A 2-day itinerary to conquer The Knife’s Edge Ridge trails – One of hardest trails in the US

The Knife’s Edge Ridge is a breathtaking trail that offers stunning views of the surrounding mountains and valleys. Known as one of the hardest trails in the US. Here is a review article about a 2-day itinerary to conquer The Knife’s Edge Ridge trails by Mr. Richard Briggs :

My buddy, Mike Berner, and I set out in late August to reach the summit of the four state’s highest points in the North East – two are kind of drive-ups to the top and two are hard hikes. After a 2-hour flight delay in San Diego, and storms in Charlotte causing another 4-hour delay, we missed our flight to Albany, NY, and our hotel night in Lake Placid, and somehow ended up in Philly at 3:00AM.

With our bags waiting for us in Albany, the next morning we made the 4 -hour drive there, grabbed our bags, and proceeded a couple more hours to Lake Placid, now 26 hours behind schedule, where we sat at a dining table over dinner and reworked our itinerary to work a comfortable 4-day trip into a tight 3 days.

With all the driving, ferries, ridiculously expensive hotels to rebook, and limiting State Park hours we figured that every minute in the next 48 hours was going to have to go like clockwork.

Day 1

Although Mt. Marcy, NY, was only 20 minutes from Lake Placid we were forced to skip it until later in the day and needed to first drive nearly 3-hours to Mt. Mansfield (4,393’, state highpoint #30) in Vermont early the day in order to make the driving trek to the top of peak (which because of restricted hours left us only with this one morning as our only option), and then return back to Lake Placid. Arriving right on time to the mountain gate entrance near Stowe, VT, we were the first car to the top and once up there we were surprised to find that it is still a 1 ½ mile hike to the peak through the drifting clouds.

Not sure how we missed that intel. The hiking part was pleasant however that challenged our timing by adding another precious 75 minutes to the day’s travel. Being above the tree line on all of our hikes we learned that the mountains peaks in the North East are very much in the alpine zone with the weather being hard on the small and struggling tundra type plants.

After the drive down Mansfield we soon realized that we may miss the ferry over Lake Champlain, which would have set us back another 30-minutes, so we raced the 47 miles in 42 minutes, some on a two-lane road, and got to the ferry dock 6 minutes late as they were just getting ready to drop the chain for the last car.

They saw the panic on our faces and we gratefully made it on the boat by not even 30-seconds to spare. We arrived at Mt Marcy, NY, (5,344’, state highpoint #31) and started our ascent at 3:00 in the afternoon. Normally, you try to make it down from the top back to the trailhead by 3:00, not start up the trail at 3:00.

We figured 8 hours round trip but this one was grueling. The trails on Mt Marcy all looked like empty stream beds full of clumsy boulders creating a bruising ankle, leg and knee experience. On the way up people asked which way were going and after our reply just shook their heads wishing us good luck. We learned from them of a hiker breaking an ankle requiring a helicopter trip back and then met a dehydrated hiker weaving downhill with an escort – not super inspiring.

Nearing the summit the fog was dense and darkening with the coming evening, the cold winds were brisk and picking up, while the trail turned into a steep face of exposed rock. But once at the summit the fog broke up for a brief moment revealing a glorious sunset which invigorated us for the tortuous trip down.

A brutal 9-hour round trip hike in the dark using our headlamps stepping on wet logs and through muddy bogs – probably my least favorite of all the state high point treks. After passing a couple of limping hikers at 11:30 p.m., who proudly declined our help, we shuffled into the trailhead parking lot at midnight with sore bodies and exhaustion and were in bed by 1:30.

Day 2

Started with a stop at a Lake Placid café refueling with local blueberry French Toast and then found us driving to New Hampshire for the Mt Washington Auto Road up to the top the Northeast’s highest peak at 6,288’ (state highpoint #32) which was impressive. At the top of Mt Washington we hobbled up the 50 steps to the high point marker where it could not have been a prettier day. Although the early weather predictions for our trip called out upper 30s temperature and moderate winds (this mountain recorded the world’s highest wind speed ever at 231 mph) we were fortunate to be blessed by perfect weather.

Once down the auto road we travelled 5 hours to an old hotel at Maine’s Baxter State Park getting to bed around midnight just to be up again at 4:45a.m. in order to arrive at the Katahdin trailhead when the park opened. We were among the first ones out on the trail but for our adventures it is not a race but an experience so we were not close to being the first ones up to the top – especially with how sore we were. This hike was tough as we scrambled up steep trails and boulders and once we were above tree line it was easy to moderate boulder hopping for 2 hours.

The Knife’s Edge Ridge was gnarly and required Class 3 scrambles in one part. But once at Katahdin’s summit (5,268’, state highpoint #33) the tough effort paid off as the views were great and the rest welcomed. Then came the ascending the steep grade, loose sand and boulders in what looked like stream beds for 4 hours. 9 hours and 40 minutes round trip making this a tough hike followed by a 4-hour trip to a late 10:00 dinner and a stayover at Mike’s friends home in Portland, Maine. The perfect hosts for weary travelers.
They say that many of the memorable things take a big effort and truly this was one of those adventures that Mike and I will recall for years.

For me that makes 33 State High Points down and 17 to go and I think the same for Mike albeit different State High Points. Looking forward to our next adventure!

Author : Richard Briggs .You can folow him at : https://www.facebook.com/richard.briggs.9674

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