Hiking in the White Mountains: Dix Range

Macomb Mountain, South Dix, East Dix, Hough Peak, Dix Mountain

Date of Hike: 6/7/11

Hunter Pass: 2.3 miles
Herd Paths: 5.9 miles
Beckhorn Trail: 3.0 miles
Hunter Pass: 4.3 miles
Total Miles: 15.5 (5,250 elevation gain)

Trip Report:
- With another day of great weather forecast I headed to do one of the Adirondack's finest hikes through the Dix Range.
- I was a little nervous with anticipation for this hike since I would be heading up a herd path which would lead me to Macomb Slide.
- I got an early start (6am) to beat the afternoon heat and headed a couple miles over the mostly level (but of course wet) Hunter Pass Trail until reaching a cairn just past the first bridge.
- From here I followed the herd path and knew right away I'd have no issues like I did hiking up Mount Marshall. In fact other than a few spots the herd path was in much better shape than most trails in the ADK's
- After about a mile on the Herd Path I exited onto a big slide which I'd take almost all the way to the summit of Macomb. The slide had loose rocks and gravel down low and slabs up high. It reminded me of the slides of the Tripyramids in the White Mountains except not as steep. Views from the slide down to Elk Lake were great as were the views from Macomb's summit.
- I next headed over to South Dix which only took about twenty minutes and was easy hiking, South Dix has nice ledges just below the summit which affords great views over to the Great Range.
- The hike from South to East Dix was a little annoying because the herd path was a little overgrown but it was worth it for the views deep into Vermont from the summit.
- On the hike back to South Dix I hit a wall, I wasn't thrilled about back tracking but luckily this would be the only time I'd have to do this all day so when I hit South Dix I was re-energized for my hike over to Hough Peak.
- Hough Peak (Pronounced Huff) has a nice outlook from it's summit along with some nasty ass hornets. I didn't stay long to avoid being stung so I made the long hike up to the final high peak of the day, Dix Mountain.
- On the way to Dix you have to hike over the Beckhorn, it's not to fun of a hike but there are some killer views here and there. The closer you get to Dix's summit the rougher the trail gets, luckily the herd path ends just below the summit of Dix where it hooks up with the Beckhorn Trail.
- After a long hike the views from Dix's summit were magnificent. I relaxed for about twenty minutes had some lunch and ran into the only other hiker of the day who came up Dix all the way from Route 73!
- From here I had over 6 miles of hiking to get back to my car, fortunately it was almost all down hill, unfortunately it was getting really hot. I stopped at the Lillian Brook crossing where I cooled off in the water and had a snack while sitting on the bridge before I headed the final couple of miles back to the car making for a perfect day of hiking in the Dix Range!

Times: On trail 6am, Macomb 7:50am, South Dix 8:25am, East Dix 8:55am, Hough 10:10am, Dix 11:05am, finished 2:30pm

Pictures: Click here for all pictures