ADK 46: Haystack, Basin, Saddleback

Region: Adirondacks, High Peaks Wilderness

September 25, 2021 | Keene Valley, NY

If I had to pick a favorite hike from 2021, this is it!! A thrilling, epic loop that will have you fall head over heels in love with the Adirondacks if you weren’t already. Not to mention we celebrated one of our own 46-r finishers! My words and photos won’t do these mountains justice, but I’ll give it a shot…

The route: From the Garden lot: Hike in to Johns Brook Lodge area and hike counter-clockwise loop, beginning with the trek to Haystack, over to Basin, and up the cliffs ending with Saddleback, down the Ore Bed trail to return to the lot. Marked trails, no summit signs.

The hike: about 18.5 miles and slightly upwards of 5,000 feet of elevation gain. There is a ladder, a plethora of rock scrambles, and the infamous Saddleback cliffs to overcome when taking this route.

With many ample breaks and photo stops, it took us 15 hours from sign-in to sign-out.

Getting to the Garden Trailhead:  From I-87, take exit 30 towards Lake Placid.  Make a left onto US 9 and bear left onto NY-73 West.  After 8.5 miles, make a left onto Adirondack Street (Ausable Inn Liquor Store will be on the corner; if you pass Valley Grocery store, you went too far.)   The road will turn into Johns Brook Lane; continue for 1.5 miles until you reach the dead end, where you will see a parking attendant booth.  It is a self-service payment system, so you can leave the $10 cash in the envelope box (USD or CAD) and place the parking tag in your window.  

Parking is extremely limited due to the space and fact that this is a popular starting point for many different trails as well as Johns Brook Lodge (JBL), a backcountry accommodation.  During peak summer and fall weekends, it may be nearly impossible to grab a spot if many hikers are spending the night in the backcountry and starting well before sunrise.  Aside from getting dropped off, another option is to park down the road (but not on the side of the road or side streets) at the Rooster Comb trailhead, adding about 3+ miles roundtrip to your day, which is a lot to add for this hike considering it’s already a brutally long day (unless you plan to camp and break it up.) There is also a shuttle bus option from Marcy Field (for a fee), but it only runs limited hours (starting at 7AM) and certain times of year.

This piece is not meant to discourage you, but rather, to allow you to be able to plan accordingly and/or only take one vehicle down the road if you are meeting others. Your car will have no trouble getting down the road in 3-season weather, and you may have some bit of cell service at the parking lot.  Be sure to have your map handy and route planned ahead of time, though.

First up: Haystack

But not before putting in a lot of work…

We snagged one of the last spots at 3:45AM on a Saturday in autumn- this was our indication that it was go-time. If we hadn’t gotten a spot, we knew the universe was directing us elsewhere - but not today. Surely a few minutes after, the last spots were taken.
Sleepy with excitement, we signed in, and we got quickly on trail, knowing we had one of the biggest days ahead of us.

We weaved through darkness (there are trail markers!) with our illumination, about 2 miles in with the goal of stopping at JBL. In the dark, we got a bit mixed up in one area with campsite signs, but soon found the path. In daylight, this would have been more obvious, but with our goals for the day, we were going to have to be creatures of the night and do what we could to navigate.

After a quick break on the porch at JBL in the soft, beautiful moments before sunrise, we got back on trail and kept a steady pace until Slant Rock, an area where we took a strategic break before the push to our first peak. We headed back on trail, and before we knew it, we hit the junction - half a mile to Haystack! We were soon above treeline and found ourselves on the false summit- the true summit was so close yet still some ways ahead! It was a gorgeous September day, and I remember thinking this could not be any more perfect. We finally made it to the “real summit” took some photos and chatted with a few guys who were trying to do some rock climbing in a different area nearby but we’re having no luck today (I think they also said some other weird things?! Oh well.) We then made our way back to the false summit and the junction, where we would now turn right and continue our loop to the next, but not last, peak of the day.

Basin Mountain

One down, two to go! We felt energized and eager for what lied ahead, 1.8 miles away!

Final peak of the day: Saddleback!

This is truly one of the most epic days you can have in the High Peaks!