The Adirondacks are a beautiful mountain range. With a lot of silly names:
- Dix
- South Dix
- East Dix
- Nippletop
After running the Great Range Traverse with Alex Galasso in June, we exchanged a few ideas about ways to link up the funnier sounding peaks and create an FKT route that would tell the world, once and for all, that we had stopped maturing emotionally some time during middle school.
The result was the Giant-Dix Traverse.
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| Group photo from the summit of Giant From left to right, Ryan Thorpe, Devang Patel, and Alex Galasso |
The Giant-Dix Traverse
The final route was an aesthetic 25 mile point-to-point through the Giant Mountain Wilderness and the Dix Mountain Wilderness, summitting nine peaks, including six High Peaks: Rocky Peak Ridge, Giant, Dix, Hough, South Dix, and Macomb. We discussed whether to add East Dix (aka Grace Peak), but decided that we didn't want any out-and-back sections (We would then go on to make a massive navigational error that added an out and back. Best laid plans, and all that.).
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| GDT map, including our wrong turn late in the day |
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| GDT elevation profile. Note the long, unnecessary descent between Dix and Beckhorn |
The total elevation gain for the route was about 11,000 feet over a mix of single track and exposed technical ridges, putting this route roughly on par with the Great Range Traverse or the Presidential Traverse, at least on paper.
Goals for the Trip
Alex, Devang Patel, and I decided before this inaugural attempt that we were not going to red-line during this run. Devang was just coming off Eastern States 100 three weeks earlier, I had just run Ouray 100, and Alex didn't want to interrupt his Grindstone 100 training block.
Or, to put this in terms that are consistent with the route name, we were going to dick around a lot. That meant taking lots of pictures, stopping to eat, and just generally enjoying the scenery.
It also meant that we didn't do a whole lot of research on the route, aside from plotting it on Caltopo and saying, "yeah, that looks fun!" We then told our significant others that we would take "about ten hours" and asked them to meet us at the finish around then.
Giant Mountain Wilderness
We started at the East Trail parking area in the little town of New Russia. From there, it would be a 4,000 foot net climb westward to the summit of Giant Peak.
The first two miles were an easy ascent of Blueberry Cobbles, which was below tree line and offered no views. From there, the trail grew increasingly steep and rocky as we climbed Bald Peak and got our first good views of the day.
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| Having a snack at the summit of Bald Peak |
A short scramble then brought us to Rocky Peak Ridge East Peak. If not for the howling wind and chilly morning air, this would have been a perfect spot to stop an enjoy the views.
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| View of Lake Champlain from the ridge |
Some easy running brought us to Marie Louise Pond, whose trees were a welcome shelter from the elements. Alex and Devang sat by the water while I made use of the privy just off the trail. Then it was time to scramble up Rocky Peak Ridge proper and tag our first High Peak of the day.
And another short scramble later, we were standing on Giant Mountain with 3:30 elapsed. We waited five minutes for a cloud to pass over, took a whole bunch of pictures (see, for example, the top picture in this post), and then started the 3,000 foot descent to Route 73.
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| Descending off the summit of Giant Mountain |
The Ridge Trail was steep, but the footing was pretty good in the dry late summer weather. In the spring, this would have been a miserable slog with mud and overgrown trees. If nothing else, we had chosen the right weekend to run this route.
We got separated shortly below the summit as Devang and Alex stopped to take some pictures and I took a detour out to "The Bump," a side trail with some nice views. But eventually, we all met up again at Route 73.
Thus concludes the scenic but relatively uneventful first half of our adventure. Now let's get to the good stuff.
[Edit: I have since learned that this route was previously done by a hiker in 13:50 on 8/28/2014 with the addition of Grace Peak (East Dix). This should be considered the original FKT, with ours being a slightly faster but slightly shorter variant.]
We got separated shortly below the summit as Devang and Alex stopped to take some pictures and I took a detour out to "The Bump," a side trail with some nice views. But eventually, we all met up again at Route 73.
Thus concludes the scenic but relatively uneventful first half of our adventure. Now let's get to the good stuff.
Dix Mountain Wilderness
We hopped onto the Dix Trail with 4:38 elapsed and about 11.6 miles into our 25 mile day. We were feeling good about finishing in under 10 hours and I briefly considered texting our loved ones that we would be done early. Thankfully, I never sent this text.
We stopped shortly after the trail head to filter water at Round Pond, then made quick work of the climb up to the intersection of the Old Dix Trail (ha!) as well as the three miles of rolling single track beyond that.
