Macomb, South Dix & Hough (7-16-2018)

South Dix

Camp Out

Kailee and I spent a relaxing Sunday at Sharp Bridge Campground in North Hudson. It's a sleepy little campground that happens to be one of our favorite places in the world. Sharp Bridge is close to a bunch of great trails and also hosts it's own impressive trail to the East Mill Flow and Round Pond (not to be confused with Round Pond on Route 73). There's also a side trail that leads up to Sharp Bridge cliffs.

Sharp Bridge.

We went up to the cliffs shortly after setting up camp. I noticed some recent blowdown opened up the view a little more towards the Dix Range. This was a nice view of of Macomb - the High Peak we'd be attempting to climb the following day.

Sunset at Sharp Bridge Cliffs.
Looking towards Dix.

I enjoyed relaxing as Kailee had fun fishing in the Schroon River. After that, we walked up the road to visit Courtney Pond to see if we could find a few water snakes. We spotted two.

At the end of the day, we watched the sunset back at Sharp Bridge Cliffs.

The Hike

We awoke at 6AM on Monday, broke down camp, used the bathrooms and set off for the Elk Lake trailhead parking lot. It was a quick ride. It's a small lot & it fills up quickly... Getting there early is a must.

With a parking spot secured, we took our time to get our stuff together. Then we signed the register & set out for Macomb!

We followed the Hunter's Pass trail towards the Slide Brook Lean-to. This trail is mostly flat, fairly wide and crosses a few small streams. Around halfway to Slide Brook we noticed a benchmark on a large rock in the middle of the trail.

Benchmark on Hunter's Pass Trail.

There was a bridge over a stream that recently succumbed to the forces of nature at the 2 mile mark. We rock hopped across the stream & spotted the Slide Brook camp. We had no trouble finding the cairn that led us to the unmarked trail up Macomb.

The trail gained elevation pretty quickly as we walked through the trees. Then we popped out at Macomb's "new" slide.

"So, we're climbing a slide?" Kailee asked.

"Yeah, I forgot to tell you that," I replied.

Blinding Sun over Macomb's Slide.

Macomb's slide is listed as the fourth steepest established route in the Adirondacks. It's comprised of sand and rubble. I thought it wasn't overly intimidating and it was a pretty short slide climb in comparison to Bennies Brook Slide. We practiced careful footing while ascending & tried to avoid kicking free any rocks.

Around halfway up, two guys reached the bottom of the slide and began their climb.

Turning around on the slide offered some really nice views of Elk Lake. At the top of the slide there was a cairn to the left indicating the path to the summit.

Macomb! Our 11th High Peak.
Kailee with her Junior Naturalist badge that she earned
at Sharp Bridge.

It was a short climb from this point to the Summit and only involved an easy scramble or two.  Kailee and I arrived at the summit in 3 hours and 50 minutes. Not too bad! This was our 11th High Peak and we were pretty excited.

The two Bros from below caught up to us.

"Is this Make-Em?" the one bro asked.

"Yeah, it's Macomb," I replied... I think he only heard me say "Yeah."

He and his pal were friendly and we chatted it up with them while enjoying the view on top of Macomb. They were planning on climbing all five peaks in the Dix Range & soon departed.

View from Macomb.

Another guy arrived at Macomb a few minutes after they left. He was just finishing up a hike of the whole range. This hiker and the two bros would be the only people we saw for the rest of the day. We spent 40 minutes atop Macomb before heading out.

Photogenic Tiger Swallowtail.

Kailee didn't want to descend the slide. So we took the range trail down. We hit a junction. Left would take us to the Lillian Brook exit path and right would take us to South Dix. Looking at South Dix, we made the in game decision to add it to our hike.

South Dix scramble.

Scramble and Dance on the way up South Dix.

It was maybe a 200 foot scramble on open rock from the ridge to the top of South Dix. Despite the heat, this was a lot of fun! And, the views from South Dix were quite impressive!

Our 12th High Peak: Check it off the list!

