Basin & Saddleback

As long as I'm posting Adirondacks pictures I thought I'd throw up a few from the hike I went on back in August...

A view from Basin.

Basin again, with clouds rolling in.

Part of the very steep climb up Saddleback from Basin.

And a view from Saddleback.

Gray & Skylight

Fall is here. I'm listening to hockey on the radio and wearing a jacket to work and this past weekend I went on what I think it's safe to say was my last hiking trip of the year. Also, one of my favorite hikes I've done in the Adirondacks.

I took the train up to Saratoga and met my father there. We then drove to the Upper Works, an abandoned mining town, in the High Peaks region of the Adirondacks.

An abandoned house by the trailhead.

When we went a bit later in the season last year the leaves were mid-change but there was also snow and ice. So we went a few weeks earlier this year in order to avoid the wintery weather, but it also meant going before the leaves really changed. Given that we were backpacking this time around that's a trade-off I'm happy to have made.

Friday afternoon we took the Calamity Brook trail--the calamity was a hunting accident in the mid-1800s--from the Upper Works to the Flowed Lands. I'd never been to the Flowed Lands before but have been a little in love with them despite that because I think the name sounds like something out of the Anne of Green Gables books. Of course the actual origin of the name isn't at all romantic--the lake was formed when a river was dammed up to divert water to a mining company's blast furnaces, I think--but that seems irrelevant.

The Flowed Lands on Saturday morning.

We spent a chilly, windy night in a lean-to at the Flowed Lands and then packed up in the morning and hiked a mile to Lake Colden where we set up camp. I'd been to Lake Colden before--it was the first backpacking trip my sister and I went on, a decade or so ago. It had been a dry summer and the bears were out in full force. At the time they didn't require backpackers to use bear canisters the way they do now and they were getting food off of people left and right (not ours). Also, we didn't particularly know what we were doing and made everything harder for ourselves than it needed to be. So anyway, it had been awhile. It's a beautiful area though and there are a lot of hikes that are convenient from there, so it's easy to see why it's such a popular place to stay.

Lake Colden

Our plan was to hike to the top of Skylight and Gray. As it turns out, that's a pretty easy hike and thoroughly enjoyable. The trail goes up past Lake Tear of the Clouds, which is the highest source of the Hudson River. Also, apparently, where Theodore Roosevelt was when he learned that President McKinley was dying and started his trip to Buffalo.

Lake Tear of the Clouds

The path up to Gray--not a terribly exciting peak--begins just before the lake and is fairly steep. The path to Skylight, which begins shortly after the lake, is probably one of the most moderate trails to a High Peak of the ones I've climbed (not many) and isn't the least bit treacherous. Really, it's just completely enjoyable.

The top of Skylight. You have to stay on the path to avoid harming the alpine vegetation.

And the view is fantastic. Generally speaking, every time I've climbed a mountain in the Adirondacks that's known for it's great view it's been a) surrounded by clouds or b) so fucking miserable weather-wise that I didn't enjoy it all that much. But Saturday was an absolutely glorious day. The view is so much more awe inspiring than it looks in these pictures.

A fraction of the view from Skylight. I think you can see Sawteeth, Basin, and Gothics here. Not sure what else.

We had a lot of time and very little to do on Sunday so we took our time breaking camp and getting set to hike out.

Getting lunch together Sunday morning.

Although warmer than it had been Saturday morning, it was still cold enough that there was frost on the bridge across the end of Lake Colden and ice rimming the edge of the lake. So what better to do than sit around drinking hot chocolate while waiting for it to warm up a little?

All in all a very successful trip.

Weird Bugs

I went backpacking in New York and Connecticut last week with my sister, who is currently hiking the Appalachian Trail. I'll write more about it later, but in the meantime, here's a video of some weird bugs (which google tells me are wood wasps). Now if only my point and shoot camera took better videos while zoomed in I'm sure the Discovery Channel would be calling any day now. After all we clearly have the gravitas and calm typical of nature documentarians.

