290 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Aug. 20, 1910. 
boards the afternoon stage at Keene Valley, the 
headquarters for the outing, and after a drive 
of two hours through a magnificent forest he 
reaches the lower end of the lower Au Sable 
Lake, where the real camp life of the journey 
begins. 
There are no cog railways nor wagon roads 
up Marcy, and all who ascend it must go afoot 
or with the aid of the canoe, and it is at the 
lower Au Sable that the guide is ready with his 
canoe—boat, pack basket and camp dunnage. 
As soon as the boat is pushed off the tourist 
is spellbound by the matchless beauty of his sur¬ 
roundings. The wildness and ruggedness of 
the mountains which rise almost perpendicular 
from the water’s edge, the exquisite vistas, the 
echoes which can be drawn from the hills take 
the traveler back to the romantic age of Cooper, 
when there were less hunters at every camp-fire 
and unexplored country in every State, 
With the guide it is mere business and he 
tugs briskly at the oars that he may get to camp 
and prepare supper before sunset. On reaching 
the head of the Lower Lake all of the camp dun¬ 
nage has to be put on the backs of the tourist 
and guide, and the boat hauled to a place of 
safety for the return trip. The next step on 
the journey is a walk through the woods to the 
foot of the Upper Lake, the connecting stream 
being unnavigable. There the party has to re¬ 
embark and then row to the guide’s camp on 
the shore of the lake. By this time the sun has 
disappeared behind the neighboring mountains 
and only the after glow is left, but there is light 
enough to show up the beauties of the Upper 
Lake, and it will probably be a mooted question 
with all visitors as to which is the prettier sheet 
of water—the Upper or the Lower Au Sable 
Lake. 
As the ascent of Marcy is a serious undertak¬ 
ing, the evening in camp is not spent in long 
yarns about hunters’ trips, but the party just 
tarries about the fire long enough to smoke the 
pipe of peace and then turn in for the early 
start of the morrow. The night’s rest may be 
disturbed—as it was with me—by deer coming 
down to the lake to feed and drink, or by other 
strange sounds of the woods, but at daylight the 
traveler must be up. have‘breakfast and be ready 
for his upward march of Marcy. 
The route from the Upper Lake to the summit 
is known as the Marcy Brook trail, because it 
crosses the brook by corduroy bridges seven 
times in its way to the top. The rise the first 
part of the journey is very gradual, and it is 
only as the trail crosses the brook for the last 
time that the real climb begins. During this 
march of several hours the climber cannot see 
his goal, though he does see a number of peaks 
that look high enough, and he knows that Marcy 
must be higher than any of them. Suddenly, as 
the trail makes a turn, Marcy flashes above him 
at an almost despairing height. It seems par¬ 
ticularly despairing to us, for the temperature, 
which was warm enough at the start, was now 
over 90 degrees, and there was no air stirring 
in the dense woods. The trail led through the 
midst of the forest and was rather steep in 
places, though nothing that could be called diffi¬ 
cult in the way of mountain work. On pressed 
the guide, leaving the city mountaineer to catch 
up with him at Sunlight camp, a shelter built 
two-thirds of the way up the mountain. There 
a short rest was permitted and 'a few yarns 
swapped with another party tramping through 
the Adirondack hills. 
Leaving the camp the party again plunged 
into the thick of the woods, though it was notice¬ 
able that the timber was graduating in size, de¬ 
creasing as the elevation increased. But if the 
trees were less in height, they were as thick as 
ever and shut out every semblance of breeze 
which, with the extreme heat, made the up¬ 
ward struggle most laborious. The work began 
to tell on the heart, which thumped as if it needed 
more room to meet the strain which was put 
upon it. It is at this period that the climber 
must muster all of the courage at his command 
if he carries himself over the last mile of the 
mountain. Heart, lungs and legs are being over¬ 
worked and threaten to strike. They must work 
on or the summit is lost. 
At last the spruce forest, which had tapered 
down to bushes, stopped altogether, and the 
climber stepped out into the open of the granite 
cone which crowns the summit. Still it was but 
the base of the cone that had been reached and 
there was a tramp of another half mile to gain 
the crest, and as the heat and climb through the 
forest had used up about all of the vitality of 
the tourist, it was a case of gradually staggering 
up the stone slopes until finally Marcy’s top was 
conquered, and there, sitting beside one of the 
boulders with a good back rest, was the guide, 
calmly puffing away at a cigarette. 
“My! but you're slow,” he exclaimed as the 
exhausted traveler appeared. And thereupon he 
began to tell of the number of women he had 
known to climb Marcy in quicker time, but ad¬ 
mitting that it had not been done on such a hot 
day. The trip from the Upper Lake had taken 
four hours. 
