Lyon Mountain

Took a hike up Lyon Mt today with great company, and earn the hike towards the winter Adirondack fire tower challenge. My son had mentioned he'd like to hike this gem at some point, and I needed no further excuse to take the time and oblige him.

The forecast wasn't to be a bluebird day, but it also wasn't going to be brutally cold, or to warm either. The previous warm weather we had created a lot of snow melt. That along with some who hiked during that time without snowshoes did a fair amount of damage to the trail.

We were able to drive all the way up to the trail-head without any problem, it did require 4 wheel drive though. The road was in good shape with about 6 inches of new snow, and there was no blow down so it made for a good passage.

When we arrived at the trail-head there was about 4-6 inches that had fallen over night. That accumulation increased to about 8 inches on the summit. The light fluffy unconsolidated snow covered the snow spine of the trail, and the post holes. Going up was a lot better than going down. We wore snowshoes the entire way. With the continued cold tempts this weekend hopefully others will do the same.

We took the new trail up which made for a nice 6-7 mile round trip hike.

Only Dingo came with us today as Hattie and Misty are both on the side line as they recover from knee surgery in August, and more recently the other has a lacerated paw pad. So today was a boys day out.

We started at 9:05am took our sweet time reaching the summit at 12:45. We were back at the truck at 3:05pm.

Loon Lake Mountain

Loon Lake mountain is reported not to see a lot of foot traffic, and therefor seldom mentioned. I think this has changed this year, as I have seen a lot of trip reports recently on this hike, and it is a beauty of a hike too.

The information at http://www.cnyhiking.com states the hike is just under 6 miles round trip. The entire hike is an easy grade, except for the last mile which is where you gain a lot of the 1651 feet of elevation in the hike. The trail climbs a total of 1200 feet in that last mile. It may be daunting for some, but it makes for some great butt sliding on the way down in the winter.

The trail was easy enough to follow, one needs to just pay attention at the various intersections along the way. As I said earlier its a gradual elevation gain until you cross over the last foot bridge. Along the way we seen either old deer rubs or moose. It was also kind of neat to still see the old telco poles that I assume brought either phone or the ability for telematic communication to the tower.

As of today the trail is packed out nicely with the traffic it has seen, and hikers wearing their snowshoes. We wore snowshoes the entire way.

We started at 9am and took our time arriving at the summit just before noon. The trip out is always faster, especially when you can butt slide down. We were back at the truck just before 2pm.