Dix Range Overnight

 

"And when it rains on your parade, look up rather than down. Without the rain, there would be no rainbow."

Sunday evening we packed our overnight bags and changed our plans a bit as a tropical storm was heading our way. We were going to get rained out on day 2 of our overnight. We decided we would try and hike Macomb, the 3 Dix, and Hough in the first day and leave early the next morning to beat the down pours.

I checked the forecast on many different sites. It said Sunny on the higher peaks on Monday. Light rain starting at 8am Tuesday morning and heavy by 11am.

We got to the trailhead around 7:00am. We drove as far as we could to drop our packs so we didn't have to carry them the entire 2.5 mile road walk. (The road was closed due to COVID-19) 

We geared up and decided to take our bikes the 2.5 miles to the trailhead where we would proceed to stash them in the woods and hike 2 miles into camp. 

 

Once at camp, we set up our stuff and swapped out to smaller Sea to Summit packs for our hike to the peaks. For some reason my math had it only being roughly 10ish miles to hit them all from camp. Unfortunately, in the Adirondacks, some of the trails are considered "herd paths" so they do not mark the milage on the maps for those trails.

This is a huge frustration for me, as when I am suppose to rely on a map and am on a trail, that is CLEARLY not a herd path anymore, there should be milage so I can make a good judgment call when needed or if needed. I am also spoiled with the trails in the White Mountains, which are some of the most well marked trails around.

We left camp and headed towards our first peak of the day, Macomb. It was drizzling a little bit, low level clouds. Certainly not the forecast I had read at 5am that morning. We slowly made our way up to Macomb slide. Popped right out onto it. It was spectacular. A giant rock slide. Lots of loose scree, and big boulders. I was in my zone! Again, here we are at type 2 fun.

We slowly made our way up in hopes to have views from the top. Things were wet, slippery, and muddy. We made it to Macomb summit with zero views, and lots of wind. We continued our trek on over to South Dix.

Just before the summit of South Dix you pop out of the trees and onto some open rock face. Here we felt the fury of the winds whipping us around. We moved quickly through this part and back into the trees, finally walking over South Dix. Continued our trek onward to East Dix or also known as Grace Peak.

Arriving at East Dix, the sun finally decided to show it's face a tiny bit. Giving us some views and a little bit of warmth on our faces. Here we sat and took a break and ate some snacks. We were both certainly feeling it. Feeling that exhaustion from our hike 2 days prior. Also, weather was not helping with the mood and encouragement.

We left East Dix, back over South to get to the junction for Hough and Dix Peak. We hit the junction and sort of assessed how we were both feeling. We still had some miles under us, in this moment realizing more miles than I had originally mapped out. There was one more junction just before the push up to Hough. This is where we decided to go back to camp and leave Hough and Dix for another day.

Laura was worried she wasn't going to have enough water, we both were tired and irritable. So after a brief discussion and some frustration- we both called it.

We made it back to camp, I started a fire. We sat around the fire getting completely eaten alive by mosquitos. we ate dinner and went in the tent by 7pm. We both eventually fell asleep and waking at 5am the next morning to a complete down pour. Off and on we both slipped in and out of sleep again until about 7am. This was when we decided we should start waking up and getting our lives on track. We debated even making coffee in the rain, but OF COURSE you must have coffee at camp. It's one of the best parts of camping.

I grabbed our bear canister, we made some coffee, enjoyed listening to the pouring rain from inside the tent. As soon as we were done, we decided to pack it all up and head back to the car.

We made our 2 mile trek back to the trailhead where we left our bikes. In the pouring rain.

As soon as our feet touched the parking lot at the trailhead and we were mentally prepared to ride out on our bikes soaking wet, a very nice gentleman who worked for the lodge saw us and offered us a ride to our car. He tossed all of our gear and bikes in the bed of the truck and drove us the 2.5 miles. He was so nice and considerate! WE APPRECIATE YOU!

Changing quickly, we then hopped into the car and decided it was time to head back to New Hampshire to see our pets.