feel to sleeping in a hammock than the “indoors” sensation of crawling into a tent. Personally that’s an advantage to me. Others may have different preferences.

ADVANTAGES:

• You can set up anywhere you can find two trees. Wet ground? Uneven ground? Rocks? Tree Roots? Steep wooded slope? No problems.
• Adjustability: You can set up the hammock alone and hop right in if it’s warm enough, bugs are not a problem and it doesn’t look like rain. You can set up the tarp but not deploy it if you want to sleep “under the stars” but want a quick deployment if rain does come. You can sit in the hammock like a camp chair or sleep laid out in it. Set up your tarp like a rain-fly or like a porch. You can use the tarp minus the hammock if you just want to set-up a quick temporary rain shelter. You can also upgrade portions of your system as you see fit.
• Comfort: I was skeptical of just how comfortable this would be, but comfort is probably the biggest sell if you set your system up correctly. You can elevate your feet after a long slog. You are not hauling yourself up to a standing position from the ground when you wake/get-up. Hell if you are a dude and you feel the call of nature in the middle of the night you don’t even need to stand up if you can hang what you need to hang over the edge of the hammock. I’m not a back sleeper, but I have found myself sleeping on my back quite often in a hammock. And you can side sleep quite easily if you want to anyway.

The hammocks themselves are not very expensive at all. Decent quality ones can be had for as little as $30 but the hammock itself is only one piece of gear you are going to have to get. If you want to keep the rain off of you you will need a tarp. Bugs? A bug net. Want to stay warm at night? An underquilt or a ground mat of some sort (quilts are easier to deal with). Of course you could get a hammock system that has the tarp and bug net built in. Advantages, it’s an all in one system that faster to set up. Disadvantages? There’s no flexibility with many of them, the hammock, net and tarp are all one unit.

COMPONENTS: Bear in mind, I’m no expert so the following is as best as I currently understand it….

HAMMOCKS: The Hammock itself is a relatively cheap item. Most of them are just large sheets of nylon/synthetic/parachute material gathered at each end. Many will have a carabiner type clip attached at either end and a stuff sack sewn right to the edge of the hammock so that it all stuffs right “into itself”. The sack can also be used to store items in when the hammock is deployed. Hammocks can be found with a few options:

• Single vs Double: That’s simply the size. A “single” is designed for one person while a double (in theory) is designed for two. In actuality few people really sleep two to a hammock. The extra size of a double is advantageous for “diagonal lay”. In essence, instead of laying right down the middle of the hammock you turn yourself diagonally inside of it, this gives you more of a flat lay vs a head and feet higher than your butt type hang.
• Single or double layer: A hammock can be “one ply” or “double ply”. The double layer hammock is designed to let you slip some form of insulation between the layers. They are heaver than single layers, but with a single layer you have to either body surf a sleeping pad under you or buy an underquilt…more on that.

INSULATION: The “thing” with hammocks is that you can wind up colder than you can in a tent on a ground mat. When you are hanging in the air, the air moving around you will blow your body heat away pretty rapidly. In hot summer months that can be a plus. When it’s getting into the 50’s at night, not so much. Even on a relatively warm night, a breeze blowing under you can leave you uncomfortably cold at night.

You may think a sleeping bag would be enough, but the insulation under you gets crushed under your body and looses its insulation value. On the ground your ground mat keeps your underside warm, not your bag. Being warm on top, where your sleeping bag has retained its loft and insulation value, and cold on the bottom, where it’s crushed is called “Frozen Butt Syndrome” among hammock campers. You basically have a handful of options to stay warm.

• Sleeping pads. You can put a sleeping pad in your hammock and get on top. Works if you can stay on top all night. They are also not great at keeping your “edges” warm (shoulders, arms, legs) if they touch the uninsulated hammock material. There are “hammock specific” pads designed with “wings” you can get if you want that option. As stated before a double layer hammock lets you put a pad between the layers so it stays locked in place overnight.
• Underquilts: An underquilt is pretty much a “half of a sleeping bag” that you suspend under your hammock. This way you have insulating material (and a couple inches of body heated air) under your hammock. You can then sleep in a sleeping bag or with an “overquilt” (basically a zipperless sleeping bag you use like a blanket) over you and you can be toasy warm.