Adirondack Trip Part III

I'm incredibly behind on my blogging of late. It's not because I've been all that busy; it's because I've had the attention span of a fruit fly lately. I have a bunch of posts in various stages of completion but writing has just seemed like a real effort this past week or so. Therefore, here's one that required next to no writing since it's all pictures.

We didn't have any solid plans for Monday (this was the 6th). We knew we wanted to do some dinky little hike and then find someplace to walk along the water. Since we didn't need an early start we bagan the day by showering (a little cold for wet hair, and while my father informs me that the men's showers actually had decent water pressure, the women's were not so big on that and I had soap in my hair until Wednesday night), eating breakfast, making lunch, and drinking tea (or at least I drank tea, not really my dad's thing). Of course, well before I got up my father, early-riser extraordinaire had been awake for some time and taking pictures of Heart Lake. He actually got some better ones the next day but I don't have those on my computer. Still, here's the lake all glassy in the early morning with water vapor rising above it.

I, on the other hand, just kept him waiting later on while taking pictures of wet leaves.

The first thing we did that morning was hike up Owl's Head. Which is a lot of bang for your buck what with being extremely easy and short. That was good, because short and easy is about all I could handle.

We ate lunch by the Ausable River.

And then went to a campsite my father and sister had stayed at a few times so that my father could play with his camera.

And that was the end of anything particularly hike-y for this trip. We went to Lake Placid for the rest of the day.

I went into their library for the first time, at my father's insistence and it is, as he told me, surprisingly big and really very nice. It's all rocking chairs and wood floors and local art. Very quaint. Given that the library I spend the most time in--as in, only the amount of time it takes to get my books and get out--is the Mid-Manhattan Library that makes for a really nice change.

And we finished our day off having dinner at the Great Adirondack Brewing Company. Where I got a souvenir glass. Score!

Adirondack Trip Part II

I'd actually gone up Algonquin once before. The first time we--my father, my sister, and me--went backpacking we hiked up around Avalanche Lake to Lake Colden. The next day we went to climb Algonquin from there. I'd sprained my ankle at the beginning of the summer--you'll notice a theme here--and it wasn't particularly bothering me. But then at the very beginning of the hike up Algonquin I jumped down off a rock and re-sprained it. Anyway, long story short, that's a hell of a steep hike--probably the steepest I've ever done--and I don't remember it fondly. We stopped just short of the summit. Few hundred yards probably.

So this time around we were going up the easy way. My father though, planned to do Algonquin, Iroquois, and Wright as he had with my sister several years ago. Which seemed a little ambitious seeing as I did a number on my ankle back in June--told you this was a theme--and it's really not fully recovered yet. So I'm completely out of shape, a bit wobbly, and the slowest hiker around. It's fairly pathetic. In the end, we just did Algonquin and Iroquois.

Anyway, the hike up Algonquin from the side we went up this time is very nice. And the temperature at the beginning of the hike was pleasant--cool but not cold--while the scenery was picturesque.

A not terribly flattering photo of me
but at least I'm small and everything else is lovely.

It wasn't until we got up near the alpine zone that things got really chilly. Other adjectives? Windy. Icy.

The trail just hiked.

And the top? Now that was cold. And pretty slippery.

Snow and ice coating the alpine grass and rocks.

The view of the Adirondacks was probably as nice as I've seen though. The pictures below don't really do it justice, but they'll give you an idea.

Looking toward Lake Placid from Algonquin.

The view of a snowy Marcy (the big tall one blending into the background) and a number of the other High Peaks.

From Algonquin we continued over Boundary to Iroquois. Which I was not even a little bit happy about, since my ankle hurt and we had been told there was more ice and lots of mud on the trek over. But my father wanted to, so across to Iroquois we went. The trail over is not only muddy but narrow, so you're constantly being poked by the spiny alpine pines. Not really worth it to me even if you do get a nice, close-up view of Algonquin.

Looking over Boundary to Algonquin

Lake Colden and the Flowed Lands

To get down, we had to go right back the way we came. The most interesting part of this section of the hike. This side of the mountain was much less snowy and the ice had mostly collected on the boulders and cairns marking the path. The wind had clearly been blowing hard from this direction and it blew the ice into delicate, flower-like clusters.