Mile 16 marked the beginning of the hardest climb all day, a 2,000 foot scramble up a rock slide and a boulder strewn gully.
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| Looking up the slide on Dix Mountain |
We stopped at a creek part way up to have a snack. As we were getting up to go, Alex lost his footing and ended up sitting in the knee deep water. Unfortunately, I had started up the trail too early to see this in person and Devang wasn't able to capture the moment on camera. So it will just have to live on in our imaginations.
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| Alex looking more than a little sullen after his creek incident |
After a seemingly endless climb, we finally reached the summit of Dix Mountain, the high point of our route at 4,840 feet. From here, it would just be a few miles of ridge running and then a steep descent to the finish.
Or so we thought.
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| Looking west toward the Great Range from the summit of Dix |
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| Dicking around on Dix |
After the requisite amount of dicking around, we made the quick traverse over to Beckhorn, took a few more pictures...
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| Foot selfie |
...and then promptly fucked up our navigation beyond all hope.
You see, unbeknownst to us the Dix Range Trail, which continued over the remaining summits, is a separate entity from the Dix Trail. And, in fact, it is not an official trail at all but instead an unblazed herd path. None of this is clear from the cursory view of Caltopo which comprised our research into this route.
Consequently when I continued following yellow blazes after the summit, as I had been doing for the previous three hours, I inadvertently led us a mile and 1,700' vertical feet down the wrong trail.
Shit.
Silver linings: the Beckhorn Trail (our detour) was a beautiful and very pleasant trail to run on. But this didn't make up for the fact that we had budgeted our mental energy for another 2-3 hours, rather than the 4+ that it would now take us to complete the route. The slog back to the summit of Beckhorn was slow and very quiet. When we got back to the top, we just sat without looking at each other for 30 minutes.
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| This sums up our feelings |
We debated calling it a day, but decided that it would be stupid to drop out this close to the end. So with heavy hearts and heavier legs, we set to work on the Dix Range Trail.
Now on unmaintained trails, our path was choked with overgrown tree limbs, and we found ourselves working for every step forward.
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| View of Beckhorn from Hough |
Devang put his head down and charged ahead, only to run smack into a fallen tree. We made sure he was okay and resumed our run, only to stop two steps later when I smacked my head on the same stupid tree.
Spatial awareness and short term memory are not my strong suit.
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| View from somewhere along the ridge |
The Dix Range had now exacted a toll on all of our egos and added a few scrapes and bruises for good measure.
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| But at least the scenery was nice |
We tagged Hough, South Dix, and Macomb without further incident, stopping to commemorate each summit with some food and pictures.
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| Devang "celebrating" at the final summit |
We then started the long steep descent down the Slide Brook Trail, which is more slide than trail. As a matter of fact, it was just about the worst terrain we were on all day, strewn with loose dusty talus which threatened to dislodge and chase us down the mountain with each step.
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| Slide Brook "Trail" See video below for a better perspective. |
After picking our way through the 1,000' half mile descent, we were finally back on a real trail. Devang celebrated by breaking into a run and immediately slamming into another tree so hard that I thought he knocked himself out cold.
The Dix Range Wilderness would not permit us to have the last laugh.
With renewed purpose (and ignoring my nagging questions like "do you know what day it is?") Devang sprang back to life and took off sprinting. Not wanting our concussion addled friend to wander off trail into the wilderness, Alex and I gave chase. Devang would go on to lead us to a string of 9 minute miles to end the day.
After 12 hours, 20 minutes, and 33 seconds, we collectively smacked the hood of Virginia's truck in the Elk Lake parking lot, signifying the end of our run. We had taken 2.5 hours longer than anticipated, and probably lost a few brain cells along the way.
But in the end, we achieved our goal of establishing an Only Known Time on a ridiculous and tough route.
Giant-Dix accomplished!
[Edit: I have since learned that this route was previously done by a hiker in 13:50 on 8/28/2014 with the addition of Grace Peak (East Dix). This should be considered the original FKT, with ours being a slightly faster but slightly shorter variant.]
Thanks!
...to Alex (Thorpe) and Virginia for waiting patiently for us at the finish, not knowing whether we were lost, dead, or had just decided to tack on another summit. These ladies even had a cooler full of beer waiting for us when we finished, which was vital to helping us forget the abuse we had just survived.
Thoughts on This Route
After some navigational issues and a lot of down time at summits, our final time was not at all competitive. A fast and motivated runner could easily cut this time in half. Best of luck to anyone who attempts it. We look forward to passing on the crown to the new Giant-Dix King or Queen.
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