Negotiating Crane Mountain

This weekend Sarah and I visited my parents in Latham to spend some time with the fam and celebrate my father’s birthday (albeit a couple of weeks late). Considering our weekend base-camp’s proximity to the Adirondacks, we had the perfect opportunity to head out for a day of snowshoeing. Of course, we took full advantage of this and made our way to Crane Mountain. This time we had company, as Sarah’s brother (my new brother-in-law) Peter and his roommate Tom came along for the hike.

Crane Mountain is in the tiny hamlet of Thurman in the southern part of the Adirondack Park. Although it stands at a modest 3240 feet, it is significantly taller than the mountains around it. That coupled with its several bare rock ledges make it a rather impressive looking mountain. In her book 50 Hikes in the Adirondacks, Barbara McMartin calls Crane her favorite peak in the park. While I’m not quite ready to give it that label, it certainly was a great mountain to hike.

After picking up Pete and Tom in Saratoga and grabbing some sandwiches, we set off to the trailhead (or at least as close to it as we could get). We started out at about noon and had the makings of a beautiful day. The first part of the walk was along an un-maintained road for about 0.4 miles until we reached the actual trailhead. We then entered the woods and almost immediately began to climb…steeply. The steep grade combined with the significant amount of snow and the frequent ice made for rather slow going. We were rewarded early for our efforts as good views were available almost immediately through the thin forest.

Eventually the grade leveled off and we reached the first of many open rock ledges, providing good views to the west. As we continued along the trail we soon entered a beautiful pine forest. Heavy snow blanketed the forest, giving it surreal feel. We caught occasional glimpses of the steep rock ledges above that drop from the summit, and the rock's contrast with the incredibly deep blue sky was stunning. Soon we emerged from the forest and began to climb again. Two ladders had been placed along the trail to assist climbers in ascending some tricky sections. Finally, we walked on to the summit, and it was awesome. Views to the south and west were completely unobstructed. To the north we could see the High Peaks through an opening in the trees; and to the east we had views into Vermont. The sky was so clear and so blue that it seemed like we could see forever.

We stood for as long as we could on the summit, but the chilling wind was making it difficult to keep warm. So after snapping several pictures and posing for a group photo we continued across the summit ridge and began the descent to Crane Mountain Pond. (I’d like to thank the crazy guy on the summit who took our picture just before he took his shirt off and lay down in the snow. I know you said it was a tradition, but that’s a little ridiculous.) The descent was very steep, but it was so much fun. As Peter would say, we “charged it”, flying down the mountain in what might best be described as controlled chaos (and I use the term “controlled” quite loosely). We quickly came to the pond, which was nice, but nothing too special.

Continuing on, we climbed gradually away from the pond. Soon we came back to the first clearing that we saw on the way up. We were not supposed to be here again, but at some point we made a wrong turn and took a cut-off trail instead of completing the loop. No worries, though, as this was one of the nicest spots on the mountain. Here we sat in the sun and out of the wind to enjoy our lunch before resuming our descent. Our wrong turn was not all good, however, as now we had to negotiate some of the tricky spots that made the climb up difficult. A few sections required a bit of creativity. The preferred method by most was the soon to be patented “Tommy T. Tushie Slide.” My method was seldom as pretty, but just as effective. Peter described it best as part barrel roll and part "Tommy T. Tushie Slide." (Sorry, there is no video of this). Either way, much fun was had by all. While I was struggling most to control my speed, Sarah was having equal amounts of trouble controlling her laughter. Thankfully, we all survived and completed the hike in a grand total of about 3 hours and 15 minutes.

All-in-all, it was a tremendous hike. A beautiful day on an awesome mountain with great company…it doesn’t get better than that! On the way home, we enjoyed some delicious, well-deserved beers by the fire at The Log Jam Restaurant in Lake George (Pete and Tom can be seen doing so at right). As always, you can find the full photo album from the hike here. We’ll be heading to Vermont this coming weekend, so hopefully we’ll have another hike to write about soon. Hope you all have a great week, and we’ll talk to you soon!

