BlazeToBlaze

  • August 29 – Rooster Comb

    High Peaks Wilderness

    4.82 miles

    11768 feet elevation gain

     

    Rooster Comb is on the alternate list of ADK 29 mountains.

    Today was a gorgeous day, not like the last time I tried this.  Although it was chilly, for August; I saw 45 on the drive up, it was 48 at the trailhead.  I got the last, legal, parking space in the lot.  When I got back down it was a small circus in the parking lot; there were cars all over the place.

    It was a pleasant walk up; I didn’t see anyone.  And with all those cars in the lot I was a little surprised.  The sign-in book had a couple of groups attempting a great range traverse.  I didn’t see anyone on the trail until I started down.  Many people take this route, the trail is pretty straight forward.   My first challenge started with the ladder near the top.

    Ladder near the top

     

    I went straight to the top.  There is a junction to some views, which I saved until after the top.  Here are some pictures from the top:

     

  • August 15 – Moxham Mountain

    Vanderwhacker Mountain Wild Forest

    5.2 Miles

    1179 feet elevation gain

     

    Moxham mountain, named for surveyor Robert Moxham.  According to local legend and history, the mountain was named because he slipped off on of he viewpoints to his death.  We would not be renaming the mountain on this date.  And check out the benchmark.  It has a funny spelling of the mountain.  While the mountain has a connection to Colvin, he didn’t climb it; there was a signal tower there at one time.

    I was back at Moxham leading a hike for the Glens Falls Saratoga chapter of the Adirondack Mountain Club.  Six hikers braved the climb with me.  I say “braved” but it was kind of easy.  A gorgeous day in the mid-70s found us at the trailhead.  And the mosquitoes were not going to carry me away.  The trail to the top was a breeze, we stopped at each of the overlooks; there was some debate on the actual number of overlooks.  It’s more than eight.  The last overlook is looking directly at the cliffs of the mountain, and the mountain seems so far away.  Yet, we were at the summit in no time with the trail wrapping around the backside of the mountain.

    The views.  Oh my, the views.

    An easy trail with no scrambling.

    I highly recommend the hike.  In my book it has one of the best views for the least amount of work

    The view from the top of Moxham

  • August 8 – Snow Mountain

    Eastern High Peaks Wilderness

    4.64 miles

    1342 feet – elevation gain

     

    I was going to pair Rooster Comb with Snow mountain and get them both done.  The weather was iffy, so I knew I was taking a chance.  All the pull out parking lots on 73 were full, I didn’t have much hope. Getting to the Rooster Comb lot, I got the last (dry) space in the lot.  Anyone who came after me, parked in a puddled.  Narrator:  No one came after me.

    It was a pleasant hike.  There wasn’t much to it.  When I got to the top, there was a typical Adirondack scramble up some slab rock to the summit.  And a great view was to be had.  I started around 8, and by 9:00 the fog had burned off and the clouds were significantly lifting.  I thought I might get lucky even though the humidity was high.  You could look south, south west into AMR and easily see the high peaks.   And if you looked in the right location, you could see the big old hotel on AMR property.  I could see the road I walked on my way to Indian Head.  It looked pretty long, even from far away.  It felt long, walking it.

    After sitting for a while, I felt a drop.  Then another.  Even though there were bright skies in front of me, I didn’t realize there were dark black clouds behind me.  A snap decision was made that I would go for Rooster Comb another day.  Even though I was so close.

    I almost ran down the mountain.  I could hear the rain on the tree canopy above me though I didn’t get too wet.  It felt like the humidity had gone up.  When I got back down to the lot, it was full on raining and I figured I was glad I didn’t extend the day.

    The view looking off Snow Mountain

    All that was left was to head to the Noonmark Diner and get some pie.  When I came out, the sun was out.

  • August 1 – Goodnow mountain

    Huntington Wildlife Forest

    4.03 miles

    1012 feet of elevation gain

     

    I set out as a goal for the year to finish the Adirondack Fire Tower challenge.  This was the last one!  I’m done, and I plan on visiting the other fire towers at some point.  But there is no more rush.

    This day started off really foggy, in fact, I didn’t think I was going to have any views at all.  I was the first car in the parking lot; I had heard that this trail and parking lot can get busy, especially on the summer weekends.  At the time, being the only car in the parking lot had its advantages.

