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Val had the great idea to spend a few nights in the Lake Placid area this past weekend. We figured we would do some hiking while up there.
On our drive in on New Year's Day we stopped for a 5 hour hike up Hurricane. I got tired of saying it was on my to-do list
. Unfortunately the clouds broke an hour into our descent. Most of the time on top we were stuck in a soupy grey veil. The trail up Hurricane is in good shape, with only a few spots of blowdown bad enough you have to go around it. Our original hopes were to climb Giant and Rocky Ridge peak on New Years day, but after the aches and pains that twarted our second day plans to hike Seymour I was glad we didn't try for 4,000 feet of elevation gain on day one. lol Simply - I'm a little out of shape for winter/snowshoe hiking and Hurricane was the perfect warmup climb. The added weight of the snow shoes on my feet wears my legs down pretty fast. I may have also not hydrated enough during the hike.
It's worth noting that after hiking Hurricane and before we checked into the hotel we drove down Corey's to see if the gate was open, in preparation for day 2. It was, but we only got to the large hill a mile after the gate before turning around. Had we hiked on day 2 we would have probably found a safe parking spot a mile or so in along the road and hiked the last mile to the trailhead. The ice under the light coating of snow made for poor driving conditions, even in a 4x4. I'm not sure if the gate is still open, but little has changed (no new snow) since Sunday so I would bet it still is. Sadly we missed a good opportunity to get some winter hiking on the most remote peaks in the high peaks area.
So on day 2 we strolled around Lake Placid, including walking out onto Mirror Lake. Eventually we wandered north on 86 to Paul Smiths and visited the tourist center. I enjoyed the exhibits and watching the birds feed. I had never ventured that far north of Lake Placid as most of my time in that area is spent hiking the mountains. Along 86 there's a few clearings with awesome views of Whiteface and some hundred highest peaks. I guess this is a classic ADK photo haunt, but this was my first time visiting so I snapped a few photos.
As a side note, I picked up an excellent photo book by Den Linnehan. It contains a whole bunch of interesting Adirondack photo perspectives, with a concentration on the high peaks region. He also shares some trip reports and insight in the margins. I was most impressed with the variety of shots, many of the places I also share as special in some way (like Gill Brook and Marshall Mt). Just in case Den's out there - nice work!
On our drive in on New Year's Day we stopped for a 5 hour hike up Hurricane. I got tired of saying it was on my to-do list
. Unfortunately the clouds broke an hour into our descent. Most of the time on top we were stuck in a soupy grey veil. The trail up Hurricane is in good shape, with only a few spots of blowdown bad enough you have to go around it. Our original hopes were to climb Giant and Rocky Ridge peak on New Years day, but after the aches and pains that twarted our second day plans to hike Seymour I was glad we didn't try for 4,000 feet of elevation gain on day one. lol Simply - I'm a little out of shape for winter/snowshoe hiking and Hurricane was the perfect warmup climb. The added weight of the snow shoes on my feet wears my legs down pretty fast. I may have also not hydrated enough during the hike.It's worth noting that after hiking Hurricane and before we checked into the hotel we drove down Corey's to see if the gate was open, in preparation for day 2. It was, but we only got to the large hill a mile after the gate before turning around. Had we hiked on day 2 we would have probably found a safe parking spot a mile or so in along the road and hiked the last mile to the trailhead. The ice under the light coating of snow made for poor driving conditions, even in a 4x4. I'm not sure if the gate is still open, but little has changed (no new snow) since Sunday so I would bet it still is. Sadly we missed a good opportunity to get some winter hiking on the most remote peaks in the high peaks area.
So on day 2 we strolled around Lake Placid, including walking out onto Mirror Lake. Eventually we wandered north on 86 to Paul Smiths and visited the tourist center. I enjoyed the exhibits and watching the birds feed. I had never ventured that far north of Lake Placid as most of my time in that area is spent hiking the mountains. Along 86 there's a few clearings with awesome views of Whiteface and some hundred highest peaks. I guess this is a classic ADK photo haunt, but this was my first time visiting so I snapped a few photos.
As a side note, I picked up an excellent photo book by Den Linnehan. It contains a whole bunch of interesting Adirondack photo perspectives, with a concentration on the high peaks region. He also shares some trip reports and insight in the margins. I was most impressed with the variety of shots, many of the places I also share as special in some way (like Gill Brook and Marshall Mt). Just in case Den's out there - nice work!
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