Winter Weekend in Keene, part 2 - Snow Mountain

Our Saturday evening in the North Country included a delicious dinner at Tip A Canoe in Keene and drinks by the fire at the Ausable Inn in Keene Valley. We woke up to snow on Sunday morning and planned to hike the small but rewarding Snow Mountain. After our second consecutive breakfast at Cedar Run Bakery, we made our way to the trail head in St. Huberts.

We chose to approach Snow Mountain via the Deer Brook trail. Initially the trail follows the brook very closely, crossing it several times. At times, we would be standing on a frozen part of the brook and could hear (and sometimes even see) the water rushing beneath our feet. It was very slow going, as we had numerous rather steep scrambles to negotiate. We gladly welcomed the challenge, partially because it was such a contrast from the generally easy walking we did the day before, but also because the trail was so beautiful.

Eventually we climbed out of the ravine and away from Deer Brook and began a slight but steady ascent to Snow Mountain. The trail only steepened for the last couple tenths of a mile before we emerged on the mostly open summit. At only 2362 feet of elevation, Snow Mountain is dwarfed by its much more prominent neighbors. However, climbers are rewarded with nice views of those other peaks. On this day, views to the south and east were mostly snowed in, although we did get a glimpse of Giant and Noonmark Mountains through the light snow. Our best view was of the cliffs on Rooster Comb Mountain, but even that was a little hazy. All of our pictures from the hike can be seen here.

The descent was a breeze, mainly because we choose not to walk back along Deer Brook, but to take the “high-water” route instead. This amounted to walking down a gravel road for the last half-mile or so. After enjoying a hearty lunch at the Noonmark Diner, we began the trek home. Heavy snow turned the usual 4.5 hour ride into a 7+ hour marathon. Even still, it was a wonderful weekend, and we can’t wait to head back to the area.

Winter Weekend in Keene (Avalanche Pass hike)

This past weekend Sarah and I visited one of our favorite places in the world, the High Peaks region of the Adirondacks. I booked the weekend for the two of us and put it under the Christmas tree for Sarah, although it's just as much a present for me, too. We stayed at the shiny new Dartbrook Lodge in Keene. As is to be expected at an Adirondack lodge, rustic is the theme, and they pull it off nicely.

We arrived to bitter cold temperatures on Friday night. It was the kind of cold that makes you cough when you take a deep breath and freezes whatever may be in your nose at the time. The temperature gauge read as low as 16 below on our return trip to the lodge after dinner in Lake Placid. Despite the cold, Saturday morning we planned a hike through the spectacular Avalanche pass. The hike starts slowy, departing from the Adirondack Loj and heading to Marcy Dam. The sun did try and fight through the trees from time to time, giving us some nice shots along the trail.

Eventually we began the steep climb up into the pass and saw the results of a recent avalanche, evident by the barren slopes above and the tangled mess of trees in the pass.

After climbing down from the pass, we emerged on to the frozen shores of Avalanche Lake. It was an incredible sight, sheer cliffs rising directly out of the lake on each side. We ventured out on to the lake just far enough to get a view of the famous Trap Dike on Mount Colden, but were forced to turn back by the bone-chilling wind (that really doesn't do it justice...it was more of a bone-freezing wind). Fortunately, we were able to snap a couple of pictures before our hands became entirely useless. We returned the way we came, completing the 9.2 mile hike in just shy of 5 hours. Of course, we rewarded ourselves with a beer and some soup from the Lake Placid Pub & Brewery before heading back to the lodge.

Well, I've just finished my beer (from the LPP&B, of course) and it is getting late, so I will get to the remainder of the weekend at another time. For now, enjoy a few more pictures from the hike (the whole album is available via the link in the margin above) and we'll be back with more soon.

Welcome!

Greetings, and welcome to our blog! Sarah and I have been toying with the idea of starting a blog for a little while and finally decided to go ahead and do it. We plan to mainly post about the hikes that we do for our family and friends to read about, but I'm sure we'll end up posting about a little of everything. Thanks for stopping by...enjoy!