Mud Pond

This a short hike at around 3 miles round trip. The trail is all gradual incline, at some point follows an old jeep trail for a short distance. It is an enjoyable hike meandering through conifer and hard woods until coming to Mud Pond itself.

Upper Wolfjaw and Armtstrong Mtns

Derek and I headed out by the St Hubert's trail-head where it looked like spring was arriving quickly. we got my stuff together and headed down the road to the Adirondack Club at 8:20 AM. There were just patches of snow around, but brought crampons and micro-spikes.

After signing in at the gate, we walked the 1.76 miles down Lake Road where things were looking more wintry. Here we crossed over the river by the Beaver Meadows Trail to the connection with the Wedge Brook Trail. I put on my micro-spikes further up the trail, just below the col between the Wolfjaws as the trail was finally covered in a hard packed snow with a light dusting on top. The trail had a nice steady grade up to the col between Upper and Lower Wolfjaw.

The steep descent and ascent were as tiring as always and there were some icy spots, but I managed just fine with my micro-spikes. At the summit there were no views. We could faintly see Armstrong in the west. The wind was strong so we only stopped to switch to crampons before making our way up Armstrong. I only put the crampons on in expectation of the steep ascent to Armstrong, but I likely would have been OK with micro-spikes. We didn't see the ladder on the ascent so I assume it was still covered by the remaining snow. Armstrong was otherwise uneventful and we took a video and many pictures, we finally took off towards Gothics and reached the col.

Conditions on Gothics looked windy and cold with whiteout conditions, much like what is was when we hiked it prior. so we only stayed a few minutes in the col before heading down the Beaver Meadows Falls trail. Descending I kept my crampons on till about halfway down, and enjoyed a few good butt slides down to the lake. There we started the long slog back down Lake Road all the way to the gate.

Mt. Marshall

A nice crisp morning started the day. I'm not sure what the temps were but everything was still frozen solid.

We signed in at 7am and tested the trail just beyond the sign in, and decided it was a go to use micro-spikes until Calamity Brook lean-to as it was a solid base. We switched over to our snowshoes to cross over flowed lands and they would stay on the rest of the day.

The trail up Marshall is well packed out and any false paths are obscure now. As the temps rose the layers shed and the snow bombs dropped. We arrived at the summit shortly after noon and were soon greeted by another hiker. Anyone out yesterday knew the views were superb. We relaxed on the summit for an hour having lunch and enjoying the views.

We started back down a little after 1pm, back at Herbert Brook LT at 2:30pm and at upper works at 5pm. A great day to be out.

Allen and Santanoni TH's were overflowing with cars.

Mt. Gilligan

February 10, 2013

This was a nice little hike with Cindy and Brian. It was a surprise hike so to speak as they packed in cupcakes for the summit, and sang happy birthday to me. A beautiful little hike that has some decent views.

Around 2.5 miles round trip
Elevation gain of 713 feet.

Gothics Mt.

Derek, Mark, Adam, myself, and a friend of Adams set out to hike Gothics. All 3 off us needed it for some list (regular or winter season), or another.

We parked at the traditional Saint Hubert's parking lot, where we began our hike around 5am and hiked up to the Ausable Club gate. The Ausable Club allows hikers and outdoor enthusiast access to the peaks through their property (no dogs or bicycles allowed). This is an agreement in place with New York State. It is a fortunate agreement because it allows closer access to several high peaks of the Adirondacks. Without this access there would be a lot longer approaches to several peaks.

The infamous Lake Road walk is always described as a slog. I too have learned not to like it, but I have to tell you, at the end of a long day hiking, its nice to not have to worry about where you place your feet, you just chug along down the road, it allows you to make some time.

We took the Beaver Meadows Falls trail up to the col between Gothics and Armstrong. It has a steady steep climb to it, but you make some prett good time and gain a lot of elevation in the process. Its a typical Adirondack climb, with some really cool features along the way, one of which is when you cross over the slide up above, and the ladder down near the falls. The slide crossing is at a point (maybe halfway to the col) where you can look up towards the summit of Gothics, and down the slide (with Noonmark Mtn summit I believe in the distance) and marvel at the power of mother nature. I'm not sure when the slide was created, but definitely a result of copious amounts of water.

The climb up is fairly benign until you get just below the col, where there is a short section that is a bit unnerving. You are exposed to the cliff, and the feeling is you could slide off the mountain, if it wasn't for a few trees.

Once in the col its basically a ridge walk up to the summit of Gothics. On our day it was pretty windy and all overcast skies, so we had zero views. It was a bit unnerving going up the cornice as it was loaded with snow. Not knowing if you were on solid ground, or on a snow drift with almost zero visibility.

We arrived at the summit around 2pm, which was really non-climactic as there were no views. With that in mind we turned around after a quick summit photo session, and scooted back down to the col for shelter out of the direct wind.

This is a trip we hope to make again when the weather is better. This mountain has fantastic views, on a clear day.

We were back at the car around 6pm.
Round trip 10.2 miles
Elevation gain 3299'