Lower Wolf Jaw, Upper Wolf Jaw, Armstrong, and Gothics

Lost in the Sock
Aug 17, 2020
6 min read

The night after completing Giant and RPR we stayed at the Rooster Comb Inn due to the proximity. We were originally going to stay in Lake Placid but that would have been a 30 minute drive in the morning that we didn't want to do as both these trails are located in Keene, NY. We talked about camping but I love having a comfy bed and a shower after all those arduous miles. Due to covid there's self check in. Beware this place does have shared bathrooms but fortunately it wasn't an issue for us. There's only a few rooms so not too many guests. There's also a shared kitchen so you could choose to save money and make your own food.

http://www.roostercombinn.com/

If you're like us and go on weekdays to avoid the crowds, beware that a lot of restaurants close early, like 3pm, so check online a head of time and plan out your trip.

We chose complete Lower Wolf Jaw, Upper Wolf Jaw, Armstrong, and Gothics for our 9th through 12th peaks. The trailhead is about 1.5 miles away from the Rooster Comb Inn. We arrived to the Garden trailhead at 0555 (on a Thursday) and there was maximum of 10 spots left. This lot is $10 to park and the money goes towards upkeep so we were happy to pay. If the lot is full you cannot park along the road so you'll have to park 1.5 miles away, back in the town which means adding that each way to your hike. This hike over 15 miles so you really don't want to make it 18 miles. There's quite a few trails from this lot so it fills fast. I heard that its usually full or close to it by 0400 on a Saturday so plan accordingly. Some people camp here overnight as well to ensure they get a spot.

When planning this loop be aware you can go either clockwise or counterclockwise. Many people recommend going up Gothics first then to Armstrong, then Upper and finally Lower Wolfjaw. Their reasoning is that you'll start with the highest peak and go downhill for the rest of the day. We chose to go the opposite way, starting at Lower, then Upper, then Armstrong, and finishing on Gothics because we wanted the best view last and this way the views just keep getting better throughout the day. In retrospect, we are glad we chose this way as the more tired we are, the more we need that payoff. A lot of people end up skipping Lower Wolfjaw too because it's hard, a little out of the way, at the end, and doesn't have a very good view from the peak.

We ate a quick breakfast and chugged some caffeine in the parking lot. At 0615 we signed in and began our 12 hour day. The first three ish miles are mostly flat, it's like taking a walk through the woods, then you'll come to a split. Head straight to go to Gothics first, or turn left like we did for Wolfjaw. The views on your way are stunning, through a field, over a bridge, through the woods. Continue another 1.5 relatively flat miles. Five miles in you'll come to another split, a sign will say "Lower Wolf Jaw Mtn 0.5 miles" with an arrow pointing to the left. It's half a mile of straight up rock scramble. There were quite a few "are we there yet?" mumbles in this half mile.

We reached the peak at 0902, unfortunately, it's wooded. We had to climb on a large rock to grab this selfie. That's it. That's the minimal view. If you aren't trying to become a 46er, just skip this one.

We took some time to rest, snack, and change my socks. After my horrible blisters from our Wright, Algonquin, and Iroquois hike, I was determined not to do that again. I wish I could remember who gave me this advice so I could give them credit because it was life changing for me- Bring extra socks. I don't know why I hadn't thought of this before. I brought two extra pairs of socks with me plus the ones I was wearing. You follow a creek bed up this trail so your feet will get wet. Even if you're not walking through water, your feet sweat. Dry socks are a necessity. I changed them on this first peak and let my shoes air dry a bit before continuing. The other life changing thing I did differently was bring cavilon along. I'm an ICU nurse and we are constantly slathering our patient's at risk areas with this stuff. Cavilon works as a skin protectant and skin barrier for wetness and friction, perfect solutions for blisters, and it comes in a cream, a wipe, or a spray.

Then we packed it up and headed back down towards the trail. Be careful because this trail borders private property that you need prior approval to hike through, don't worry though, there are plenty of signs.

We reached Upper Wolf Jaw's peak at 1100 and the view was so much better. We lucked out again with beautiful weather and clear skies allowing us to see for miles. There's roughly a 180 degree view from here. It's easy to walk past this peak, you're just headed straight through a tight trail through the trees when suddenly there's another break in the trees and small trail to your right (or left if you're coming from Armstrong). I probably would have walked past if we hadn't checked our Alltrails app and looked at the map.

I took my shoes off again on this peak to let my sweaty feet breath again. Some more snacks and we were ready to keep going towards Armstrong. Hang on because this trail is about to get more interesting, all of a sudden we come to this.

This trail gets tricky and can be hard to follow at times. For example, you come to a giant boulder and you're thinking "okay, now what?" We frequently checked out location on the app to confirm our location.

And then all of a sudden you in the thick trees again and even more suddenly the trees end and you're standing on the rock slab that is Armstrong's peak. As promised, the views are even better than before. We reached the peak at 1210.

From Armstrong you can see your next target: Gothics. It's the tallest peak in this picture (below) on the right side. And you can also see how you're going to get there.

Finally, our favorite peak so far, with 360 views, Gothics peak! We reached the peak at 1320 and stayed almost an hour.

Our favorite game to play is "which peak is that". We've talked about it on pretty much every peak, wishing that there was an app for that. Turns out, there is a free app for that (called PeakVisor) so we will try it out and report back.

The other thing I love about Gothics (other than the stunning 360 degree views) is there are multiple other view points that we weren't expecting as we began our hike down. And of course the part where you repel down a steep rock face. From our research, multiple people said how the chains were down so we were ecstatic to find them up. Not sure how people manage without them.

If you're feeling up to it you could tack on Saddleback or Sawteeth to bag even more peaks. We were originally thinking of doing this but with further research we found that those are more easily accessible from other trails with other peaks so we decided to save them for another day. We were still feeling good on Gothics but decided to head down, and let me tell you how glad I am that we didn't keep going. I don't know about Kyle, but I was not expecting it to take almost FOUR hours to get down the mountain and back to our car. I was dead. This hike took us 12 hours from start to finish including relaxing at the peaks, although only 9.5 hours of hiking. According to my fitbit I took 48,687 steps and burned over 4,000 calories during this hike.

You can find more information about this hike here

https://www.alltrails.com/trail/us/new-york/lower-upper-wolfjaw-armstrong-gothics-loop-trail

#/46 Rank Mountain Elevation (feet) Date Completed

1 38 Porter 4059 07/07/2020

2 36 Cascade 4098 07/07/2020

3 16 Wright Peak 4580 07/08/2020

4 2 Algonquin 5114 07/08/2020

5 8 Iroquois Peak 4840 07/08/2020

6 32 Phelps 4161 07/09/2020

7 12 Giant 4627 08/05/2020

8 20 Rocky Peak 4420 08/05/2020

9 29 Upper Wolf Jaw 4185 08/06/2020