In Johns Brook. Not where we’re supposed to be, but hard to call a scene like this a mistake

At 2 hours 12 minutes into the hike, we got to the Wolfjaw junction (4.2 miles from the car), and less than 20 minutes later, we hit the next major junction. It was starting to get busy here, across from Johns Brook Lodge, and all the facilities around it. We were in the heat of the COVID pandemic, and although only a handful of people on the trail wore face masks, everyone was respectful, and gave each other a wide berth. Now on the Orebed Brook Trail, the name of the stream became obvious, since spots were heavily laden with rusty iron ore, which warranted a few photos.

At 10:30, we hit the bottom of a huge landslide formed by Hurricane Irene in 2011. At the base of the slide, we could see the double hump summit of Saddleback Mountain up and to the right. Shortly after beginning the ascent here, we found the enormous stairway on the left side of the landslide. The stairs were divided into 2 sections, and must have totaled around 300 steps - it was remarkable. This made the hike up far less treacherous, but sure did give my calves a workout! 30 minutes later, we were at the junction with the Range Trail. Above the tree line we spied hikers ascending the bare western flank of Gothics, using the cables strung along that trail. Heading west, and ascending Saddleback, we came to an awe-inspiring view of the exposed western shoulder of Gothics behind us, looming above the brightly-colored leaves in the foreground and in the valley.

At 11:34, we hit the eastern high point of the mountain, with a large, chair-like rock in the woods. Continuing along a nice, flat, pine-needle covered ridge trail, we hit the shallow col just 5 minutes later. There was a very short spur here with an amazing view to the south, where the valley showed off its grandeur. We stopped here for a few minutes and took a lot of photos. Kirk was more comfortable closer to the edge than I was (okay, I sat down 15 feet back). We continued south on the trail and hit the summit at 11:47 a.m. It was gorgeous up here, but a touch anticlimactic, since we weren't sure we were at the actual summit. It sure seemed like it, but the one guy at the top wasn’t that friendly, and there were a couple of trails, and we didn’t know where to look for the surveyors bolt. There was a very short stub of a trail into the low vegetation (maybe 30’ long ended at a high point, denoting the actual peak), but it became clear that we were at the summit, and others quickly joined us, including a large party of German-speaking hikers we’d passed along the trail earlier. In a short time, it was a veritable party at the top, with about 20 people joining us there. The view from here is spectacular, with the enormously open and steep slide of Basin clearly dominating the view on the right and walling in the valley below with Upper Ausable Lake at the bottom, and the Colvin Range beyond that, neatly arranged in height order from southwest to northeast. The path to Basin continued just below the summit and looked treacherous to me. I was glad I’d intentionally decided to do these two separately to avoid that stretch. The valley had loads of color from the foliage, but the sun and slight haze did obscure the color a bit. No mind, we still took our time to truly take it all in, and take loads of photos, while we sat at the summit and had lunch.

Panorama from the short spur looking south, just a tenth of a mile short of the top

Me, Kirk, and a photobomber at the top of Saddleback

At 12:25 p.m., it was time to head back down. We retraced our steps and again just enjoyed the surroundings, taking in the angles of the slide, the colors of autumn, and the trickling water through the streams. By the time we crossed Johns Brook at the lodge location, and took the Phelps Trail back, astounded at how low the water levels were (especially crossing Slide Mountain Brook, which was virtually non-existent). We passed a solo hiker (about 70 years old) a few times and another guy mentioned that he’d arrived at the Garden lot at 4:45 a.m., and STILL couldn’t park there, since it was already filled at that hour! After about 2 miles on the Phelps Trail, we started questioning ourselves if we missed the trail, but a quick check on the phone showed that we were right where we should be, just making slower progress than we wanted, since we were so tired. We finally got back to the car (with no parking ticket) at 5:30 p.m., exactly 11 hours after we’d left it, and with plenty of daylight left. We were exhausted, but quite satisfied with ourselves, the great hike, and the fun time.