The view from Marcy, as might be expected, 
is grand. The day was somewhat hazy, but the 
Green Mountains, Lake Champlain, the Adiron¬ 
dack peaks for miles away could be picked out 
and noted. On extremely clear days some claim 
to be able to see the outline of Mount Washing¬ 
ton, in the White Mountains, 125 miles away. 
Marcy is 5,433 feet above sea level and some 
3,800 feet above the Au Sable valley, the alti¬ 
tude of the Tapper Lake being about 1.600 feet 
or the same height as the highest peaks of the 
highlands of the Hudson. The last bit of vege¬ 
table life on the Marcy cone was the blueberry, 
and the common fly the last semblance of animal 
life. The forest growth had become ground pine 
before the blueberry and fly were reached. In 
general it may be said that it is always cold on 
Marcy’s top, swept as it is by winds, but the day 
being exceptionally hot. a sweater was hardly 
necessary after reaching the top. 
The return down the mountain can be made 
by the favorite John Brook trail or by the same 
way as ascended via the lakes. The route back 
to the lakes is of course a repetition of the as¬ 
cent of the morning, but the traveler, having re¬ 
gained his breath, can take more enjoyment in 
following all of the twists and turns through the 
depths of the forest and the vistas which occas¬ 
ionally come into view. It is worth repeating 
for the sake of the opportunity of appreciation 
if nothing more. The guide caring naught for 
the scenery he had traversed so often, pushed 
ahead with his long Indian stride, and was soon 
lost to view. His favorite trick was to hide at 
one of the sharp turns of the trail and then 
watch the tourist's attempt to pick the right way. 
“Hi, there, where you going?” was his saluta¬ 
tion to the misguided climber if he followed 
the wrong path. On recovering his poise the 
tourist would see the guide sitting on the ground 
calmly puffing away at his cigarette. There are 
certain customs that are always associated with 
certain places, and one of these is that the cigar¬ 
ette—the bane of modern civilization—belongs to 
city men and usage. When an Adirondack guide 
forsakes the time-honored pipe and indulges in 
the effete city cigarette, may we not ask, has the 
son of the forest entirely forgotten the forest 
traditions ? 
With a few exceptions the Marcy Brook trail 
is comparatively easy to follow for its entire dis¬ 
tance, it being well worn and the sharp turns 
marked with blazes or fence rails. It is also a 
comparatively smooth trail, there being no cliff 
work or rough underfooting at any point in the 
path. Barring a few steep grades it is simply 
a gradual incline laid out to best advantage. The 
chief task put upon the climber is to conserve his 
muscle and lung power to get up and down the 
long hill. Once up, the return can be made 
easily and in short time. 
On reaching the Upper Lake, the pleasures of 
traveling through the beautiful lake region are 
again repeated. The camp dunnage is packed 
into the canoe. The guide and tourist then row 
down to the lower landing, put their luggage 
once more on their backs, walk to the Lower 
Lake, re-embark, push across the water and 
reach the boat landing in time for the afternoon 
stage to Keene Valley, the entire trip, including 
the night in camp, having taken a little over 
twenty-four hours. It is advisable, however, to 
take more time, for the country is too fine to 
rush through in rapid transit fashion. 
On returning to the Upper Lake it is best to 
spend another night in camp, to come down the 
lakes leisurely the next morning and climb In¬ 
dian Head, a rocky cliff near the stage and boat 
landing, and from the top of which an extended 
view may be obtained of the Au Sable Lakes and 
the surrounding mountains. This view is ac¬ 
knowledged b}' travelers to be one of the mo,st 
beautiful in America and compares favorably 
with the most famous mountain lake sights of 
the world. No one who visits the Au Sable 
region should go away without climbing Indian 
Head. Another way of spending more time to 
advantage would be to go up as far as Skylight 
camp the first day, stay there over night, and in 
the morning go to the summit early, as Skylight 
is two-thirds of the way up the mountain. By 
staying over night at Skylight camp this would 
give extra time to ramble over Marcy, and it is 
rambling well spent. 
From this sketch of a trip up New York’s 
highest' mountain it is seen that Marcy is readily 
conquerable, and this statement is proven by the 
number of women who make the ascent every 
year. On the hot August day in which I made 
the climb, two young girls in a party going up 
had hopes of reaching the top that day and re¬ 
turning as far as Skylight camp. The Appa¬ 
lachian Mountain Club has made a winter ex¬ 
cursion into the Adirondack region and climbed 
Marcy on snowshoes. The mountain is seldom 
surmounted in the winter time, a winter trip of 
course meaning more work and hardships than 
are found in the summer days. For a summer 
or early fall trip the climb and visit to the lake 
region is a delightful one. 
