Landscape
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Avoid Outdoor Activity (Whiteface & Esther)
The title comes from the dire warning from the NOAA weather advisory, and is in response to the near-zero (Fahrenheit) temperatures and high winds across the…
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Cascade Brook
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Lower & Upper Wolfjaw
Conditions in the Adirondacks in spring are usually variable and can present a different set of challenges to winter or summer hiking. This day was warm (for April) and changed from sunny to snow to ‘wintry mix’ to light rain to sunny again — fairly typical.
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Whiteface & Esther
I know this will sound strange to all you frigophobes: 6 hours tromping around the snow in sub-15°F (sub-minus 10°C) is really quite fun. The hardest part is getting from the house to your car; once you’re stomping down fluffy white snow, and especially once you start climbing a mountain, you barely notice the temperature.
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Colvin & Blake June 2019
I took advantage of the last sunny forecast for a few days by hiking Colvin & Blake, two peaks which aren’t known for their views. As…
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Ricketts Glen 2019
It was part photo trip, part photo lesson. It didn’t take long, and Kayla’s pictures are stunning. We both gravitated towards the darker images, helped by the cooperative overcast.
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Mount Van Hoevenberg
It was a beautiful day for this hike, a nice little gem of a mountain.
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Grand Canyon South Rim-to-Rim
We started down the South Kaibab trail at 5:45AM and because of shifting clouds got to enjoy two sunrises on the way. The views were stunning. It looks very different and, strangely, smaller from inside the canyon versus from the rim. The varying waves of different-colored rock made every turn breathtaking.
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Big Slide (January)
The trail to Big Slide was hard-packed snow the whole way. Perfect for snowshoes. No ice the whole way.
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Algonquin & Iroquois
Today was an absolutely perfect day to hike. It was chilly (14°F at the start), not so cold that your sweat freezes your zippers but cold…
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Sanibel Sunrise
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Big Slide
This hike will always be a favorite of mine, especially on perfect-weather days like this one. It was a great way to spend an afternoon!
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Lower Great Range for Project 100
This hike was supporting Neil Luckhurst and his Project 100, which is raising funds for the ADK High Peaks Foundation.
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Sewards in the Snow
Yesterday perfectly encapsulated shoulder season: A nice 3-4″ of cool snow on the way in; about 6″ of snow (drifting in places) at elevation; icy steep pitches, sometimes hiding under powdered snow; warming sunshine melting low-lying snow by the end of the day creating wide mud swaths.
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Colden in the Clouds
We opted for a short climb of Mount Colden, up and back via Lake Arnold. This is our third trip along this route together, our first time was our 46th peak.
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Santanonis (October)
This would be my fifth visit to this southwestern Adirondack range, and Kathy’s second.
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Bennies Brook Slide to Lower WolfJaw, Upper WolfJaw & Armstrong
We started before sunrise, and made our expected time to the DEC Interior Outpost. From there we crossed Johns Brook onto the now-unmaintained South Side trail, first crossing the start of the Range Trail and a half mile later the base of Bennies Brook.
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Allen (Friday), Street & Nye (Saturday)
Allen Mountain for my September 46, followed by Street & Nye to get Kathy approaching half way towards a 46 year.
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Whiteface, Lunch, Esther
Sunday’s hike would be a bit easier though, and had a unique bonus for the Adirondacks: Lunch at the cafe at the summit.
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Perfect Pyramid, Gothics and Sawteeth
Back in July 2009, we hiked our first Adirondack High Peak, a 2.3-mile jaunt up Cascade Mountain. We made it, but definitely not in ‘style’, and…
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Fourth of July on Giant & Rocky Peak Ridge
It was a great Fourth of July, happy birthday America!
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Dial & Nippletop plus Fish Hawk Cliffs and Indian Head
After two straight days of being thoroughly drenched, we wanted something relatively dry. I knew the excellent Leach Trail to Dial & Nippletop, with much of the hike on a ridge, would fit my criteria.
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Flooded Ward Brook (Blueberry Trail)
The DEC issued an advisory indicating that the Sewards are flooded. They are.
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Macomb, S. Dix, Grace, Hough and Dix
Having the entirety of Macomb and South Dix all to ourselves. Pushing right past Hough, our fourth peak of the day, onto the fifth: Dix, the highest and farthest peak of the day.
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Ricketts Glen
I’m pretty easy to convince to go hiking. Offer me a trip to the nearest majestic place and our niece and nephew, and I’m even willing to get up at 4AM to make it happen.
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Owl’s Head, Etc.
I took Mike up Owl’s Head, which was windy but fun and easy. We had earlier stopped near Beede Brook for some shots, and today I couldn’t resist the cloud Hurricane Mountain.
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Cascade & Porter
Having spent a couple decades in flatland Florida, I wasn’t sure how Philip would do, but we breezed up to Cascade. The view was typically spectacular, as was the stiff breeze.
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Nippletop & Dial the long way
“It doesn’t have to be fun, to be fun.” — Anonymous
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Algonquin, Iroquois & Wright
Seasons pass. This far north they linger a bit longer than at home, which I seem to appreciate more each year.
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Allen (April Fooled)
The trio before me made it to about 2,600 feet; no one else had signed in for Allen since the 23rd of March. This would be one of the hardest hikes I’ve done.
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Dial Mountain
For this year’s winter Gathering, I learned my lesson from the 14-hour behemoth hike last year and picked something that both Kathy and I could do.
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Giant & Rocky Peak Ridge (March)
As much as I dislike some aspects of the Ridge Trail, I have to admit that the ratio of wonderful views to effort is high.
