Adirondacks
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Esther and Whiteface Mountains
Five days of hiking out of six was more than we had ever done. Factoring in the difficulty/length of three of those hikes, we were looking for something simpler on day 6. Enter Whiteface & Esther.
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Mount Marshall via Indian Pass
The Indian Pass trail was easily the best/most interesting lead-in trail we’ve taken. It’s much prettier (and softer) than the Van Hoevenberg or Phelps trails, and not nearly as boring as Lake Road.
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Redfield & Cliff Mountains via Lake Arnold
Many (most?) people choose to climb Cliff & Redfield Mountains from the south via the Upper Works trailhead. From the Adirondack Loj, where Kathy and I started, the mileage is about the same, but our route skirts the 3,800-foot elevation Lake Arnold, adding several hundred feet of climbing both ways.
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Tabletop Mountain
Heading straight for the summit of Tabletop at about 4 miles from the Adirondack Loj, the last mile was dark and muddy (but not shoe-stealing muddy) with relatively middling views.
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Lower Dix Range – Macomb, S. Dix (Carson), E. Dix (Grace), & Hough
The Slide Brook and Lillian Brook herd paths were two of the best trails in the Adirondacks. They vary the terrain and direction enough that you don’t feel like you’re on an endless trail, and almost the entirety of both routes is soft underfoot and well-maintained.
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Mercy Sunrise
You will not find a better rental than Mercy Cabin, inside the hamlet of Keene — centrally located to Lake Placid, Wilmington (Whiteface Mountain & skiing), and all the major trailheads for hiking the high peaks.
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Dix Range Traverse – Dix, Hough, S. Dix, E. Dix, & Macomb
Wanting to finish my summer off in style, I made one last 800-mile drive to climb more mountains. Wanting to satiate my inner masochist, I chose a day hike of the 5-peak Dix Range.
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Dial & Nippletop
Iterations of this hike have been planned and scrapped since July, with the latest one a proposed Colvin-Blake-Nippletop-Dial hike. The previous day’s over-hiking scrapped the 4-peak plan in favor of a more modest straight up-and-back over these two, allowing if nothing else an extra hour of sleep.
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Wright, Algonquin, & Iroquois And Avalanche Lake
Wright, Algonquin, and Iroquois were the three best back-to-back-to-back peaks we’ve enjoyed in the Adirondacks.
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Skylight & Gray
We had been dunked in mud, trod underwater, stopped-and-re-started, rushed off a peak, re-routed, drenched in a passing thunderstorm, and hiked over 18 miles & 5,000+ vertical feet. We wouldn’t have changed a thing.
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Rocky Peak Ridge (and Giant Mountain)
The only car in the lot, we signed into the trail at 7:44 AM. Before noon we were enjoying lunch on our 15th high peak, on Rocky Peak Ridge.
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Phelps Mountain
We had already completed two hikes which to us were special – our one-way traverse of Gothics & Sawteeth and our first “unmaintained” hike up Street & Nye. After making them both easily, our new 46er mentors gave us a new challenge, for a secret passage up the back of Phelps Mountain.
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Street & Nye
Having successfully navigated a one-way traverse of Gothics & Sawteeth, and with the encouragement of our new 46er mentors, we decided to hike our first “unmaintained” trail to Street Mountain and Nye Mountain.
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Gothics & Sawteeth
The views from 4,736-foot Gothics were wonderful. We had a perfect day again.
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Mount Marcy
Mount Marcy, at 5,344 feet, is the highest mountain in the Adirondacks. It is also the most hiked of the 46 high peaks, which is a little odd to me since it is a 14.6-mile round trip taking the usual way from the Adirondack Loj (pronounced ‘lodge’).
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Keene And Keene Valley
On two of our rest days, we had nice intermittent cloud cover making for dramatic infrared shots. The last shot is the view of Hurricane Mountain from our rental, and you can see the fire tower in the distance.
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Lower Wolfjaw, Upper Wolfjaw, & Armstrong
We made it fairly easily up to 4,173-foot Lower Wolfjaw which offered better views on the way than on the top, and then went back down-and-up to get to 4,173-foot Upper Wolfjaw. After lunch on Upper Wolfjaw, we easily had enough in us to make it down-and-up again to 4,400-foot Armstrong.
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Big Slide
Wanting to ease into 2012, we decided that our first hike was up 4,240-foot Big Slide. The scenery on the hike up to Big Slide was varied and had enough climbing to be interesting and challenging.
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Porter & Cascade
Our first time up we were new to hiking (Cascade was our first high peak) we didn’t think to take the side hike to Porter Mountain. This time we did both, two peaks in one day.
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Algonquin
Algonquin is the second-highest peak in all of New York, at 5,114 feet, and the hike was terrific.
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Baxter
Day 2 saw a quick and easy hike up Baxter Mountain.
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Hurricane
Hurricane Mountain isn’t one of the 4,000-foot ‘high peaks’, but it is a wonderfully difficult climb with an old fire tower at the top.
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Giant Mountain via Zander Scott Trail
Despite our unpreparedness in pretty much all aspects, we made it to the summit. It was breathtaking. 4,627-foot Giant dominates the Keene valley to the east of the Great Range, offering spectacular sweeping views.
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Cascade Mountain, Our First of 46
Cascade Mountain is, along with Mount Marcy, the most popular summit in the Adirondacks. It benefits from a relatively short 3-mile hike which starts from well-traveled Route 73 and spectacular 360 degree panoramic views.