Back 2 The 'Daks (Lower Wolfjaw And The Dix Range)

I'm back from hiking with Ami L in one piece (mostly). The trip was very refreshing, Thoreau was so right about getting back to nature! While Ami L and I were driving up to the Adirondack's, he joked that this trip was the sequel to last year's adventures and that he'd call it "Back 2 The 'Dak's", so I guess that's what this post will be called. Our trip was certainly an adventure… two days of hiking, 25+ miles, and six Adirondack High Peaks. Whoaaa. So yes, get ready for a long one.

Last Wednesday afternoon, Ami L and I drove up to the Adirondacks and arrived in time for a "last supper" before leaving civilization, and then rested up that night to prepare for what was ahead. On Thursday, we decided to hike Lower Wolfjaw (High Peak #30 @ 4175 feet) from The Ausable Club. The hike went along the rocky Ausable River and then up the Wedge Brook trail, which (following common sense), followed the cascading Wedge Brook. Lower Wolfjaw's summit itself was pretty lame. There was such a lack of a defined summit that Ami L and I were trying to figure out if we were actually there for 20+ minutes using maps, compasses, and our phones (to no avail). We're 98% sure we made it to the top though though... 

After Lower Wolfjaw, we drove south, and hiked in 2.5 miles from Elk Lake to our campsite for the night. We made macaroni and cheese with zucchini for dinner, which we didn't think was anything special, but a bunch of the other campers thought it was (either because it was fancy (nope) or because it had a vegetable and no meat (probably)). After dinner, we played cards and ended up sleeping under the stars since the weather was good (and some happy-go-lucky guy named Hugh stole the spot we were going to put up a tarp literally twenty seconds before we moved our stuff there!). Sleeping under the stars was so cool though. Like you look up, it's so dark, and you just talk about the stars and your place in the universe and what else could be out there. 

As quickly as night fell, morning came. Being all in-tune with nature, we woke up when the birds started chirping, packed up a day pack, and were on the trail before 7:00 am. We decided to climb Dix (High Peak #6 @ 4857 feet), the highest of the five mountains, first. Then looped around to Hough Peak (High Peak #23 @ 4400 feet), South Dix (High Peak #37 @ 4060 feet), made a detour to get in Grace Peak (East Dix) (High Peak #42 @ 4012 feet), and then did Macomb (High Peak #21 @ 4405 feet) last, which had a group of some funny high school boys on top and some crazy rock slides on the way down .  We finished our hike after 7:00 pm, drove back to North Creek, ate tons of pizza for dinner, and pretty much went to bed passed out by 10 o'clock. It was so good to get home and relax my sore muscles on Saturday, but I'm actually already itching to go back. Kind of funny how that is, I think!