Indian Head - Part 3 (Pyramid and Gothics)
After a rest, we started off toward Pyramid. The guy at the Mountaineer had said there was a great view from there, so we were enthusiastic to reach the summit. Unfortunately, quite a bit of time has passed from the climb to me actually writing this post, so I don't recall many details about the trail from Sawteeth to Pyramid. I do, however, recall the view from Pyramid. Although Pyramid doesn't count as one of the 46 (too close to Gothics I believe), it still has one of the best views in the Adirondacks. The summit of Pyramid is bare and open. It's situated such that you can see the entire range around you, including a phenomenal view of Basin's bowl. This is a spot that you absolutely must take some time to enjoy -- there is no peak-bagging over Pyramid.
So we stopped up here for about 30 minutes for another boots-off-beef-jerky break as we took in the surroundings. One really could spend hours on end up here. It's another point in the Adirondacks that must be seen.
But of course, as we were up here, dark clouds started moving in. We decided we had better push on and hope the storm passed us by. We started off toward Gothics. Again, I don't recall the trail on the way up in any great detail, so I'll breeze past that and get to the unforgettable part.
We were partway up Gothics when the rain started. No problem, we thought, we'll just summit Gothics and then decide where to go from here (and of course we still haven't had that clear view from Gothics that we hear so much about). As we moved further up, the thunder started. Now this was bad news. We are about to be on the bare rock summit of Gothics in a thunderstorm -- this is where we started to worry. As the storm grew stronger, we could see the lightning striking Haystack not more than a few miles from us. We had two options, head back down the way we came and try to take cover, or get across the summit (which we were very nearly at right now) and bee-line out of there and back down the other side as soon as possible. We chose option two, and in the process eliminated Saddleback, Basin, and Haystack from our plan. Climbing peaks wasn't the issue anymore, we needed to get off the mountain before the storm was on top of us.
There's nothing to reinvigorate a tired and sore body like the imminent threat of death by lightning. We ran across that summit at full tilt. I believe we may have set a new record for shortest time on the Gothics summit in Adirondack hiking history. We headed straight for the trail back down toward the Ausable without looking back until we were comfortably well below tree line and then some. Here, we found an overhang that provided at least a minimal shelter from the wind and rain and decided to wait it out until the brunt of the storm had passed.
Hunkered down here, the thunder bellowed and echoed off the surrounding mountains. I don't know exactly where the lightning was hitting at this point, but at least we couldn't see it from our position.
The storm passed fairly quickly. Wet yet again, we called it a day and headed back toward our camp at the Indian Head. Sometimes mother nature makes your plans for you.
So we stopped up here for about 30 minutes for another boots-off-beef-jerky break as we took in the surroundings. One really could spend hours on end up here. It's another point in the Adirondacks that must be seen.
But of course, as we were up here, dark clouds started moving in. We decided we had better push on and hope the storm passed us by. We started off toward Gothics. Again, I don't recall the trail on the way up in any great detail, so I'll breeze past that and get to the unforgettable part.
We were partway up Gothics when the rain started. No problem, we thought, we'll just summit Gothics and then decide where to go from here (and of course we still haven't had that clear view from Gothics that we hear so much about). As we moved further up, the thunder started. Now this was bad news. We are about to be on the bare rock summit of Gothics in a thunderstorm -- this is where we started to worry. As the storm grew stronger, we could see the lightning striking Haystack not more than a few miles from us. We had two options, head back down the way we came and try to take cover, or get across the summit (which we were very nearly at right now) and bee-line out of there and back down the other side as soon as possible. We chose option two, and in the process eliminated Saddleback, Basin, and Haystack from our plan. Climbing peaks wasn't the issue anymore, we needed to get off the mountain before the storm was on top of us.
There's nothing to reinvigorate a tired and sore body like the imminent threat of death by lightning. We ran across that summit at full tilt. I believe we may have set a new record for shortest time on the Gothics summit in Adirondack hiking history. We headed straight for the trail back down toward the Ausable without looking back until we were comfortably well below tree line and then some. Here, we found an overhang that provided at least a minimal shelter from the wind and rain and decided to wait it out until the brunt of the storm had passed.
Hunkered down here, the thunder bellowed and echoed off the surrounding mountains. I don't know exactly where the lightning was hitting at this point, but at least we couldn't see it from our position.
The storm passed fairly quickly. Wet yet again, we called it a day and headed back toward our camp at the Indian Head. Sometimes mother nature makes your plans for you.
posted by mjr at
10:02 PM
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