An unexpected hike up Saddleback Mountain

Johns Brook

It's been a rough summer for people like me in the Adirondacks, who would normally be hiking at every chance, as the rain has put a halt on a lot of summer activities. I work early mornings, so I usually get out off work just in time for the afternoon thunderstorms to roll in. So when we finally had a day without rain, and then another, and the short-term forecast showed dry weather and low humidity for the next few days I had to jump at the chance to hike. A coworker of mine was planning to hike into Johns Brook to hike the Great Range, and invited me and another coworker along. Neither of us are in shape to hike the entire Great Range in one day, and peak-bagging isn't quite my style, but we decided it would be fun to hike in and camp together and then hike a peak or two on our own the next day. So on Thursday evening we set out for the interior outpost at Johns Brook, with the intention of getting up early to hike the Wolfjaws the next day.

Orebed Brook

Very long staircase up the slide

We woke up at 6am as planned, but the rest of the day did not follow the plan at all. At 6:30am we set out from the interior outpost and crossed Johns Brook on an impressive and fun suspension bridge to reach the Range Trail. The Range Trail begins a slow but steady ascent from Johns Brook and stays at this pace for the next 1-2 miles, passing scenic brooks and waterfalls along the way. After about an hour we came to a lean-to, which I assumed was the Wolfjaw lean-to, and figured we had another .9 miles to the trail junction between Upper and Lower Wolfjaw. Well, shortly after that the trail began to climb more steadily and after hiking a bit we came out to an open slide with impressive piles of debris from hurricane Irene. Around this time we heard our first Bicknell's Thrush of the day, as well as the high pitched call of Blackpoll Warblers, indicating that we were well above 3000 feet. As we scrambled over open rock and fallen trees we started to wonder if we were on the right trail, as I hadn't read about any open slides on the way to the Wolfjaws. About halfway up the slide we came to an extremely long set of ladders to help ascend the remainder of the slide, and at the base of them was a sign indicating that we were at 3500 feet. I puled out my map and noted that the junction for Upper and Lower Wolfjaw should have been at 3400 feet, and started to wonder how we could have missed it. When we reached the top of the last ladder and there still was no junction we started to realize that we were weren't climbing the mountain that we thought we were climbing, but we were certainly climbing something so we might as well go on. After the slide the trail became relentlessly steep, with numerous rocky pitches to climb and many wet rocks and roots to navigate. When we came to a sign indicating that we were at 4000 feet we just laughed, because we still had no idea which mountain we were climbing, which added a fun element of adventure to the whole hike. But shortly after that sign we finally reached a trail junction indicating that Gothics was .6 miles one way and Saddleback was .5 miles the other way. I pulled out my map and realized that we had missed the turn for the Wolfjaw trail many miles ago and had been on the Orebed trail the entire time! We laughed about that for a while and then continued on to the summit of Saddleback Mountain, which would also be a new peak for all of us. The last .5 miles was steep and tricky in spots but we made it to the top and were treated to gorgeous views Gothics, Marcy, the McIntyre range, and the eastern high peaks with the Ausable lakes below in the distance. It was a perfect day of blue sky, few clouds, low humidity, and cooler temperatures, and it was only 10am so we could stay a while and enjoy it.

View from the summit of Saddleback Mountain, with Gothics in the foreground, Marcy just behind it, the McIntyre range on the right, and eastern high peaks on the left

I'm actually really glad that we climbed Saddleback by accident, as it is a really impressive peak and was on my list to do in the near future. Most consider Saddleback to be the most difficult of all the high peaks to ascend, so we were quite proud of ourselves for climbing it. The most difficult part of the trail is actually on the west side, which we avoided by ascending from the east, but the east trail certainly had its challenges as well. Most hikers continue over Saddleback to Basin, which requires descending Saddleback on a series of steep ledges which are dangerous and more difficult to climb than any other trail in the high peaks. I'm not a thrill seeker and vowed a long time ago to avoid that section by hiking the peaks separately, so I will return to Basin someday from the opposite side. Unlike most hikers we descended Saddleback the way we came, surprisingly without any accidents, at a much faster pace than we expected. On our way back we were able to figure out where we went wrong when we reached the junction for the Range, Wolfjaw, and Johns Brook trail and saw that the sign for the wolfjaws was facing away from the direction at which we had come from the outpost. A simple mistake that changed our entire day, but fortunately it changed it for the better. And now that I know the right way to go, I suspect that the wolfjaws will be my next adventure, if this warm dry air sticks around for a while!

View from the lower summit of Saddleback Mtn