Mountaintop adventures
November 2, 2019, Adirondak Loj
I arrived at Heart Lake before dawn on a brisk day in early November. The target, a pair of classic high peak day hikes: Colden and Phelps! My original plan consisted of hiking the Santanoni’s. But torrential rain and high winds had plagued the Adirondacks in recent days, and I decided to target a couple of peaks easily accessible from the relatively dry and well-trafficked Van Hoevenberg trail.
Continue reading “Colden and Phelps”
October 14, 2019, Adirondak Loj
I arrived before dawn to the Heart Lake Trailhead to bag Street and Nye. It was my first time back to this popular trailhead in two years! This marked my final day-hike of Columbus Day Weekend 2019, and I was feeling sore from my adventures on Lower Wolfjaw and Giant the prior two days.
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October 13, 2019, Chapel Pond
I arrived at the parking for Giant via the Ridge trail around 6 am. The Autumn days were rapidly growing shorter. And on arrival, I was treated to a clear sky full of stars. How beautiful! This was my second day-hike of Columbus Day Weekend, and my second high peaks adventure post-knee surgery. Lower Wolfjaw had gone well the day before. And so I decided to graduate to Giant and Rocky Peak Ridge.
Continue reading “Giant & Rocky Peak Ridge”
October 12, 2019, Rooster Comb Trailhead
14 months had passed since my attempt to traverse the Great Range during a late June heatwave. After five summits, I ran out of steam in the col between the two Wofjaws. I was exhausted, low on water, and lugging a full menagerie of camping equipment. I decided to bail before Lower Wolfjaw.
Continue reading “Rematch with Lower Wolfjaw”
Spend time exploring the Adirondacks and you realize the land within the “blue line” encompasses far more than mountains. This is particularly true of the western Adirondacks. Here waterways like the Raquette River (French for snowshoe) meander through countless lakes and marshlands. The whole swampy, flowing mess meanders towards the St Lawrence to the north. That’s the sort of landscape I found myself in as I drove north and westward via NY 30. I was headed towards the westernmost of the high peaks: the Sewards.
August 14, 2018, Paradise WA
In summer 2018 I signed up for a guided mountaineering seminar on Mt Rainier, in the gorgeous Cascade Range in Washington. My first trip to Washington, four years earlier, was to visit a friend getting her Ph.D. from U Washington in nearby Seattle. While roaming around town, I caught my first glance of Rainier, towering over the landscape. It was unlike any mountain I had seen before, clearly taller and more isolated than anything in the Rockies, let alone the Northeast. I asked my friend if we could hike it. She looked at me like I had three heads and said “What?! No! You need to like, train for that. And acclimate. It’s like a real mountain.” I decided then and there that the next time I was in Washington, I was climbing Mt Rainier.
August 12, 2018, Ashford Washington
In the summer of 2018, I ventured to the Pacific Northwest to take part in a guided climb of Mt Rainier. The day before the program began, another participant and I decided to stretch our legs, post-travel, with a quick day hike. The folks at the motel we were staying at had an unsurprisingly excellent knowledge of the region and its hikes. They warned us to avoid Rainier National Park, down the road. They predicted an hour-plus line on this sunny Saturday afternoon in August—just to get through the gates! Instead, they wrote down a list of turns to take via dirt logging roads to a nearby hike outside the park. The hike was known as High Rock. For anyone without the inside scoop, Google Maps can get you there just fine.
August 29, 2018 — Upper Works
The day began around dawn with some rough dirt roadways. Blue Ridge Road cuts nine miles from NY 28 to the “Upper Works trailhead” along Tahawus Road. Driving deeper into the forest, I considered just how isolated this corner of the Empire State truly is.
Isolated, and vast. Since the recent purchase of the Boreas Ponds Tract, the High Peaks Wilderness now boasts a contiguous land area larger than the City of Los Angeles. And surrounding the “wilderness” itself are miles of private and mixed-use forested lands devoid of connected, improved roads.
Continue reading “The MacIntyre Range: Iroquois, Algonquin, and Wright”
June 30, 2018
The “Great Range” spans a number of beloved high peaks in the central Adirondacks. The official definition of the range varies. But it typically includes Skylight, Marcy, Haystack, Basin, Saddleback, Gothics, Armstrong, and Upper and Lower Wolfjaw.
Continue reading “The Great Range of the Adirondacks”
June 29, 2018, The Garden trailhead
I arrived at the Garden Trailhead around 5 am. A heatwave had reached the Adirondacks and this June Friday would prove super hot and humid. The small and sought-after Garden trailhead has gained a bit of infamy. But I was relieved to discover a few free spots when I arrived.
Continue reading “Big Slide (and Yard Mountain)”