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Hurricane from Crow Clearing
I had forgotten just how breathtaking its views are; after all the climbing I’ve done, it was nice to scan the peaks from the opposite direction.
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Whiteface & Esther Breaking Trail (February)
Eight hours after heading out, we returned to the car. All the new snow made this quite a challenge, but all day the landscape was stunning. And except for skiers on the ski trails, we didn’t see a soul all day.
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The Brothers
No summit on this hike, but a good day out regardless. It was a good way to spend a few hours.
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Marcy, Skylight and Gray Redux
My last attempt at these three was aborted by footwear, so I was glad to have another try.
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Giant & Rocky Peak Ridge
Sometimes, you are presented with a day that fills you with awe.
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Marcy in the Clouds (January)
Just before hitting the fully-exposed part of the summit, the wind picked up and the dim sunshine and blowing snow made the landscape ethereal.
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Cascade & Porter (January)
It’s too pretty not to hike, and this duo is always a good choice when time is limited.
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Mount Marshall, My Winter 46
I realized how lucky I was for last winter, but I definitely appreciate the last four the most. It’s been a great challenge, and I’ve got a lot more winter hiking in my future. For now, I’m going to take some time and enjoy being 46er #8475W.
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Haystack, Basin & Saddleback (Winter)
This winter has been no joke. Conditions are variable, there is no guarantee that any trail is broken out. Even with Joe’s experience we almost had to turn around two hikes in a row. It makes this trio all the sweeter.
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2016 By The Numbers
In short, I obliterated my 2015, which was at that time my most prodigious year. In 2016, I roughly doubled all the hiking I had done since I started in 2009!
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Sawteeth, Gothics, Armstrong (Winter)
It’s been a long 9 months waiting for winter to arrive.
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Colden
Sunrise comes late this far north, so starting hikes before dawn usually means cold. It was 5°F as I pulled in the lot at the Adirondack Loj. I got the front spot.
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Cascade
After an even one hundred summits in 2016, number 101 was short and sweet. With the rest of the US was gripped in the big freeze swooping down from the Arctic, we knew that the calm winds and sunny skies would make a great day hiking.
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Haystack, Basin & Saddleback (November)
Not having hiked these three together (colloquially referred to as ‘HaBaSa’) since July of 2014, I wanted to reacquaint myself with them before winter.
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Dix Range, An Idyllic Traverse
The route through the South Boquet River takes a meandering path, making four river crossings before leading to the base of a slide and up the north slope of Grace Peak.
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Frosty Wright, Algonquin, Iroquois
We got our first hint that we were in for a treat at the initial boardwalk along the Van Hoevenberg trail. Looking off to our right, the MacIntyres sparkled.
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Basin & Saddleback
I’ve bailed out of Basin (and Saddleback) twice after excruciatingly long days. As I soaked in the morning views I remembered what I was missing. The 4,827-foot summit (9th highest in the Adirondacks) has an open, rocky summit with nearly 360° views dominated by the close-up of Mount Haystack.
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Whiteface & Esther (September)
We swung over Whiteface’s summit and headed down for lunch at the cafe with the Mumaughs. I can’t believe we didn’t do this our first time here, it was absolutely brilliant to sit and have a hot lunch and cold soda in the middle of the hike. This will be the plan for this pair…
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Lower WolfJaw, Upper WolfJaw, Armstrong, Colvin and Blake from the JBL
Lacking my usual distance-and-elevation calculator, I mapped out what looked to be a not impossible 24-mile loop, starting and ending at the JBL and covering Lower & Upper WolfJaw, Armstrong, Colvin & Blake. There just happened to be the Ausable Valley in between them.
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Cascade, Porter, Little Porter, and Big Slide
I made a speedy ascent of the short-but-steep Cascade, enjoyed the amazing variety of mushrooms on Porter, and descended via the expansive Little Porter Mountain on one of my favorite traverses. I followed it up with a hike into the JBL and a quick up-and-down Big Slide.
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Redfield & Cliff from Upper Works
Staring down the sheer south side of Redfield, thick with what is nearly impassibly thick trees and debris, and over to Allen Mountain jutting steeply from the surrounding flats, a vulture launched beside me a circled the thermals over my head. I understood the symbolism, took some pictures and headed back.
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Allen Mountain (August)
After completing two days of hiking from the Adirondack Loj, I set off for Tahawus, near Newcomb, and Allen Mountain.
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Haystack & Gray via Panther Gorge (August)
As I descended to Bartlett Ridge and Panther Gorge I was a bit surprised at how steep it was. I remembered it as steep, but not *this* steep.
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Hough, S. Dix, Grace, Macomb, Giant & Rocky Peak Ridge
The six-hour drive home after hiking in the Adirondacks is sometimes harder than the hike itself. Not this hike.
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Santanoni, Panther, Couchsachraga (August)
I had recently hiked the three Santanoni mountains in June, at the time remarking on how wet it was. Earlier this month, the drought had dried up even the wettest of trails; the thunderstorms that preceded this hike brought them back to their soaked and muddy glory. The lead-in trail to Bradley Pond was, unimaginably,…
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Marshall, Cliff and Redfield
These three peaks are normally two long days, but with enough will they make a single inspiring, exhausting, rewarding one.
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Peekamoose and Table Mountains
With the exception of the naked trail runner, apparently 9AM was the time to start Peekamoose Mountain.
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Slide, Cornell, and Wittenberg Mountains
The Catskills seemed like a good option for distance and vertical, and additionally there are two over-4,000′ peaks which are part of the New England “115” peaks. (The 46 Adirondack peaks are part of that list, too, along with 48 in the White Mountains, 14 peaks in Maine and 5 in Vermont.) I chose to…