BUG NET: If there are bugs, you are gonna want one. If you are buying this stuff piecemeal (vs one of the integrated systems) keep in mind that skeeters can get you through the thin hammock material (underquilts can protect you from that) so get one that encapsulates your hammock.

TARPS: You are in a hammock, there’s open sky above you. To keep dry, or shaded if it’s sunny and hot you will want a tarp over you. There could be an entirely separate post on tarps, their uses and all the options you have for deployment. Suffice it to say that you want something large enough to cover your hammock end to end and then some. If it rains and the water is landing on the hammock material it will wick through it and you will get wet.

• Snakeskins: Snakeskins are tubes of material that slide over the tarp from either end. It keeps all the material contained until you want to deploy it (pictured in the photo for this post). If it’s going to be a clear night and you don’t want to “enclose” yourself under a tarp you can leave the skins on. If it happens to rain you just slide them off and stake the tarp down (have them in place in advance though).
• Line/rope: You will need a system if cordage to hang your tarp. Paracord is everywhere, but paracord will stretch and loose tension with use, with age and when wet. Modern line made out of Dyneema (Zing-it/Lash-it) is stronger, lighter and wont stretch. Well it probably does stretch somewhat, but not so that you would usually notice it.

SUSPENSION: To hang a hammock you have to connect between two points. In the woods that’s usually going to be trees. Some hammocks don’t come with anything more than the hammock so you may have to consider what to use.

• The hammock I purchased came with ropes covered with fabric sleeves (to protect the trees from rope damage). You wrap the ropes around the trees and clip the carabiners on the hammock to them.
• Many folks, like me, opt for Tree Straps which are lengths of webbing with loops sewn into them.  Straps get wrapped around the tree and you select one of the loops to clip into to adjust the tension of the hammock. With the rope slings you have to tie knots/loops to do that, so straps are easier there. Straps are also more tree friendly since they wont bite into the bark.
• There are also lightweight “line only” options like Whoopie Slings, (google them) where you can ditch the carabiners to save weight, but you need a little more knowledge/skill to set them up.

MISCELLANEOUS: This post wasn’t intended to be a complete dissertation on everything to do with hammocks and I’m sure I missed some vital points, but before I end here are a few points/tips as they come to mind.

• Get good at quick tarp deployment. Whats nice about carrying a tarp is that you can set it up and have a dry spot to work in and stash your gear.
• Water Breaks/Drip Lines: Rain can hit your tree ropes/straps/Whoopie Slings and flow down them to your hammock and/or quilt and get them soaked. This can be avoided by tying a piece of line or placing some other option/system between your lines and your hammocks to convey water away from you.Another tip in this same vein, and something I just learned and will do from now on, if you hang your tarp with a “ridgeline” (one long line between the trees vs tying separate lines to each end of your tarp) deploy the tarp with the line over the top of the tarp vs under it. Water can flow along that line and drip on you if its under the tarp.

• Ridgeline: A ridge line is a piece of cord/line that you can attach to each end of your hammock. If you get the length of it correct it can assure that the “sag” of your hammock is always the same no matter how you attach it to your tree straps.

I managed to get a second trip to the Park in 2019. My friend Paul and his son Matthew accompanied me in August to the Upper Works trailhead with a destination of Colden Dam. I was going to be soloing a few peaks while Paul and Matthew did some exploring around Colden and Avalanche Lakes.

We started on a Thursday and arrived at the parking lot around 0930hrs and had no problems finding a spot. As we were gearing up though a whole bunch of canoe and kayak enthusiasts began pulling in.

While the weather was fine, it had rained pretty heavily the night before. The Calamity Brook Trail was quite a soggy mess with the worst of it as we got close to the Flowed Lands. We stopped by the Henderson monument along the way.

For those who don’t know who David Henderson is, he was a founder of the Adirondack Iron Works that operated in this area back in the early/mid 1800’s. The story is that he accidentally shot himself when a pistol in his pack (loaded, primed and cocked apparently) went off and killed him on this spot in 1845. The family had this monument sledded in a winter or two after the incident.

