Mount Adams

Dingo and I decided to head out to Hike Mt. Adams which is located in Upper Works of Tahawus. This area has always seemed erie to me, an old abandoned mining town. Just like the many across the country, this place was once a prosperous mining community, like many before it, has shuttered its doors.

There are many mountains in this area, several are considered some of the 46 high peaks of New York. Mt Adams is not one of them, but offers some of the best views of the High Peaks, especially from its restored fire tower. The ADKHighpeaks Foundation took on the restoration, and much can be read upon it at their website.

Dingo and I had a late start. We left the house around 9:30 and made our way to Upper Works, its about an hour and a half drive to the trail-head. I was surprised when we arrived at the trail-head that there were no other hikers in that area, we would be alone all day.

We signed in at the trail register at 11:30. The trail was in pretty good shape, it was still cold enough the ground was frozen, it was 28 degrees when we left the truck, but that would change as the temperature rose throughout the day. The trail consisted of ice and frozen spine. The spine is the remnants of the packed trail from snowshoeing. This year has not been a very good year for snow, a lot more ice than anything.

We made our way down to the swinging foot bridge, and soon found myself on the other-side, alone. I looked back and poor Dingo didn't want to come across it. I had taken advantage of it, and never really gave it a thought that he had yet to experience a swinging foot bridge, that was screened and you could see the flowing river through it. With a little bit of encouragement he soon followed suit and was on the other-side with me. This earned him a lot of praises!

The trail continued down towards Lake Jimmy. The floating bridge has long been gone, but now there is a trail around the north end of the lake, that sweeps around to the other side where we picked up the original trail. The trail continues to a junction with Mt Adams trail that veers left of the main trail, and if you were to continue straight it would take you to Allen mountain, one of the 46 high peaks.

The trail up to Mt Adams is pretty uneventful, zigzagging up the mountain. At about the halfway point I decided to put on my micro-spikes, as there was a few places with a hard flow ice, I would end up keeping them on until I returned back to the junction.

This hike is very rewarding, and one starts to get some decent views about halfway up. Before you know it a bench appears, and the girders of the fire tower can be seen. We arrived at the summit just before 2pm.

The views from the fire tower are amazing.