Mornings With Chris Hiker (Four Mile Point Preserve)

After sleeping a rough night in the car due to the adverse weather, I decided to fill some time by checking out the river at Four Mile.

The quarter mile walk to the river would be strictly through slush.  It wasn't that cold, but it felt bitter.  The wet snow, wet cold ice soaked through the bones.

Mornings With Chris Hiker (Rhinecliff)

It's been fairly cold recently, so I figured I'd wander around by the river in Rhinecliff and check out the ice.  Next week it will be quite warm, so the ice will not be around for long.

Indian Head via Overlook Mt

Indian Head from Overlook

With a bunch of trail runs lined up for the spring, I figured to keep the momentum going from my weekend in the Dacks.  Another hiking goal of mine is to hike all the 3500 foot peaks before the leaves return (or at least before the Escarpment Trail run in July).

Since I have only approached Indian Head from Platte Clove, I decided to take it on from the south.  I wanted to include Echo Lake, but my late start ruined those plans.  The trail from the junction to Echo Lake to the junction for Indian Head would be knew for me.  According to the maps there is a view point that looks out over the Hudson.  We shall see, since roughly half the view points on these maps do not exist.

There is a view!  The Hudson River and the Tivoli Bays

It's been a little while since the mountains have received any snow and the highs would be in the low 20s.  I knew there would be plenty of snow, but I left the snow shoes in the car and wore microspikes the entire way.  The trail up Overlook was completely packed down and icy in many spots.  The trail to Echo Lake and beyond had only a few people on it, but I barely post-holed.  The microspikes were a great choice.

I reached the junction to Indian Head in great time.  I met a guy who tried barebooting his way up Indian Head, but turned around.  He decided to head towards the way I came.  I told him it'd only be about a half hour to a decent view point.  He thought that sounded like a pretty good idea.

The hike up Indian Head was a little slow going, but not too icy.  I enjoyed the views along the way.  The steep section to the hanging rock was quite tough, but I made it just fine.  I did decide against going down it though.  This added about an hour and a half to the hike, but a much safer alternative for my back.

Some section along the way with bare rock

Lot of ice on the trees

Some ice found its way down my back

Plattekill and Overlook

No doubt, it's Winter up here!

While hiking this, I realized how long it has been since I've actually been up and over the actual summit.  Typically, I just head up to the view points and head back down.  This was nice.  I also met a few people along the way.

I made it to Overlook just before dark and walked down without a headlamp.  Though not full, I was aided by the 60-70% illuminated moon.  A nice, tough hike and a wonderful day to be out.

Mornings with Chris Hiker (Scenic Hudson: Long View Park)

After my jaunt in the Adirondacks, I proposed to myself a few hiking New Year's Resolutions.  Today would be the start of one of them.  The goal here, is to visit each of the Scenic Hudson's 42 parks this calendar year.

Long View Park is the most northern of the Scenic Hudson parks.  Located just south of the town of New Baltimore it provides a few miles of trails with some beautiful rural Hudson River scenery.

The park's land comes from an old farm.  Many remnants remain like the old bright red barn that greets you at the trail head.

I picked up a park map and wandered on down towards the river passing a frozen pond.  It was quite cold today, in the low 20s, with a stiff wind.  I wasn't well prepared and remained quite cold the entire hour I was out.  Still it was a cool place to visit and located only a few miles from work, I will visit more frequently.

Hadley Mountain

Looking out towards VT and the Tongue Mt Range

I was quite beat from the previous two days of hiking.  Originally I planned to hit the Wolfjaws on the way out, but 10+ miles just seemed a bit much.  Instead I decided to stop along the way home and hike up to Hadley.

Hadley Mountain is part of the Catskill/Adirondack Fire Tower challenge which I recently completed.  My previous visit was in the summer and part of a five tower, 20+ mile day.  It was nice to just do this one alone and call it a day.

If I were to label a hike average in effort, this would be it.  Hadley, like Overlook and Tremper, requires roughly a 2 mile ascent with 1,000 feet elevation gained.  Many other fire tower hikes fall in this category.

Lot more snow than I expected

Overall, though, Hadley is not at all average.  The trail heads through a beautiful forest of hardwoods.  Near the summit there are some nice ledges with some great views of Great Sacandaga Lake.  The climb up the fire tower provides views in all directions.  The high peaks of the Adirondacks are scene in the distance.  To the east are the green mountains and the Tongue mountain Range near Lake George.  A couple local guys pointed out the smoke coming from the paper factory in Glens Falls.  This provided some orientation and also some knew info.  I didn't know there were any paper factories still going.  In the Age of Trump, one assumes the U.S. manufactures absolutely nothing.
   

