I had wanted to hike this for quite some time. In fact, I had tried a few years ago in the winter, with no success. Today was forecasted to be a nice day early on, then overcast with rain later. I was able to get the hike in before the rain, without any problem.
I was hoping to get some company on this hike, and I had reached out to a couple of local friends but they were scheduled to be out of town. I had then resigned myself to a solo hike, not a big deal as I generally solo anyway. Well, I didn't expect one of my buddies from Washington D.C. to be up in the area, so when I found out, I asked if he was interested. We made tentative plans on Thursday night, to hike Saturday morning. We both agreed on a start time of 7 a.m. and I would...
Took a hike up Lyon Mt today with great company, and earn the hike towards the winter Adirondack fire tower challenge. My son had mentioned he'd like to hike this gem at some point, and I needed no further excuse to take the time and oblige him.
The forecast wasn't to be a bluebird day, but it also wasn't going to be brutally cold, or too warm either. In the previous warm weather, we had created a lot of snowmelt. That along with some who hiked during that time without snowshoes did a fair amount of damage to the trail.
We were able to drive all the way up to the trailhead without any problem, it did require 4 wheel drive though. The road was in good shape with about 6 inches of new snow, and there was no blowdown so it made for a...
Loon Lake mountain is reported not to see a lot of foot traffic, and therefore seldom mentioned. I think this has changed this year, as I have seen a lot of trip reports recently on this hike, and it is a beauty of a hike too.
The information at http://www.cnyhiking.com states the hike is just under 6 miles round trip. The entire hike is an easy grade, except for the last mile which is where you gain a lot of the 1651 feet of elevation in the hike. The trail climbs a total of 1200 feet in that last mile. It may be daunting for some, but it makes for some great butt sliding on the way down in the winter.
The trail was easy enough to follow, one needs to just pay attention at the various intersections along the way. As I said earlier...
Well, I figured since I couldn't make the meetup hike on January 16th with a group from ADK Fire Tower page, and I really didn't want to get out of a nice warm bed on the 15th, today was the day to do something.
I have been working some odd shifts at work this week and it has allowed me time off during the week to hike with my son, who was also off today as well, so it was a win-win situation.
The trailhead to Spruce Mt. was easy enough to get to. It's about a 2.5-hour ride from Plattsburgh. The forecast was overcast to partly cloudy today, with little to no breeze. The temps were expected to be around 40 degrees, which is crazy for January weather.
The trail was a hard pack all the way to the top. We gave the snowshoes a free ride...
I was feeling lazy today. My initial plans were to hike Spruce Mt. with some friends but just didn't want to get out of bed this morning. So I texted them to see if they too would rather hike Rattlesnake Mt. in Willsboro. They were feeling lazy also, so we hemmed and hawed on a few different hikes. Long story short it was just me and the pups, and we headed out to Point Au Roche State Park.
This is a very popular area all year long. I was surprised to have only run into two other people on the trail. This was nice because it allowed me to run the dogs off-leash, and when I saw another person, I recalled them until the other hiker passed by.
All three pups came with me today, which is good as typically Hattie feels left out when we...