Eventually we made our way to the Colden Dam area and made camp nearby along the scenic headwaters of the Opalescent River. It was getting to be later in the afternoon at this point and I wanted to summit Mt Marshall before dark so I dropped pack, got my hiking pack ready and headed out while Matthew and Paul started setting up their hammocks.

Mt. Colden under the westering sun.

The path up Marshall is an unmarked heard path, the start of which is marked by a cairn along the marked trail between the Flowed Lands and the Dam.

The path was a well worn couple of miles and well marked with cairns where it passed over the brook it followed up the slope. There are the remains of a small plane that crashed in the 1960’s somewhere in the woods on the way up, but I wasn’t sure of its location from this approach (there’s another trail up Marshall behind the Ranger Station on Lake Colden that is apparently closer to the remains) and with darkness approaching I didn’t want to get too far off trail.

The ascent wasn’t very complicated. It was mostly walking up tree roots and the occasional boulder or two with a couple of stretches right up the slabs that are the stream bed. After a couple of large boulders near the summit I was at the mostly wooded peak that is marked by a sign.

I made my way down and back to camp before nightfall, Paul had set up my hammock for me and they were in the process of cooking dinner when I got back so my timing was perfect. After dinner and clean-up we crawled into our hammocks for the night.

I got up around 0630 the following morning, made myself some breakfast and set out along the trail for Redfield and Cliff Mountains. The trail was generally upwards and rocky to the Uphill lean-to site.

There was still a lot of mud to deal with.

The Redfield/Cliff trails are also heard paths. When you get to the Uphill lean-to campsite look for the cairn marking the path, it’s almost immediately across the trail from the tent area. Follow the path for about a quarter mile (maybe a bit less) and you will come to another larger cairn that marks the split for Redfield (to the left) or Cliff (to the Right). I decided to do Redfield first so I went left.

The trail reminded me somewhat of Marshall the day before but a bit steeper and more rocky; lots of tree roots and boulders/slabs along or on a stream. Eventually I made it to yet another mostly wooded summit with some views off of one side.

After some food and water there was nothing to it except back down to the Cliff cairn and back up the trail to Cliff. There was a massive muddy bog at the foot of Cliff that took me a while to navigate, but once I got past that it became the “normal muddy”, and even somewhat dry for a good ways. The climb wasn’t all that bad in terms of grade or effort till I got to the parts that earned Cliff it’s name. A series of..well…cliffs.

On the way up they can appear a little steep and daunting and you do have to be mindful of your approach, but if you stop and analyze the problem for a bit you can find some routes that are not all that bad. There are some “bushwack” walk-arounds but I pulled a couple of easy climbing moves up-and- over most of the steepest parts and didn’t feel all to scared over it.

Eventually you “top out” (or at least think you are topping out…more on that coming up) and start to think you should be looking for a summit marker. Actually you are on one of a series of promontories on the ridgeline that is Cliff Mountain. You wind up descending into a small col then climb up to the…yet again…wooded summit. I found the peak marker but I didn’t go looking around for any trails to a viewpoint. It’s said there are some places to get a view from the summit, but I didn’t see any obvious spots.

I made my way back down to the cairn at the Uphill lean-to and got there around 1430hrs. I considered trying to tack on Gray and Skylight since the trails to their peaks were only a couple of miles up the trail. However, after consulting the map (and remembering taking that trail to Marcy before) I could see that it was a couple of miles up..UP..UP..UP the trail and I would probably be facing a headlamp hike back to camp at the end of it. I decided to leave them for another day and returned to camp right around 1630.

After dinner it started to get a little cooler so we crawled into our hammocks around 1800-1830hrs and I expected to lay awake for a while, or wake up in the early morning hours. Surprisingly I slept through the entire night.

In the morning we ate and packed up for the hike back to Upper Works. After reaching the car we headed for home with the traditional stop for a burger and some beer (for Paul and I at least).

Now for the long slog through winter and spring till I can get back for some more. I’m now officially over the halfway mark to the 46 at 24 peaks climbed.