A day in the Adirondacks: The Middlebury Mountain Club is hosting the first 46 Peaks Day

As we drove west on Vermont Route 125, the sun wasn’t quite up yet. A layer of fog enveloped much of the landscape, so thick and defined it felt like you could almost touch it. Minutes later, sunbeams bathed the valleys and fields in sleepy orange and yellow tones. The fog reluctantly cleared and soon I was well and truly awake.

What exactly is 46 Peaks Day? Why did people wake up at such hideous times? In short, 46 Peaks Day is a challenge in which members of a club or group attempt to climb at least one of the 46 high peaks in the Adirondack Mountains, with the overall goal that the group’s participants have collectively climbed all of the peaks by the end of the day day.

This was MMC’s first attempt to address this challenge. The idea of ​​completing it gained momentum last spring when the club received a proposal for a 46 Peaks Day in its end-of-year feedback form. MCC President Will Hinkle ’26 had previously learned about the event from another area college. So Middlebury finally took it up on October 5th.

In the week leading up to 46 Peaks Day, potential hikers signed up for their trips using a Google form. MMC conducted six of these trips and designated various day and overnight hikes for which registration was separate. However, aside from these six peaks, students were given free rein to choose which peak they tackled and with whom they completed the challenge. I signed up for Sawteeth Mountain with Bernadette Osborn ‘26.5, another MMC board member.

As you enter the High Peaks region of the Adirondacks, you head straight towards a mountain face before heading deeper into the forest and leaving the line of small towns behind you. The trees become taller and denser, the air becomes a little cooler and the streets adapt to the surrounding landscape. As we headed west on Tracy Road (a haven on earth for anyone who enjoys back roads), it quickly became clear that our club wasn’t the only group planning to hike that morning.

Dozens of cars, some more than a mile from the nearest trailhead, lined the roadsides. Large groups of hikers marched in single file along the guardrail and trudged to their routes. In fact, the Middlebury group, which had arrived at 5:15 a.m., was still too late to escape the crowds and added four miles to their hike just to get from their parking lot to the trailhead. The same group ended up running twenty miles on Saturday, climbing Lower Wolfjaw, Upper Wolfjaw, Armstrong and Gothics – crossing the shoulder of several roads along the way.

Bernadette and I were a little more lucky. Using a friend’s guest pass, we parked at the clubhouse of the Adirondack Mountain Reserve (AMR), which owns significant property in the mountain range. The route to Sawteeth started right at the AMR’s ornate wooden gate, and around 8:15am we made our way to Lake Road and began our hike.

Lake Road continued for about three miles, a gravel road lined with trees and falling leaves that ran parallel to a small stream. The road ended at the incredible Lower Ausable Lake and we soon began the climb to Sawteeth. On the way up we took the scenic trail that wound around the lake for a while before climbing steeply for the last few miles.

We strolled along the shore between massive boulders, climbed ladders up the vertical sections of the trail, and clambered over moss-covered rocks. Four miles into the climb, we were sitting high above the water, looking down at the lake that wound between the steep cliffs of the mountains.

The climb continued. The lichens multiplied and the air took on a damp coolness. The palette of changing red, yellow and orange tones gave way to uniform dark green tones. The slope began to sway, and just as we were both thinking about putting on another layer, the peak appeared before us. We reached a patch of rocky terrain in a clearing through the trees and from here we looked out at the highest peaks in the Adirondacks.

Several other groups met around the same time. While we were eating lunch, we even heard cheers coming from the valley. With the hustle and bustle of the morning, the hikers we passed along the way, and the distant echoes of other groups, there was a palpable energy in the Adirondacks that day. The mountains felt alive.

We descended on a different trail, eventually passing Rainbow Falls before returning to the shores of Lower Ausable Lake. The afternoon sun glittered through the mist of the waterfall; There was a special awe we felt as we stood at its base and looked up at the towering cliffs and brightly colored trees.

Before we set off back, we took a swim in the lake. It was just warm enough to make the cold of the water worth it, but when I jumped in I was completely unprepared for how cold I would feel. Even compared to the gorge in late fall it was icy, none of us stayed in the water for long. We scurried back to land and basked in the sun before finally making our way back up Lake Road towards the trailhead. We ended up hiking just over twelve miles, and although it took a while for exhaustion to set in, it hit hard. By the time we got to Proctor, we had both become nonverbal.

When I spoke to the MMC board about 46 Peaks Day a few days later, I felt a sense of pride and accomplishment at the event. Hinkle further added that “the outdoor experience meant a lot to those involved.”

Although the Middlebury hikers had only reached the summits of approximately thirty peaks, there was great interest, participation and energy for the club’s first attempt at the challenge. Despite the messy parking (one group walked 28 miles) and occasional route errors, MMC’s 46 Peaks Day was a resounding success. Not only was it a success for all who embarked on their hikes, but also an undeniably positive sign for the coming years and MMC’s future attempts to take on this challenge.

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