Gothics

I ascended Gothics with hiking buddy Jonathan. He texted me at work at noon and said “let’s hit the trails tomorrow.” I thought Giant mountain was a good choice, but we opted for Gothics, a summit which had previously eluded Jon. It was May 16, 2017.

This is not ‘normal’ for me. To climb a 4700 ft. mountain, in another country, 3 hours drive from home, on less than 24 hours notice would have been unthinkable to me even a year ago, but I’m trying to be more spontaneous, and more importantly, prepared to a point I can hike spontaneously, with gear at the ready. I actually have to be spontaneous about it. Jonathan is not one to plan anything far in advance, or even beyond the next day. But he is an experienced hiker and eager to go when the urge strikes him. And, to be honest, the line of people I know willing to drive to another country and ascend almost 5,000 ft into cold mountain air is a somewhat short one, planned in advance or not. I’ll take the company I can get.

Jonathan is an experienced hiker and knows the Adirondacks well. I am more familiar with the Green Mountains of Vermont, which is quite similar terrain. Both are steep, muddy, rocky and have plentiful water sources in streams and bogs. Both are very buggy in their bug seasons, and both have mountains in about the same 3000-5000 ft. range. We are both middle-aged tech workers with athletic pasts. Jon is in much better shape than I am. He hikes faster, but takes more breaks. I tend to plod along slowly without stopping much. It averages out to the same at the end of the day, but I hear about it a lot for not keeping up to his blistering pace.

The day was magnificent: warm, sunny and almost windless. It is a late spring, so runoff was still pretty heavy and the rivers were still raging furies. More importantly, there would be no bugs. the black flies are not out in mid-May in the Adirondacks yet. But, give it another week they would be swarming in the millions!

We left Montreal that morning and got to Gothics some two and a half hours later at around 9am. We were coming at Gothics from the back. Most hikers use the St.-Huberts access on the other side of the mountain. Not expecting to be home after dark, we did not take any powerful flashlights, but did have a very weak one, only good for finding your keys at the front door. We had daypacks, with gorp* and sandwiches and plenty of water.

We were accompanied by two expert hiking dogs: Bubba, a rambunctous lab mix that loves playing in water more than life itself, and Lloyd, a regal Leonberger who is gentle and wise. Both dogs are well trained to not chase animals or to confront other hikers without an invitation (they wander slightly off trail to let others pass without fear). They spend most of the hike ‘off leash’ and as result can often hike the two or three times the hiking distance of the humans, by running ahead and back repeatedly.

To get to the base of Gothics we needed to walk about 3 miles on relatively flat terrain. The ascent began after crossing a suspension bridge over raging spring river runoff.

Gothics is named after the huge treeless rockslides visible for miles from the mountain.

Gothics is 4,736 ft., making it one of the ’46’ Adirondack high peaks. If you climb all of these you earn the title of a ’46er.’ It is not easily done. They are not all connected by a single ridge line. Many of the 46 peaks are single ascents. The summer hiking season is also short.

The ascent went well. There was some bushwacking necessary, but this is to be expected in early spring in this region. The trail closely follows a river which can flood the trail with standing water for short portions. It is necessary to cut deeper into the woods away from the river and then resume the trail when the flooded area is passed.

Gothics is named after the huge treeless rockslides visible for miles from the mountain. Their height makes them appear as gothic cathedral windows in the side of the mountain. Hikers are assisted through the steeper parts of these rock faces with an array of ladders and staircases. Exposure to the sun is direct and harsh as it bounces off the rocks. After a long winter this exposure can feel surprisingly welcome though. Sunburn on pale skin is imminent in a short time.

As we were reaching the peak, we saw more and more snow. Something we were not counting on this far into in May. The late spring was preserving the snowpack. The small pines at higher altitudes had shielded the sun from melting the trail. Snow had remained on the very narrow trail and it was deep. We began to post-hole on occasion, and pretty soon were post-holing on every step. At one point the shock of a sudden posthole turned me quickly sideways and threw me backward into a pine tree. A short exposed branch pierced my back and sent a massive pain through me. At the moment of impact it felt like a very serious puncture. It was not, but any issue 4000 ft. up and 3 miles out is a serious concern and can devolve into an emergency situation quickly. Up ahead, Jonathan couldn’t find the way through to the peak. Some hikers had descended, so there must have been a way through, but we were not finding it, and the descending hikers were now nowhere to be found. We were only 200 yards or less from the peak. You don’t have long at the top of a mountain. We spent a lot of the day getting to the park, and more getting to the base of the mountain. With only a few minutes to decide we thought we would do the responsible thing and begin our descent in failure. For Jonathan, it would be the second time he had not been able to reach the top of Gothics.

The way down was magical. Although it was exactly the same route we had ascended, we now got to see the incredible views as we walked down the rockslide, and the effort was a bit less taxing as the climb up. We took an extended break to soak up the sun we had been missing all winter. We had a sandwich and got going with enough time to make the car before dark. On the descent, Jonathan and I split up. He stayed close to a rocky river and I paralleled this route on the trail. When we met up again, the dogs had grown tired. This was unusual for them. Lloyd especially was finding it hard to keep walking and really wanted to nap, which he did whenever he could. Getting him going again was taking longer and longer each time and now we were starting to fall behind schedule. Darkness was approaching and neither of us were at all prepared for a night hike with no moonlight. The bushwacks on the way back were probably only possible because we had done them already the other way that morning. Darkness set in totally and we were still a good 90 minutes away from the trailhead and the car.

The trail to Gothics is not incredibly well marked, but the markers are reflective – a feature that would prove to be our saviour. To complicate things, I was wearing prescription dark sunglasses.

I pulled out my mini flashlight which was inadequate to even light the path in front of us. What it did do though was catch the reflective trail markers to confirm that we were still on the trail. The forest around Gothics is not very dense, so lots of directions could easily resemble a trail. Only one of them is! Bog bridges also help re-assure that you are still on trail. It was dark. Really dark. There was a good chance we would wander off trail without careful consideration of every step. Every time we lit up a new trail marker was a small victory, a signal that we were still on course. It began to get cold. We were never in a life threatening situation. We had warm furry dogs and are both hearty enough to survive an uncomfortable night in the woods. Nonetheless, both of us wanted to avoid this future hiking story and were eager to experience only the single failure of not peaking.

In addition to the dogs, I could now add myself to the list of near exhausted hikers by the time the last miles were rolling out. The first glint of automobile metal was a more than welcome site. We would all be home in bed tonight, safe and sound. I took a lot out of this hike, mostly regarding preparedness. We made a lot of good decisions that day, especially the one to turn back within 15 minutes of being unable to reach the peak. Nonetheless, we still ended up in a rough situation that could have ended much worse. We never thought the dogs would get so tired as they never had before. But it could have easily been one of us as well. It could have been the pine tree branch driven unceremoniously into my backside by a nasty posthole step. It could have been a twisted ankle. It could have been anything that holds you up for an hour or two. Darkness sets, no flashlight, maybe it gets cold? Disaster if it rains as well!

“Mountains don’t care” goes the saying. They certainly don’t. For the dogs, it would be their last major hike, in a career of many many long hikes that most humans would not want to sign up for. Jonathan recognized that they were now both too old for the toll a day like this can take. I felt bad that their last big hike would be so taxing. I hope they enjoyed it as much as I did – summit or not.

* Good ol’ raisins and peanuts (aka: trailmix)

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