This picture keeps rotating 90 degrees counter-clockwise for reasons beyond me.

By the time we got back to the peak of Algonquin it was late afternoon.
Because I'm so slow at this hiking thing these days it was dark before we got down and we finished the hike up wearing our nifty little head lamps. When we got back to the campsite we just heated up some soup and had a campfire before going to bed. It was a tiring day but truly enjoyable and it's invigorating to spend time in someplace so different than the city.

My father took the pictures with me in them, of course, and I think also the pictures of Marcy and the alpine grass covered with ice.

Adirondack Trip Part I

So the Adirondacks? Not so warm. I'm just saying.

On Saturday morning I got on the train at Penn Station. I don't do it to often but I love traveling by train seems so much more civilized than other kinds of long distance public transit. They don't search your bags or confiscate your water and nail file. You get to keep your shoes and belt on and don't have to go through metal detectors or step into those weird explosive detection portals that puff air at you. The conductors aren't uncomfortably friendly; they just look at your ticket and answer any questions and leave you the fuck alone. It's such a relief to take a trip and get to retain your dignity at the same time.

I got off in Saratoga where my father picked me up and we had lunch then wandered around a bit and went to the grocery store for hiking food before driving up to the ADK campground to set up camp. As we drove into the High Peaks region I noted that there was snow on the top of the high mountains. My father claimed that it was just rockslides that I was looking at but I think he wasn't looking very closely because it was totally snow.

Here in New York the leaves really aren't changing yet and even up in Saratoga only some of the them had changed, but up in the High Peaks they were actually just past peak. The valleys and lower slopes of the mountains were all red, orange, and gold and the ground was covered with fallen leaves.
The Adirondacks aren't as beautiful as the Catskills come fall because they are only partially covered by deciduous forest so you always have the green of the coniferous forest, but they're still pretty damn lovely.

We didn't have anything particular to do beyond going to EMS to buy insoles for my hiking boots, so we met friends of his for dinner and then played SNATCH for a bit before going to bed. I'm embarrassingly bad at word games. Anything that requires me to rearrange letters gets ugly fast.

Sunday morning we got up, I put on 5 layers of clothing plus winter hat and gloves, and we had oatmeal (plus tea for me) before getting ready for our trek up Algonquin. I'd never hiked at this time of year or in these temperatures so I added a pair of leggings under my hiking pants and put a jacket in my backpack along with all the food.
Notice the stylish gaiters. When it's not actually freezing out--which it wasn't, at least during the day--mud on the Adirondack hiking trails is as certain as death and taxes and hiking with cold, wet, muddy feet sucks, so they were definitely a good thing to have.

Everything together, we headed up the mountain just before 9 in the morning. And I'll write about that later, because it's time for me to go to bed.

Mohonk Preserve

Last year Wendy and I went camping and hiking up in the Catskills, near New Paltz, and had a nice time so we decided to do it again this year. This time around though, my dad drove down from Buffalo, swung through Binghamton to pick up my sister, and met us at the campsite.

The first night my father went a bit nuts with the grocery shopping and we had a veritable feast, with quinoa (the only thing Wendy and I had actually planned), corn cooked in the fire (it actually ended up half raw but was so fresh that it tasted great anyway), mini-steaks, and turkey sausage. Best of all, we had these fantastic blueberries that my sister had picked just the day before. It was a beautiful night as well, if buggy. They spray for mosquitoes and such in the suburb of Buffalo where I grew up, but I lived very close to New Paltz when I was little and constantly getting attacked by bugs is definitely something I remember clearly.

A rainstorm was in the forecast for around noon the next day, so the next morning we picked a hike that would take us up past the Mohonk Mountain House to the tower that overlooks it, figuring that we could beat the storm there and take refuge at the Mountain House until it passed. And if we didn't, well, that's what rain jackets are for. Shockingly, the forecast wasn't so accurate and the heavens opened up shortly after we began the hike and well before the predicted hour. Given that we had thunder and hail last time we hiked in the Catskills Wendy and I are thinking that our luck is not so good. So we hiked along in the rain and arrived, dripping and bedraggled, at the mountain house around 11:30 in the morning.

