Peak lagging

Where there’s a will, there’s wilderness.

I formed that conclusion about the High Peaks Wilderness experience somewhere on the northeastern flank of Mount Haystack, where I had pointed my walking sticks to evade the summit and its throng of alpine worshippers in early July.

There’s still wild solitude to be had among the peaks in high summer season, but it takes some willpower to reach it. Some of these trails are so rocky and steep they require lugging your camp gear up or down ladders. On this particular trail, descending the Haystack Brook watershed, my pack and I lurched down several, including one with 27 rungs. No wonder this 1.6-mile cutoff was one of just three trail segments where I didn’t see another person during my outing, even though it took me three hours.

I suppose luck or early rising could also put one on an empty High Peaks trail for a stretch of time. But I sought out the rugged and the isolated specifically to see if I could find some me time in this hot spot that’s so popular it needs a governor-appointed management task force. Then I walked home through Adirondacks Central, passing the Independence Day throngs from Lake Colden to Avalanche Pass to Marcy Dam.

I had assigned myself one