Santanoni Range Advice

**DSettahr** · 03-20-2024, 02:33 PM

When is this trip planned for? I'm assuming it's a summer trip. Conditions right now are all over the place- mud down low, snow up high, rotting snow monorails, epic postholing, etc.

Hiking into the Bradley Pond area: The lower couple of miles of the approach is along a private logging road (public is permitted to access on foot only, no bicycle use permitted). The road is generally in good shape and it's not hard to make good time.

After leaving the private road and passing onto state land, the next couple of miles gains about 1,000 feet in elevation on an old logging tote road that hasn't been super well maintained. This is far from the worst stretch of trail in the High Peaks but it does have some sections that tend to be perpetually wet and muddy. You do get some nice views of cascades on Santanoni Brook from the trail as you climb. Generally speaking the climb isn't too bad- never steep- but it is sustained and it may have you questioning whether you really actually needed some of the items you packed for comfort more so than necessity.

Camping Options: If overnighting, I'd plan to stay at the Bradley Pond lean-to or one of the 3 nearby designated tent sites. The lean-to isn't located directly on the main Santanoni Range loop but it's not too far of a side trip to access it. To get to the lean-to, continue north on the marked trail towards Duck Hole from the lower end of the Bradley Pond herd path. About 2 tenths of a mile north of that junction, you'll see the lean-to to the right (east), atop a knoll overlooking the trail. (As for why the Bradley Pond Lean-to isn't actually located at Bradley Pond- this body of water was privately owned until relatively recently.)

The 3 designated tent sites are a few hundred feet further north still past the lean-to, on the left side of the trail. All three sites are located in a row- i.e., you have to walk through the first and second sites to get to the third. These are OK sites, very clearly well used (and can be muddy in wet weather) but decent enough otherwise.

The lean-to and designated campsites do fill to capacity on nice summer weekends so if you're planning a trip for the height of summer, it might be worth taking Friday off from work to get an early start into the backcountry.

Note that there's no designated tent sites along Santanoni Brook near the lower end of the Express herd path, nor closer to Bradley Pond- so all camping at either of these locations needs to comply with the 150 foot rule. The obvious clearings in either of these areas are illegal sites (and are typically marked as such with "No Camping" discs). It's possible to find legal camping at either location that complies with the 150 foot rule, but not necessarily easy (especially due to the dense nature spruce and fir cover this high up). I'd personally just plan to stick to the lean-to/designated sites myself.

Navigating the range: I generally do the loop clockwise, so up the Express, hit Santanoni, Couch, and Panther in that order, and then descend via Bradley Pond. The Express route is steeper, hence why I prefer to ascend that way. If you're camping at or near the lean-to, doing the range as a loop does involve some backtracking and minimal added elevation gain, but not a horrendous amount of either. Some folks do prefer to just go up and down via the Bradley Pond herd path both ways if accessing the range from the lean-to/tent sites, though.

Note that the Express herd path does not go directly up the cliff face you arrive at about two-thirds of the way up, but rather loops around it to the north (to the right if you're ascending). If you hit the top of this cliff face while descending, backtrack back up the path maybe 50-100 feet or so and look for the path that goes around.

There's also not really a 4 way junction atop the ridgeline with paths towards Santanoni, Couch, Panther, and Bradley Pond, but two separate 3 way junctions in fairly close proximity to each other. This often causes confusion among hikers and there's a number of "dead end" paths in the vicinity as a result (these dead end paths are usually brushed in but every once in a while some yahoo manages to re-open one of them). If you zoom in close on AllTrails/CalTopo you'll see what I'm referencing. The southern junction is "Times Square," while the northern junction is "Herald Square."

Comments on individual peaks:

Santanoni: Has decent views. Fairly straightforward overall.

Couch: Has little to no views, except for a glimpse of all of the elevation you have to regain to get back up to the ridgline. Don't underestimate this climb- it's a substantial amount of elevation gain potentially late in the day if you're not doing Couch first. Couch is also well enough removed from the rest of the range that I would not fall into the trap of dropping packs at Times Square like some folks advocate. The "Couch Bog" is overhyped a bit on social media, but I'd definitely bring a trekking pole and test each step before you commit as it is quite deep in spots.

Panther: Has the nicest views of all three of these peaks, IMO. There's some moderate scrambling to the summit but overall it's not too bad of a climb. If I decide to just go up a single peak in the range, I usually pick this one. It's also the least effort overall from Times Square, so not a bad one to save for last (or if you end up having to bail before summitting all 3 peaks, not a bad one to save for a return visit).

Add-on destinations: Duck Hole, and maybe Preston Ponds/Henderson Lake, are really the only possible add-ons to this trip. But the trail to Duck Hole from Bradley Pond isn't in great shape- the DEC has plans to effectively re-route just about all of it, and accordingly the current route is more or less officially abandoned. The first mile or so north of the Bradley Pond Lean-to is very badly washed out and eroded and is a rugged descent. Beyond that, the terrain levels out considerably and the tread gets a lot easier but the trail is pretty brushy and overgrown in spots. For the most part it's an old logging tote road so the route is obvious despite being brushy, but there's a few spots where it passes into beaver meadows and the trail becomes indistinct.

You've also got the ford across the Cold River to consider if you do decide to visit Duck Hole. In normal summer conditions this isn't too difficult of a crossing (although expect wet feet), but if the water is high it can be a tricky if not dangerous crossing.

Even though the out and back is only about 7.5 miles round trip if you do decide to visit Duck Hole from Bradley Pond with day packs I'd plan for this to take up the better part of a full day due to the condition of the trail.

You could also plan to hike back to Upper Works by way of Duck Hole and Preston Ponds. This is about 12.5 miles so it is doable in a day with an early start from Preston Ponds. But again, owing to the trail conditions to Duck Hole, plus a few rugged stretches near Hunter Pond, I'd personally probably plan to spend an extra night camped along here somewhere. Duck Hole has 2 lean-tos and 2 designated tent sites (1 lean-to and 2 tent sites near the dam, and a second lean-to about a quarter mile north of the dam on the NPT). There's a couple of designated tent sites near Upper Preston Pond- one is near an old logging camp alongside the stream that drains the southwest slopes of MacNaughton Mt., and one is near the south end of Upper Preston Pond (although the site is located a few hundred feet up the trail towards Hunter Pond). There's also the lean-to on the north end of Henderson Lake, but this is a popular spot and there's no designated tent sites in the vicinity for overflow traffic so I'd keep some gas in the tank and/or be willing to do the 150 foot thing if you target this shelter.

On the off chance that you end up considering camping at the Henderson Lean-to (different than the Henderson Lake Lean-to), on the trail towards Wallface, keep in mind that this lean-to is in the Eastern High Peaks so bear canisters are required and campfires are prohibited.

Hope this all is helpful. Good luck with your trip!

**Edb 46 er** · 03-21-2024, 01:44 PM

Hello, and thank you for your excellent in-depth review and experiences on this area. It will be used for reference when I go this late May. A great amount of information was giving in your response and always is appreciated, DSettahr.
The Duck Hole section sounds questionable for my taste, but I may tackle it on my second day. I do use a bear can, so compliance is no problem.
day.Three more to add to my list of 46 peaks!

Thanks.