Ascent of Santanoni Peak on 2014-07-05| Others in Party: | Shanon Levin
| | Date: | Saturday, July 5, 2014 | | Ascent Type: | Successful Summit Attained | | Motorized Transport to Trailhead: | Car | | Peak: | Santanoni Peak | | Location: | USA-New York | | Elevation: | 4606 ft / 1403 m |
Ascent Trip ReportShanon, Dana, and myself started our hike up the road to the blue DEC trail to the lean-to at about 8:30 am. This was much later than planned. After taking a quick look at the lean-to and talking to a women who had stayed there last night we hiked back the way we came until we made it back to the sign that says "Times Square Path". We turned and crossed over the beaver dam slightly to the left of where the trail hits the water. The easiest path seemed to be over the beaver dam rather than over the log a little ways to the right. A few minutes after the beaver dam, there were a few places where we got off the herd path but very quickly realized that we were off the trail and found it within seconds. We followed Panther Brook herd path up to Herald Square. Shanon and I left Dana and her dog at Herald Square and continued to Times Square. We then followed the herd path for Couchsachraga. This trail went down gradually for what felt like forever before finally reaching the "Bog of Despair". We took a route to the left side of the bog to avoid as much of the bog as possible. This path petered out until it was very faint and I started to wonder how hard it was going to be to get back on the actual path. This didn't end up being an issue. When we finally made it to the summit Shanon nicknamed Couch the "Stupid Mountain". The summit is just a rock surrounded by trees and there was barely a view between trees. Maybe in the winter with deep snow you could see over the trees and get a nice view. After the long climb back up the ridge to Herald Square we met back up with Dana and the dog. They were both hating us for leaving them there for 3 hours because they were cold. She was anxious to get moving toward Panther. We were all a little surprised at how close and easy the hike was to Panther. Panther had really nice almost 360 degree views just below the disc and sign marking the summit. We quickly made our way down Panther and through Herald Square and Times Square on the way to Santanoni. Santanoni looked like it would be a lot of elevation gain with most coming in a short distance at the end but it actually wasn't too bad. We took a few pictures on the summit then started our descent down the Santanoni Express trail. The descent was very slow because the dog was exhausted and had cuts on her pads. She had to be coaxed into moving on many occasions and even had to be lifted down off some of the rocks. We made out to the car around 11 pm. |
| Summary Total Data | | Route Conditions: | Road Hike, Maintained Trail, Unmaintained Trail, Scramble | Ascent Part of Trip: Santanoni Range (0 nights total away from roads)
Complete Trip Sequence:
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