    The trail was rather easy.  There was mud in a couple of spots, more than I would have liked,  But, it wouldn’t be the Adirondacks without mud somewhere.  I kept telling myself that.  In all fairness, there was a ton of rain this week, and it could have been a lot worst.  Much worse.  Since I was the first one going up, I had to break through all of the spider webs – I felt a little like Indiana Jones in the first scene of the first movie.

    After a little more than an hour, I reached the top; and had it to myself.  There was a great view to the south. Not one for going up the tower, I went up to the first landing so I could get an even better view.  As I was the only one, I stuck around for a bit before heading down.  That’s when I saw how many people were coming up.  The trip down took me about 40 minutes or so and I returned to a parking lot that was full of cars.

    The Octopus Tree

     

     

    The view south from the first landing

  • July 25 2026 – Bald Mountain/Rondaxe and Stillwater fire towers

    Two down, one more to go.  That’s it, and the ADK Fire Tower Challenge will be complete.  I drove up to Old Forge for the day to bang out two (relatively) easy fire towers.  Bald Mountain/Rondaxe was the first to be done, at around 8:30 in the morning.  The parking lot, on Rondaxe Road, was only about halfway full when I got there.  By the time I finished, it was packed.  I mean, zoo-like.  The trail to the tower is about a mile. The first couple of hundred yards is a typical Adirondack trail.  Once you go up rocks, you’ll be on rocks the entire time.  It was a lot of fun, and not very long.  At the top, you can climb the tower, but there are great views of the lake without even climbing.  It was a little more than a half hour to the top, less than a half hour on the way down.

    Upon reaching my car, I drove to the Stillwater mountain trailhead, down Big Moose Road.  After a hard right turn, the road becomes dirt and gravel.  At least it wasn’t rutted with potholes.  However, it was almost eight miles from the point of the turn onto dirt to the trailhead.  Again, the trail was about a mile long, the steward up top said 1.2 miles.  My GPS said it was less than that.  This was a typical Adirondack trail, nothing to write home about.  There are no views at the top without climbing the tower.  I didn’t.  A quick uneventful descent ended my day.  There was nothing left but the ride home.

    Here’s a view of the lakes while going up Bald Mountain:

  • Moxham Mountain

    Vanderwhacker Mountain Wild Forest

    Distance:  5.12 Miles

    Elevation Gain: 1179 feet

     

    I read about this mountain and added it to my list of mountains to get to.  My list is long, longer that I’ll ever get to.  However, the last time I lead a hike there were many on the hike that said they would want to climb Moxham.  All  had heard, as I did, that the views were insane.  There were many views to be had, for not a lot of work.

    My only detraction is that I though the mosquitoes at the trailhead were going to carry me off.  After the hike I changed out of my boots while in the car.

    But the views.  Wow.  The views were insane.  There are multiple view points and overlooks on the way up.  I timed my hike perfectly (by luck) in that I didn’t get any rain.  I heard the rain on the way down, and it didn’t start pouring until the drive home.

    Going up, there was a steep climb to the top of a hill after signing the trail register.  After that, there was nothing to really write home about except for the views.  While there were some rocks, there were no scrambles.  From the last iconic viewpoint to the top was more noticeably steep than the rest of the hike, but it was certainly manageable.  Did I mention the views?

    the view from Moxham Mountain

     

    A couple of facts I learned about Moxham Mountain:

    • Moxham mountain was surveyed by Robert Moxham as he was surveying a 12600-acre tract as part of “Dominick’s Patent” in 1798.  It is said (I’m not sure by whom) that he died by slipping off one of the cliffs.
    • In the late 1800s, Verplanck Colvin had a wood signal tower installed at the summit.  The iron rings used to secure the tower are still in the rock (and visible) today.
    • The geological survey marker (benchmark) has the name of the mountain misspelled as “Maxam”,  Maxam being the name of the survey tower/station, not the mountain.

  • Hello World! v2.0

    I’ve reactivated the site.  Bonus points for anyone that actually comes back to the site after the site’s disappearance for so long.  I’ve moved, still hike every week, and want to chronicle some of the activities.  

    On a recent trip to Sleeping Beauty, I caught this picture:  

    The view from Sleeping Beauty