 

Iroquois, Algonquin and Wright via Avalanche Lake

Wright from Marcy Dam

The previous night I ran into Ian whom I met last year.  As we began talking I found out that he ran the Escarpment Trail.  I told him my plans for today.  Since he was with his brother and nephews, we planned to hike out to Avalanche Lake together.

The Adirondack Loj puts on a hearty breakfast for its guests.  One never leaves when one plans to.  I left just before 9am, but Ian and his crew weren't ready, so I headed out.  I had been out to Avalanche Lake only once before and it makes a worthy destination by itself.  About two miles out, I reached Marcy Dam.  Another spot that can be enjoyed.  From here one gets an awesome view of the slide on Wright.  It's hard to believe people ski down it.

From Marcy Dam its another two miles to Avalnche Lake.  The last bit there is a fair amount of elevation gained.  It appears a few people have skied out this way.  Soon Colden and Avalanche Mountains are in view.  Colden with all of its scarring, looks particularly impressive.

Avalanche slide

I reached the lake in less than two hours, making decent time.  I was surprised to not see anybody on the lake.  Though quite confident it was frozen, I chose to take the trail.  I regretted this immediately.  The trail has many narrow bridges and numerous ladders.  This is not fun in two feet of snow and with snowshoes on.  A couple of those bridges span some fairly deep crevasses.

Avalanche Lake

A good look at Trap Dyke

My eyes started to wonder over to the lake.  I then spotted someone walking on the lake.  As I recognized it was Ian, he was talking into the camera mentioning he was looking for a guy named Chris.  After some time, I found a spot to get onto the lake.  I guess after yesterday's hike to Marcy, Ian's nephews needed some rest.

Through our discussions last night, I knew Ian was a significantly stronger hiker than I.  This would work out quite well as I pushed myself the entire time.  The trail up to Algonquin from Avalanche Lake is one of the steepest in the Adirondacks.  In just under 2 miles, the trail ascends about 2,500 feet.  This is a task under normal conditions.  We would be doing this in 2-3 feet of snow.

As expected, the trail didn't appear to have any recent traffic.  Ian broke trail the whole way, but mostly he fell through less than a foot.  As we ascended, the trail steepened.  There were numerous times when we put one foot forward to only slide back two steps.

Truly winter

Steep!

Colden

Getting ready to put on layers

The weather cleared, but the winds were forecasted to be significantly stronger.  We caught a glimpse on our walk on Avalanche Lake.  Going up the trail we were well protected and we constantly de-layered.  Once the dwarf pines became prominent, we started to feel some cold, bursts of wind.  When we reached the col, the wind was quite stiff.  We met a guy who came from Iroquois.  He looked at our snowshoes and told us, we will be post-holing all the way up.

Both Ian and I are significant;y lighter than this guy and we didn't have too much trouble.  There was more ice than deep snow.  We reached the summit in good time and a whole lot of wind.  I took only a few pictures, my hands got too cold, too quick for anything more.  We high fived, knowing this was a great accomplishment.

On Boundary, with Iroquois ahead

Lake Colden and Flowed Lands

Iroquois

Algonquin from Boundary

The ascent up to Algonquin was quite windy, but surprisingly quick with little traction problems.  From the Heart Lake side, I had to turn around one winter because I just didn't have enough traction from my snowshoes.  The descent would be icy, but it was quite manageable.  We ran into a guy who had skied up above timberline.  Apparently, he wouldn't be going much farther because his quads were shot.  Imagine that!

Algonquin looms ahead

Rime Ice

Heading up Algonquin

The ridge up Wright Peak we would be going up

Ian and I were quite determined to get up Wright and we made it to the junction before our designated time.  The first part of the ascent, I was shot.  It's steep, but I was worn out.  We reached a ledge that surprisingly  I ascended without much difficulty.  Soon though, I had some problems on the thick ice.  I managed with some help.  The wind was quite strong.  We also met a guy who was with his dog.  Pretty hardcore.  The dog didn't seem to mind.  He appeared to be happy to be out.

Ian leading the way down Algonquin

Wright Peak

Mt Colden

Big Slide from Wright

Most people summit the three of these mountains as an out and back from Heart Lake (I did previously).  When we were on the summit, we called our feat the Trifecta Plus.  All three via Avalanche Lake.  I struggled a bit going down so I just got on my butt and slid.  I had great difficulty going down the ledge, but Ian helped me through.  Yesterday, I had no difficulty whatsoever with microspikes.  It was a good learning experience, finding the limits of my snowshoes.

The descent was quite peaceful compared to the bitter winds above treeline.  It took me 7 and a half hours to complete the Trifecta Plus in winter.  Now it was time to enjoy a great meal with new found friends.

Near sunset

Even snowmen do hand stands

Mt Jo and Algonquin entering the Loj

The ski jumps