
Starting from the Rooster Comb Trailhead.

Passing a little pond shortly after leaving the trailhead.

Ascending the Rooster Comb Trail.

Junction for the spur trail to Rooster Comb.

A ladder on the spur trail to the Rooser Comb summit.

Rooster Comb summit.

Close-up south of the Great Range traverse to come. Mount Marcy is way out there in the center

Rooster Comb summit, view east.

Back at the junction, ascending to Hedgehog Mountain.

Some rocky scrambling obstacles begin getting introduced, but overall the trail is still easy to hike on and less burly than the rest of the day.

Gorgeous morning forest as we head up to Hedgehog Mountain.

We went up and over Hedgehog Mountain without even realizing it. It was just a viewless bump.


Ascending Lower Wolfjaw Mountain.

One of many obstacles on the way up to Lower Wolfjaw Mountain.

Approaching the summit of Lower Wolfjaw Mountain, seen through the trees ahead.

Some low Class 3 scrambling up roots and big slabs below Lower Wolfjaw Mountain.

View back at the cool scramble section, Hedgehog Mountain seen behind Adam.

Lower Wolfjaw Mountain summit view.

Trail junction below Lower Wolfjaw Mountain. We kept along the crest.

Dropping down from Lower Wolfjaw Mountain, Upper Wolfjaw Mountain seen ahead.

Progress descending from Lower Wolfjaw Mountain.

Pretty brutal terrain that lasts the majority of the traverse from now on.

One of many fun features to overcome a cliff.

And more, and more.

The rock was a bit wet, making the scrambling a little more dangerous, but I suppose the rock is pretty much always wet in the Adirondacks.

View back toward Lower Wolfjaw Mountain.

More cool mossy ledges the trail navigates on the way up to Upper Wolfjaw Mountain.



View back toward Lower Wolfjaw Mountain from Upper Wolfjaw Mountain.

Armstrong Mountain is next, seen ahead.

Close-up toward the traverse to come.

Fun scrambling bits, continued.

And more glorious, mossy forest hiking.

A ladder below Armstrong Mountain.

More Class 2/3 ledges.


Summit of Armstrong Mountain, excellent views.

Close-up toward Gothics Mountain, next on the agenda.


Descending from Armstrong.

It can't all be fun! The mud starts around here, starting sporadically and becoming more of a nuisance later on.

Ascending Gothics.

View back toward Upper Wolfjaw on our way up Gothics.

Gothics ahead.

View back as we near the summit of Gothics.

Gothics summit, view toward the remaining peaks on the Great Range Traverse.

Close-up of the peaks to come.

Descending from Gothics.

The famous cables route up Gothics, which of course we were descending rather than ascending.

View back up the first set of cables.

More cables farther down.

A view back up at the steep cables route.

A tricky Class 3 slab without cables. Adam wrapped around on the left.

Junction at the saddle of Gothics and Saddleback Mountain.

Onward to Saddleback Mountain.

Ascending more steep, fun Adirondacks trails on the way to Saddleback Mountain.

Saddleback Mountain, view toward Basin Mountain, our next peak.

A fun ledge as we start down Saddleback.

Class 3 downclimb from Saddleback.

View back up the first set of scrambling.

A fun Class 3 crack. Basin Mountain ahead.

Close-up at the crack.

Adam coming down the Class 3 crack.

Back on a trail instead of rock slab as we continue toward Basin Mountain.

Heading up toward Basin Mountain.

View back toward Saddleback on our way up Basin Mountain.

Tricky Class 3 slab.

View back from the top of the slab.


Basin Mountain ahead.

More scrambling.

View back at the traverse so far.

Nearing the summit of Basin Mountain.

Descending Basin Mountain. You can see Mount Marcy on the right, but first we needed to head over to Mount Haystack, seen left. This is the only portion of the hike that doesn't follow the ridgeline, instead keeping to the left of the crest.

Descending from Basin Mountain.

Mount Marcy top left.

Steep descending, pretty much as usual, coming down from Basin Mountain.

View back at some of the rocky terrain.

Another ladder descent.

Adam coming down the ladder from Basin Mountain.

As you can see, the trail descends lower than the crest, which is top right.

Passing over Haystack Brook. It was flowing, fortunately, because we were in trouble if not.

Ascending toward Little Haystack.

Signage before leaving treeline.

Class 2/3 to Little Haystack.

Little Haystack, view toward Mount Haystack ahead.

A short descent off Little Haystack that we needed to come back up and over later.

Mount Haystack ahead.

View back toward Little Haystack.

Gorgeous views and interesting slickrock hiking up to Mount Haystack.

Mount Haystack ahead.

View back, Little Haystack seen left, the traverse we just did seen right.

More scrambling below Mount Haystack.

Mount Haystack ahead.

View back from just below the summit of Mount Haystack.


View toward Mount Marcy from the summit of Mount Haystack.

Mount Haystack summit, view south.

Close-up toward Basin Mountain, etc.


After backtracking from Mount Haystack , we descended toward Mount Marcy's base, seen ahead.

Adam taking advantage of more flowing water along the trail.

Descending to a junction with the Phelps Trail. We'd be returning here after summitting Mount Marcy.

Ascending the Phelps Trail.

View back toward Mount Haystack (right) and the other peaks on the Great Range Traverse (left).

Mount MArcy ahead.

Because it started raining, I didn't take photos of the ascent to Mount Marcy, so I'm using photos from a previous trip report. Here you can see a boardwalk over a marsh. Mount Marcy stays visible for the last half mile or so.

Some Class 2.

Looking back as we ascend to Mount Marcy.

Mount Marcy ahead.


A nice little slab on the ascent to Mount Marcy.

Looking back the way we came.

Gorgeous, open views on the way up to Mount Marcy.


Mount Marcy summit view to the south toward Mount Skylight.

Summit of Mount Marcy. Back to photos from the day we did the Great Range Traverse. You can see Mount Haystack on the right, as well as much of the Great Range traverse stretching back to the center. Our next goal is to drop into the valley on the left.

Back on the Phelps Trail, heading north. We had many, many miles still to go, but all the peaks and notable vertical elevation was done for the day.

This portion of trail was steep, flooded severely, and muddy.

Descending along the Phelps Trail.

Stream crossings.

Along Johns Brook.

Lovely water sounds to break up the monotony.


Junction with the Shorey Shortcut Trial, which leads back to the ridge crest near Basin Mountain, no thanks.

Passing Slant Rock.

A cute stream crossing with a little cascade.


Crossing Johns Brook.

Descending parallel to Johns Brook on our way to Johns Brook Lodge.

The trail follows Johns Brook for a bit.

Johns Brook Lodge.

A junction with the Southside Trail. We continued along the Phelps Trail, which gained a small amount of vertical away rom the creek.

Continuing along the now far less rocky Phelps Trail.


Very pretty mosses and scenery.


The Garden Trailhead. We hiked on roads back to the Rooster Comb Trailhead, slightly annoyed we hadn't just set up a short shuttle.
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