Cascade & Porter

Cascade's rocky summit

The Legendary Johnny Rocket and I had big plans this New Year’s.  The Rocket came up to the Adirondack Loj on Monday.  He climbed Colden yesterday.  I wondered if he would be up for the challenge of going to Marshall from the loj.  Marshall is best approached from the south.  Turns out Chris Hiker would not be up for the challenge after the drive from Vermont and an upset stomach.  This ends my streak of climbing a new 46er at 13 years.  

While staying at the loj, Johnny Rocket met Caroline from NJ.  She was interested in hiking with us.  We decided to do Cascade and Porter.  Cascade is one of the most popular mountains in the Adirondacks and for good reason.  It’s short (at just over 4 miles round trip) with great views (Great Range, Lake Placid, etc.) and has some ruggedness (the last 100 feet require some scrambling).  It’s the perfect introduction to the Adirondack Mountains and the 46ers.  These two made for a great first two winter ascents for Caroline (though she has been up both Marcy and Iroquois which are not a picnic). 

We started around 10am after some breakfast at the loj.  The temperature was around 10 degrees so it was cold.  Fortunately, I brought my balaclava.  It did not take me long to lose the trail.  There was a broken in trail that led up a brook, but it dead ended.  Johnny Rocket cruised on by.  I’m not sure how I missed it.  Though the trail was mostly packed snow, there were plenty of ice patches making microspikes essential.  They were a great pick up.  Not sure why I waited this long to buy them.

 

Caroline and The Rocket packing up

Lots of ice along the way

The Rocket lives!!!

The trail up Cascade does not allow any rest.  It’s uphill the entire way, but I remember it being steeper.  I’ll take that.  Soon we made it near the summit with the first views of the day.  Algonquin and Wright Peak stand close by with Wright’s slide clearly visible (remember that VPo?).  Lake Placid and Whiteface are visible to the north.  The ski jump can be seen.

Colden, Algonquin and Wright

The hikers on their way down let us know the summit is incredibly windy.  This is to be expected since the upper 100 feet of the mountain is exposed with no trees.  The wind was quite strong and made worse due to the cold temperature.  With the windchill, the temperature had to be below -10 degrees F.  That’s no joke.  The balaclava kept my nose from falling off.  The frigid temperatures did not keep me from enjoying the views.  Almost all the 46ers are in view: Giant, Dix, Nippletop, Marcy, Skylight, Haystack, Colden and Algonquin.  Close by are Porter and Big Slide.

Into the trees and toward the summit

Giant

The bare rock summit

The Great Range and Johnny Rocket

Whiteface in the distance

 After taking some quick summit shots, we scurried down to the col with Porter.  Only problem is that I blasted by the junction with Porter.  A couple of hikers on their way up confirmed my error.  We discussed whether to turn around or just head back down.  We turned around since it was still early. 

The route to Porter is mostly through a forest of evergreens with some views along the way.  Most of the trees are covered in ice and snow.  It’s so beautiful this time of year.  While talking to Caroline, I learned about Cyclocross.  It’s simply amazing I never knew about this before because it’s totally up my alley.  It has a great creation story.  In the early 1900s during the winter months, road cyclists would race each other from town to town to stay in shape.  If this meant riding through some farm land and having to carry their bikes over a fence or two, so be it.  Without doubt, I plan to do one of these this coming year. 

A path through the evergreens

Big Slide

Looks like a bird?

We reached the summit of Porter relatively quickly.  From Cascade, it’s a gentle ascent to its summit.  The views from here are similar to Cascade’s, but Porter does not provide a full 360 degree of views.  Today that was fine, since the summit did provide some shelter from the wind.  Another great New Year’s Eve hike courtesy of Johnny Rocket. 

Cascade from Porter

On the way down