Crane/chimney mt. and caves! 9/3-5

[Rivet]

we got to crane mt. friday night and pitched the tent at the trailhead (there's no rules against that is there?)

Unless it's a designate site, you're not supposed to camp at the trailhead...

§190.3 Camping sites

b. Camping is prohibited within 150 feet of any road, trail, spring, stream, pond or other body of water except at camping areas designated by the department.

Many people camp at sites around Crane pond.

[soco7tyx7]

Pictures

http://community.webshots.com/myphotos?action=viewAllPhotos&albumID=448568514

[soco7tyx7]

Chimney Mt

after leaving crane mt. around 1 i think, we had to stop to get some food and junk, so we didnt get to Chimney till about 2:30. once we got there we had to pump water out of kings flow seeing that there is no water source on top of Chimney mt. so we hiked up Chimney with 3.5-4 liters each which was rediculously heavy, but we didnt have a whole lot in our packs since it was only one night so it wasnt that bad. anywho, we hit the trail at about 3ish maybe later i dont really remember. i sure got a mental image of what the Great Range trip is gonna be like in a couple weeks. that was a tough climb just up Chimney, i was definitely feeling it!!!

well we got to the top of Chimney and set up camp at the first site available which is probably the most used, but unfortunately sees a lot of traffic during day time. so after setting up camp, we took some pics of the chimney and the views and started exploring. this was our second time being on the mt. but last time we didnt get much exploring time. we spent a lot of time trying to find the cave and just exploring the area. unfortunately we never found Eagle cave but did find plenty of holes to drop into and explore which was pretty kool. we were both kinda disappointed that we didnt find the caves since it was our second time looking for them but we still had a pretty good time. we dropped into this one cave that literally had hallways that you could just walk thru. its wierd how these things form, but very kool. after exploring/looking for caves, we headed back to the chimney where we watched the sun set which was the first time i'd watched one from a summit. by that time everyone had left the mountain so we finally had the whole thing to ourselves which was really sweet. we ended up pigging out since we had so much food left over, watched the fire for a bit, then passed out for the night.

morning came and we checked out the views and there was clouds covering all of the valleys which was really awesome to see. we got some food and then packed up camp and went to do a little more exploring but didnt find a whole lot that we really had time for so just ended up hiking back down to the car.

well overall we had an amazing time and i think it was definitely one of the funnest and most adventure filled trip i've ever been on. we plan on going back to Chimney with some better gear and directions to the actual cave. if you havent done caving, i would definitely reccommend it cuz it was really really awesome and a whole new experience. hope you enjoy my report and if anyone knows of any other caves in the area let me know!

-Jon

[soco7tyx7]

Crane Mt.

me and my buddy went to the Adirondacks last weekend (labor day) and it was pretty sweet. we got to crane mt. friday night and pitched the tent at the trailhead (there's no rules against that is there?). forgot TP so we had to drive to Johnsburg and wait for the store to open and then we finally got on the trail saturday morning around 9 i think. the weather couldnt have been any better!! we dropped packs at the pond and set up camp.

here's where the fun began. we hiked down the back side of the mountain and hit the caves around noon. i've been waiting to do these caves for a couple years now and it was my first time caving and being in the Crane mt. caves. my buddy had already been in the caves a couple weeks before this trip so we werent completely inexperienced. i must say that being down there is pretty awesome. we probably followed the brook for a bout a thousand feet in the cave untill it ended in a pool that went to an underground river. unfortunately we didnt have any equipment or experience to go diving, but our caving adventure certainly didnt end there. we explored just about every inch that we could squeeze into in that cave. we did quite a few belly crawls, some that were probably about 15-20 feet, which were pretty eerie at times. at one point we were away from the brook doing a belly crawl, it was so incredibly quiet that it was just wierd. it was also crazy how dark it is if you turn off your headlamps; you cant even see your hand when its an inch from you face.

something that i took from caving is the sense of complete aloneness that you get from being in there. its an awesome experience if you've never done it and its something that i'd like to get into more. its also wild how your eyesadjust there, they kind of play tricks on you and make you feel like the whole cave is closing in on you.

anyways, we came out of the caves at about 3-3:30 and were completely covered in sand from head to toe. i should have some pics soon so you can see how dirty we were and pics of the cave. something that kinda freaked me out is that there were big rocks in front of the cave entrance that werent there when i came in june, so i wonder if they rolled down there or if the DEC or rangers put them there to deter people from entering the caves.
back to the trip: we hiked back up to camp on the pond and were both completely drained (it really takes a lot out of you) so we took a nap, got up ate dinner and in short made a fire and went to bed etc. etc.
in the morning we decided that we were gonna pack up camp and head over to Chimney mt. to do some more exploring and caving, but before we did that we hit the summit just to catch some quick views and pics and headed down and packed up and hiked back down to the car.