Dix — 46 Hiking Highs

Alex and I took advantage of a great early fall weekend, and left the house at 6:00 a.m. to get to the parking lot for Round Pond on Route 73 by 7:30 a.m. We hit the trail at around 7:45 and the initial ascent started right in, as we quickly gained about 200' before leveling off. We got to Round Pond in about 20 minutes. This was a beautiful, quiet area, which was quite peaceful at this hour. We stayed at the water’s edge for a few minutes, then continued along the narrow, slightly overgrown, and flat trail. With the easy terrain, we got to the junction of the trail with Noonmark, at 2.3 miles, in one hour. The next segment was also easy, and generally flat. It was another 1.9 miles to the Boquet River lean-to, which took us another hour, arriving at 9:45 a.m. There were a few backpacks in the lean-to, and we saw our first hiker of the morning, a man roughly in his 60s, getting ready to hit the trail. We crossed the Boquet River here, and slowly gained elevation, while generally following the river’s path. We were surprised at how few bridges there were, as we again crossed over the river on some rocks, after having passed three women with dogs—the first ascending group we overtook today, we stopped and snacked here a bit.

Round Pond in the morning

The trail then merged into a rock stream (very dry today) then opened to a real treat for us, as we emerged at the bottom of a large landslide about 5.7 miles from the trailhead. We were wowed, as we walked a few hundred feet up the smooth bedrock to pick up the trail on the right side (easily identified by the rock cairns directing us to it). It was now 10:50 a.m. Here’s where the challenging part we’d been expecting came in. As the guidebook warned us, the trail became quite steep, gaining 1600' in a mile. Although steep, it wasn’t incredibly difficult, and we ascended at a good pace with several rewarding peaks of the views to come. At one point, Alex even noted that the view from here alone made the hike worthwhile. We alternately had views of Giant and Rocky Peak Ridge and of the Great Range. At the junction with Hunters Pass we met a few people coming down and another coming up from the pass.

Heading up the trail/stream

At the base of the landslide

Very steep and very eroded trail involving a lot of pulling yourself up the network of tree roots, after leaving the slide

More of the steep section past the landslide

We entered the krummholz zone and finally summited at 12:10 p.m. There were a couple of groups at the summit, and Alex and I were in awe of the 360° views from here. It seemed like you could see all the High Peaks as we rotated around, identified them, and took way too many pictures. The view down to Elk Lake was phenomenal, and I mentioned that this might be my new favorite viewpoint. Nippletop was prominent to the west, and looked like it had very similar views. We bemoaned the fact that we all missed that view on our last hike, but we were glad to get the view from here. The weather was perfect for us all day, as it stayed in the upper 40s to low 50s. We relaxed and ate in the cool air under partly cloudy skies, with low wind, explored the summit a bit, then headed down at 12:45 p.m.

Two very psyched guys, thrilled with the views (behind us is the southwest view, with Elk Lake below)

Number 21, looking west at Nippletop and the Great Range behind it

We managed the steep descent fairy quickly, and arrived at the landslide at 2:00 p.m., where we took about 20 minutes to enjoy the open rocks, fresh streams, and snack sitting on the slide before continuing. Along the descent, we explored a rocky area with a stream for a bit, then continued along the easy 4.5 miles of the trail with just a few people who happened to converge at the lean-to, where we’d taken a break. As usual, the hike back felt very long. We stopped again at Round Pond, talked a bit with a guy from Malta (with his pit bull) whom we’d passed earlier in the day, then got back to the car at 5:45 p.m. We grabbed some bread at Noonmark Diner (our tradition!), drove to George Henry’s in Warrensburg (as we did last year), where the service was awful, but the food excellent, then drove home in darkness, finally arriving back home at 9:15 p.m.

Chilling out as we enjoy the vast (and smooth) expanse of the landslide scar on the way back down; The sunlit, pointy peak is Noonmark Mountain

Back at Round Pond before dusk

Dix Mountain