Kathy & Cathy's Adventures: DIX RANGE LOOP from ELK LAKE March 13-15, 2020

VIEW OF DIX MOUNTAIN from Hough

This was the last planned attempt for a weekend to hike some high peaks to add to our Winter 46ers for this winter. It had been a mix of weather throughout this winter season and many plans were aborted due to flooding rain conditions or unbroken snow covered trails. The Dix Range was our goal for this weekend. The route was entering from Elk Lake, camping at Slide Brook and hiking up Macomb, over to Carson (South Dix), to Grace (East Dix), ending with Hough, then back to camp by way of Lillian Brook. Corn and I came separately from our respective homes at opposite ends, meeting up at the Upper Parking Lot near Clear Pond, about 2.5 miles south of the Elk Lake trailhead. The first night we slept in our own vehicles and next morning, we donned our backpacks and headed to our first camp at the Slide Brook lean-to, 4.5 miles from the parking lot. We started at 9:30 am from Clear Pond and arrived at the lean-to about 11:45 am. We had lots of time to set up, bask in the warm sun and just relax before our big day. After setting up our individual camping spots, Corn in the Quincy and me in my tent, we explored our surroundings. I didn't get too far as the heat in my tent created by the bright sun basking down on it, made it so welcoming for a nap that I decided to slip into my sleeping bag and rest a bit. Well, I had a good nap for a couple of hours! I finally got up and prepared my supper and both Corn and I ate, filled our water bottles and headed to bed about 8:30 pm. The next day, the alarm went off at 5am. I had my thermos of hot water already and had a cup with my breakfast bar as I got dressed. By 6:40am, we started hiking. The day was beautiful, minimal wind, a little cold but clear. As we climbed the slide of Macomb, we turned every now and then to see the view. It was terrifyingly spectacular as we positioned our snowshoes into the snow in order to twist ourselves to look down the steep slide of ice and snow. I tried to pivot a bit more and as I did that my axe slipped from my grip and fell to the grown and started to slide. Simultaneously, I reached with my opposite hand carrying my pole and stabbed the ground hooking the blade of the axe before it slid any further. I carefully bent down and picked up the axe. We continued our steep ascent to the summit. We reached the summit at about 9:30 am. We took pictures, had a snack and started off again towards the next peak. The winter trail over to South Dix was mixed with herd paths going off at times in certain directions, so we needed to remain mindful of how the path felt under our feet. A solid base told us that we were on the correct path as once you stepped off that you sank. Soon enough we were summitting South Dix at about 11:15 am. We had another snack, took pictures, stood in the sun as it warmed us and then continued on towards Grace Peak (East Dix). It was along this path that Corn's snowshoe broke, just coming down a little hill. We stopped for a break and allow her time to see if she could fix it. She decided to change over to her crampons so I changed to my microspikes. There were about 12 people hiking the same route as us that day and they were passing us as we made our way up to the summit of East Dix. As we neared the summit of Grace, we met up with a young woman on her way down who had stepped aside on the trail to allow us hikers going up to pass. She had a long walking stick, not a hiking pole, a canvass backpack, no snowshoes and nothing over her boots. I asked her how she managed without microspikes and she said she had broken one on her way up. She said that she hadn't taken her snowshoes this time as her last time in this area a week ago, she carried her snowshoes all the way. I was surprised she would even continue on without proper foot gear, given the steepness of all the trails to the summits. We arrived Grace summit about 12:30pm and I needed to eat my lunch and take some Tylanol for my knees. The arthritis in my knees was acting up and I knew I needed to keep the pain at bay, especially on the way down back to camp which was still a distance away. The day continued with full sun, calm with very little wind, simply beautiful. The mountains were letting us climb. After 1pm, we started our way back to South Dix to make our way over to Hough. As we approached the base of Puff (the hill before Hough) we met up with the same girl we saw on Grace Peak. She said she could not find the trail to Lillian Brook near Hough. I told her she passed it and invited her to come with us as the trail was being used by other hikers and with three of us looking for it, we should be able to find it. She had already decided to go back, basically ignoring anything I was telling her and said she would keep looking for the trail (I'm thinking the connector trail from Lillian Brook to South Dix which had not been broken out) and if she didn't find it, she would return the same way she climbed up Macomb. I then wondered how is she going to descend Macomb 's slide without crampons or microspikes. She kept on going and so I in turn kept on going towards Hough, all the time wondering how she is doing. I had forgotten how steep Puff was, especially descending and then came the steep climb up to Hough. There was a short rocky edge to climb over which was too difficult to do in snowshoes, so I pulled off my pack and changed over to crampons. As I was close to the summit, I left my pack there and grabbed my axe, camera and other necessary devices and continued my way up. We arrived at the summit of Hough around 4:30 pm. We took several pictures, enjoyed the view all around, and then started down. Sunset was not until 7pm so we had some daylight time to get off the mountain. We did have our head lamps so we were not too worried but given we were trying to follow a snowshoe herd path, we preferred to get down sooner than later. We did get down by dusk and made it back to camp about 8:30pm. Before pulling into camp, I filled up my water bottle from the stream nearby and headed to my tent to drop my pack. We prepared our respective suppers in the lean-to and cheered each other for a great successful climb and summitting all four peaks as planned. After we cleaned up and headed to our tents, two rangers came in calling to us to come and speak with them. They were searching for a missing hiker, which happened to be that girl we met and spoke with. The Rangers told us she had sent coordinates from an app on her cell phone to a friend who then called for help. There were several rangers coming in from all sides of the mountain trying to find her. The told everything we knew to the rangers from our encounter with the girl and from that point, we saw them head up the Macomb trail. This was about 10pm. We later found out that she was found on the opposite side of Macomb, completely lost and freezing. The rangers were able to warm her but she would be recovering for a while from some serious frostbite to her feet. The next day, on our way out we saw the police snowmobile that came in the night before. We wondered if we may get a ride out if they came by us. As it was, we left camp about noon and arrived at the Elk Lake trailhead by 2pm and as we made our way down the dirt road towards our vehicles, about half a mile into the walk, the police suv pulling the snowmobile trailer approached from behind and gave us a ride to our cars. We were truly blessed this weekend not only with good weather but a successful hike and a ride out. This is a good memory that I will keep forever.