Adirondack 46 High Peaks (NY)

I (Jeff Mullen of Richmond, VT) recently made the first go of a self-supported (no outside help, no food caches, etc.) tour of the ADK 46ers (traveling to trailheads by bicycle) that started/finished at the same point (the Olympic Torch in Lake Placid). This was completed in 13 days, 11 hours and 45 minutes.

My hope is that this a challenge that others would like take on and was modeled after what longranger (Justin Simoni) did in Colorado last summer with that states 58 14,000' peaks. He started/finished in Golden, CO and finished his "Tour 14er" in 34 days.

Proposed rules are modeled after the rules used in the bikepacking world which require that no outside support be received (from friends, family or strangers) but commercial establishments (stores, restaurants, campgrounds, hotels, etc.) can be utilized when/where available if desired. Ideally this is a solo attempt (to minimize moral support, the temptation to draft, share food, equipment, etc.) and ideally most of the major trailheads (ADK Loj, the Garden, Ausable Club, Elk Lake, Tahawus, Corey's) are visited by bicycle. Though it is recognized that there are many different ways to skin this cat. Some requiring more biking and some require less biking (longer hikes in the backcountry to link more peaks at a time could mean that certain trailheads could be skipped).

Following is a recap of my 14 days -

Day 1 - (started at 5:45 AM on 7/21/2015) biked from Olympic Torch to Wilmington and hiked Whiteface (1) and Esther (2); biked to ADK Loj and hiked Street (3) and Nye (4) - camped at ADK Loj
Day 2 - started backpacking from ADK Loj; hiked Phelps (5), Tabletop (6), Redfield (7) and Cliff (8); camped at uphill lean-to
Day 3 - hiked Gray (9), Marcy (10), Skylight (11) and Colden (12); camped at Lake Colden
Day 4 - hiked Marshall (13), Iroquois (14), Algonquin (15) and Wright (16); camped at South Meadow just north of ADK Loj
Day 5 - biked to Cascade Lakes and hiked Cascade (17) and Porter (18); biked to Keene Valley (resupplied) and then to The Garden trailhead and backpacked 3 miles to John Brooks Lodge area; camped at campsite just south of JBL
Day 6 - hiked Haystack (19), Basin (20), Saddleback (21), Gothics (22), Armstrong (23), Upper Wolfjaw (24) and Lower Wolfjaw (25); camped at same campsite south of JBL
Day 7 - hiked Big Slide (26) and backpacked back to the trail head and biked back to Keene Valley where I resupplied, took care of a bike issue and refueled/rested; camped outside the Hostel
Day 8 - biked to St. Hubert and hiked Dial (27), Nippletop (28), Colvin (29), Blake (30) and Sawteeth (31); biked back to the Hostel where I camped again
Day 9 - biked to past St. Hubert and hiked Giant (32) and Rocky Ridge (33); biked to North Hudson; camped at private campground a few miles in on Blue Ridge road
Day 10 - biked to Elk Lake and hiked Macomb (34), South Dix (35), East Dix (36), Hough (37) and Dix (38); biked back to the same campground on Blue Ridge road
Day 11 - biked to Tahawus and hiked Allen (39); camped at trailhead parking lot
Day 12 - hiked Santanoni (40), Couchacagra (41) and Panther (42); biked to Newcomb where I camped at a private campground
Day 13 - biked to Corey's
Day 14 - hiked Seymour (43), Seward (44), Donaldson (45) and Emmons (46); biked back to Olympic Torch (arriving @ 5:30 PM on 8/3/2015)

Arranging the peaks in an optimum way is key and there are likely many different ways that this could be done.