Looking across the lake in pouring rain.

We hid from the rain on the porch and had lunch while slowly drying. The house itself is a weird mix of styles which is fun, and for some reason they've chosen to landscape with all sorts of tropical plants, which is less fun. It's just a weird place, although I'm sure it's fun to stay there. When we were mostly dry we went inside to play a rousing game of Scrabble in which my father beat the rest of us by 100 points or more (which he always does). Scrabble geniuses we are not. By the time our game was wrapped up, the rain had stopped and we continued on with our hike.

That odd stillness just after a heavy rainfall.

We climbed up to the tower by going through the Labyrinth which is basically a long rock scramble along the base of a cliff until it connected with a trail up to the tower. Nowhere in the Catskills is all that high, but with the clouds hanging as low as they were, we were still above wispy bit of cloud at the top of the tower.

From there we went on to the crevice, the Lemon Squeeze, and went up that. And then, with the alternate trail to that point apparently closed, we went back down (which is scarier).

A terrible picture of my father in the crevice.

From the top. If you click to enlarge you can see Wendy at the bottom of the crevice.

After that it was just an easy end to the hike. We just beat the next round of rain to the car and, since everything was so wet ate out in New Paltz instead of cooking for ourselves. And then we went to see Mamma Mia which my father really wanted to see. It was about as good as the musical, which I didn't love, but with the fortunate addition of Christine Baranski--who is from Buffalo, by the way--and the unfortunate addition of Pierce Brosnan's terrible singing.

Then on Sunday we took a short hike up to a ridge from which there was a wonderful view of the valley. The hike itself was unremarkable but pleasant and the view in several directions was more than worth it.

So then it was back to the city, but it was very nice to get out and see stars and mountains and all that for a weekend.

Hiking

So Saturday, after several not-so-successful attempts at finding the trailhead (I parked in three different places and then we had to get directions from the parking lot to the trail) we started our hike at around 10:30. People kept asking where we were going and then saying, "Oh, that's quite a hike." Which had me a bit nervous, but as it turns out "quite a hike" just meant "very pretty long walk with occasional hikey bits." You begin and end the hike on a carriageway, and in between do quite a bit of trail hiking, and hiking along exposed rock. The woods was full of small flowers that I think must be some kind of rhododendron based on their shrubiness and the shape of the leaves. Fields of rhododendrons almost in some places.In other places we were out walking on the exposed rock, which was hot, but provided nice views of the other hills and such. There are steep cliffs and deep (and sometimes fairly wide) crevices in the rocks. It's like the Adirondacks in the sense that you can really feel how old the landscape is. There were quite a few hawks flying about and then, as we hiked along the rocks, we could hear thunder and see a summer storm beginning to roll in. Occasionally we would see a sharp streak of lightning.As we went back into the woods and rhododendrons we could feel the storm approaching, with the wind beginning to pick up. It actually felt nice because the day was quite hot. We put our rainjackets on when we felt the storm was about to break, and a few minutes later heard a loud crack of thunder and it began to hail. Which was so totally not what we were expecting. They were actually large enough bits of ice, and falling from a great enough height, that they rather stung, particularly when they hit our heads or hands. The hail fell for about five minutes, and then it rained for another five. And then it was sunny again, although cooler than it had been before.
At some point we had passed Gertrude's Nose (whatever it was) although I had failed to notice. We then went up over the top of Millbrook Mountain. It's strange: althought the views are pretty, the hike isn't difficult enough, and the peak not high enough, to give you the almost euphoric feeling of accomplishment that you get when you reach the top of a mountain in the high peaks region of the Adirondacks or in the Rockies. Of course, the view is also quite civilized looking.From the mountain we were really closer to done than not. There was a sustained period of upward hiking (the only one on the hike) and a pretty stream full of moss-covered stones, along with the rhododendrons.
We got to the car just as it started to rain again and headed back to the city. Hopefully this is something we'll be able to do again in the fall. I don't know of anywhere that has better foliage than the Catskills and it's been years since I've seen it.