South Dix.
High Peak #12!

We departed South Dix after taking in the scenery and descended Northbound on the Range Trail. We evidently went up and over "Pough" (pronounced "Puff") but I hardly noticed that we were on a "sub-peak."

View from South Dix.

We came to a junction where a path to the East led to the Lillian Brook Trail & the Range Trail continued North to Hough... We made another in game decision to add Hough to our hike. It looked really close and my GPS confirmed it was only a short distance away.

Since we would be returning to this spot, I hid my backpack and carried Kailee's (much smaller) pack up Hough.

Compared to Macomb's Slide & South Dix's open scramble, the Range Trail up Hough felt like the most "normal" stretch of trail we had been on all day. It did have one (optional) scramble up a rock outcropping that had a nice view. I shouted "Hello" and my echo rang out for almost a good minute!

From the outcrop, it was only a few minutes until we were on our third summit of the day and 13th overall High Peak! We arrived at Hough at 2:45 PM.

Hough! Our 13th High Peak!

We were pleased and proud to be standing atop our third peak of the day when we had only set out to climb one. The view of Dix, the High Peaks & Elk Lake were a wonderful reward for such an an exciting & spontaneous outing!

Dix from Hough.

We spent around 15 minutes at Hough before descending back down to the col. At the col we ran into the Bros again and gave them a fist bump!

"You guys continued on after Make-Em, eh?" asked Bro #1.

I corrected him again and informed him that it was pronounced "Ma - Comb." This time he heard me.

"How was Hough?" Bro #2 asked.

"It's really nice," I replied "Have fun with that drop between it and Dix."

"Oh, it's really steep?" Bro #2 asked.

"Looked that way to me," I replied "Have fun."

View from Hough.

After they left, we took a snack break in the trail junction clearing. Kailee called my Mom to inform her of our accomplishment.

Then we began descending on the Lillian Brook trail. I had run out of water before ascending Hough and was looking forward to getting to the brook and refilling.

We were moving at a really good pace... And, then the trail disappeared.

We were surrounded by a warzone of blowdown. I looked for signs of a workaround and even backtracked to see if we missed a turn. All of the little paths that I found were dead ends...

I decided to plug the brooks coordinates into the GPS and bushwhack us to the stream.

This ended up being the most demanding stretch of the day. Bushwhacking in the hottest part of the afternoon crippled our brisk pace. The whack required more energy and time. I began to sweat like I've never sweat before. All of these factors resulted in me becoming extremely dehydrated very quickly.

I went from being in a great mood to completely miserable in no time. Kailee on the other hand was well hydrated, still had water and was in good spirits.

I felt like a zombie when we arrived at the stream. I tried to relax while filtering water. I was relieved to be at a water source but still physically and mentally miserable.

Kailee broke me out of this trance by cracking some jokes and saying stuff like "This has really been one of my favorite hikes. This has been really fun."
I needed to hear this. It snapped me out of my misery & helped get my mood back on track.


Thankfully, the trail was right on the shore of the brook and we were able to follow it to the bottom. We took another break when we reached the Hunter's Pass trail. Then, we began the trek back to the parking lot.

Shroom on the Lillian Brook Trail.

There were now a bunch of hikers camped out at the Slide Brook sites. We continued on and took two more breaks on our way to the parking.

Arriving at the car was an incredible relief for me. I couldn't wait to crack one of the sodas that I had stashed in my vehicle & passed a Gatorade to Kailee.


This was a much longer day than planned. Our bushwhack made it an even longer day. I personally went through quite a spectrum of emotions. But, that's what a hike is about.

The positives far outweighed the negatives. Going from peak-to-peak-to-peak in a quick succession on the Range Trail was a huge highlight for both of us. It was so much fun and the nonstop views were incredible.

Kailee was extremely proud that to have grabbed her 11th, 12th and 13th High Peaks in such a short amount of time! And, she's spot on with her assessment "That was a great hike."

"A great hike."