Climbed Henderson for #66 of my ADK hundred highest. Used both routes documented in the Other 54 book: ascended via the southwest ridge, descent via the direct line to the Santanoni lean-to.
Ascent was pretty slow, less than 1 mph. Nothing truly dramatic, any ledges or blowdown were scattered and easily avoided, just unrelentingly thick trees the whole way up. Staying just left of the ridgeline seemed to yield slightly easier passage. Adopted a tactic of sidehilling when an open line through the trees presented itself, then climbing straight up for a bit (maximizing steepness making it easier to sneak under most of the branches). Got a brief glimpse of what I assume was a snowshoe hare. Navigation was simple enough except for a tiny bump (not enough to show up on my topo map) about 3/4 up the climb, briefly went due south for a moment with the lure of a more open canopy and a partial view. For the final summit approach, I found the right (east) side of the ridge to be more open, there's a bit more substantial blowdown just below the summit on the west side. Found the metal summit sign and paused for a little reset (an hour of tree swimming can addle your mind a bit).
Descent was quick and easy, general plan was a brief NW bearing to find the recommended drainage, then follow that down. Various openings in the trees just north of the summit sign presented a path of least resistance that conveniently led exactly where I needed to go; found the drainage within 10 minutes, the drainage descent was easy open woods, popped onto the trail right at the campsite 20 minutes after that.
So for climbing Henderson, I would endorse just taking the direct route from the lean-to, out and back, you're not missing much taking that southwest ridge 😂. Plenty of other bushwhacks to look forward to when working through the hundred highest.
Spent the rest of the day making a loop up to Duck Hole and then back via Preston Ponds; a quiet day with perfect weather, early fall colors, and zero humans on the trail. My first time visiting Duck Hole and the surrounding trails, very pleasant! I did miss a couple of turns, but one of them did reward by leading to the very scenic U-bend in the brook about a mile south of the Cold River crossing. The views from Preston Ponds and Henderson Lake really highlight just how extensive the east side of Henderson Mountain's massif is: all of those views are various sidehills, cliffs, and shoulders that are quite distant from the actual summit.