Noonmark

Trip Report:  A Glorious Noonmark Day Hike

Dates:          October 1, 2000

Team:          Mike, Rick

Location:     Adirondack High Peaks

Destination: Noonmark Mountain (3,556')

Approach:    Ausable Club parking to trailhead

Author:         Mike

Summary:

Hiking with Rick is always a hoot! Whenever Rick visits the Adirondack High Peaks, his goal is to hike - every possible day! Mike, being of a similar mindset, is always happy to oblige him. As if the disappointing discovery of poor views after hiking to the top of Lower Wolf Jaw the day before created an insatiable hunger for a new hike, Mike & Rick eagerly hiked up Noonmark in just under two hours! Then, they proceeded to spend over an hour atop this bald summit, eating lunch and soaking up the beautiful 360 degree views on this warm and cloudless day! It was glorious! The hike down was just over 2 hours, and we regrouped with Teena (whose feet were sore from yesterday's Lower Wolf Jaw hike) in Lake Placid by 3:00pm.

Details:

The weather was the best possible hiking weather anyone anywhere could hope for. The skies were totally clear and the temperatures reached into the 70s (Fahrenheit) after a cool morning start in the lower 50 degree range. We parked at the Ausable club entrance around 10:00am, and proceeded to hike from the Ausable trailhead immediately.

And almost immediately, the trail ascended at a steep pitch. Then the pitch increased. And then again. For two hours, Rick & Mike hiked furiously in a lung-busting exercise that tested the limits of their stamina. At least the hike was convenient in its directness. Although the trail wasn't a straight path, it's pretty safe to say that we didn't waste too many vertical steps on the way up. We stopped several times to let our desk-jockey physiques wheeze their way back to life. At each stop, we chortled between desperate gasps for air at how much elevation gain we'd made in the short time since our last rest stop.

The summit was basking in the hot noon-day sun as a young couple began their descent, and we finished our ascendancy to the summit throne. The summit was all ours for over an hour, and the views were some of the most spectacular of any mountain in the Adirondacks. The entire Great Range from Lower Wolf Jaw to Gothics looked like we could just reach across and climb onto it. The great cone of Dix Mountain to the southwest and Giant Mountain in the East were larger than life. The Ausable Club and its grounds were clearly visible below us.  After such a breakneck pace, there were only two things to do after we finished sightseeing… Eat lunch and nap. Yes, we ate our lunch, took in the views, and then napped beneath the blazing October sun!

Our descent down was quick, but not as frenetic as the ascent. On the way down, we passed many parties, the first of which were arriving at the summit as we were departing. One by one, we passed each new party as we descended. We finally stopped to talk with a young father who had his 4 year old daughter and two other girls with him. We spent the rest of the hike discussing ways that we can hike these mountains with our own children some day. Granted Mike has no children yet, but who knows what the future holds?

We met with Teena in Lake Placid around 3:00pm, walked around for a half hour, and then drove back to Rochester.

What experiences did we bring back with us? The Noonmark hike proves that some of the best hikes in the Adirondacks do not have to be part of "the 46."  This hike is an awesome hike that any skill level can partake in (just take it slower than we did), and it provides some of the best views anywhere!

Pictures:

TBD - Converting all the old trip reports into this blog 

Lower Wolf Jaws

Trip Report:  A Stubborn hike up Lower Wolf Jaw

Dates:          September 30, 2000

Team:          Mike, Teena, & Rick Allen

Location:     Adirondack High Peaks

Destination: Lower Wolf Jaw (4,175') & Upper Wolf Jaw (4,185')

Approach:    Ausable Club parking to trailhead

Author:         Mike

Summary:

This was our second hiking trip in the High Peaks with Rick. He joined us for a trip up Cascade Mountain last year, and then hiked Giant Mountain (solo) the following day. This year, Rick joined us for another 2-day excursion. The hike to Lower Wolf Jaws was a stubborn one with flare-ups of Mike's knee, Teena's foot, and Rick's hamstring hobbling our efforts. As a result, it took over five hours to hike to the crowded summit. At the junction point between Upper and Lower Wolf Jaws, it was decided to hike Lower Wolf Jaw first. We made this decision more for strategic reasons than we did for any other. Strategically, we felt that if we didn't have time to hike both, Lower Wolf Jaw was the better choice to hike NOW since it was slightly more out of the way to hike in the future. Upper Wolf Jaw could more easily be combined with a second mountain hike in the future without having to traverse old ground, or so Mike's 46'er wannabe reasoning went.

Details:

It was a good day for hiking as the skies were mostly clear and the temperatures reached as high as 70 degrees Fahrenheit. We parked at the Ausable club entrance around 8:00am, and proceeded to hike from the trailhead behind the Ausable club immediately.

Within a half hour, Mike's knee (patellar tendonitis) started to act up. So we increased the number of rest stops. This was good since Rick was nursing a poor hamstring acquired at one of our softball games earlier in the summer. After two hours at a leisurely pace, Teena's foot flared up as well. Our hiking was quite the merry event after that since we each had an ailment, and our pace was so slow.

We finally reached the junction point between Upper & Lower Wolf Jaws after nearly five hours of hiking. No one complained. Why should we? It was a nice pace and it was a beautiful day. The team decided to hike Lower Wolf Jaw based on Mike's strategic rationale… Sounds of rebellion were in the air however as the rag-tag beat up team reached a summit that was crowded by both trees and other hikers. Through the trees, there was only one clear view from the summit, but like the city streets we sought refuge from, it was clogged by people.  We took a number and waited our turn in line to take pictures from the open ledge. Then we found the only piece of open real estate - a most uncomfortable boulder slanting down into the trees on the north face - and sat down to eat our lunch and nurse our wounds. Amazingly, our trip down was much easier. Was there something in the food?  We bought sandwiches at a little Deli in Keane Valley with such delicacies as vegetable bread.  Was there an added benefit - a special ingredient or elixir baked into that wonderful bread? Or maybe the calls from a couple of pub burgers and mugs of micro-brewed beer motivated our pace!  Regardless… We finished our descent in about 3.5 hours, and the ailments that slowed our initial ascent all but disappeared. We drove back to Lake Placid where we gulped down the latest nut brown beers and fed on burgers at the Lake Placid Brew Pub

What will we remember?  Awesome weather, beat up bodies, and great conversation will get you to the summit, but slowly.  The Lower Wolf Jaw summit views were a bit of a let down - after all, a good part of the reason we hike is for the views.  However, that's what happens when we "wing it" since we prefer to experience the views without reading about them first!  J

Pictures:

TBD - Converting all the old trip reports into this blog 

Table Top & Phelps - Aborted

Trip Report:  An Electrifying Hike to Table Top and Phelps

Dates:          September 2, 2000

Team:          Mike & Teena

Location:     Adirondack High Peaks

Destination: Table Top (4,427') & Phelps (4,161')

Approach:    Adirondack Loj trailhead

Author:         Mike

Summary:

We set up our campsite on Friday night at Whispering Pines campground after the obligatory 5-hour ride from Rochester. On Saturday (Sept. 2), we attempted to hike Tabletop (4,427') & Phelps (4,161') mountains, but were turned away by some very nasty thunderstorms and torrential rainfall once we made it to Indian Falls. We visited our home away from home, Lake Placid, again on the rainy Sunday that followed, and departed to go home on Monday morning.

Details:

I've been told that you learn something every time you hike in the Adirondacks. On this trip, we learned that there is an insidious nature to mountain storms… Somewhere around 3,500' we hiked into a dense, wet fog. In reality, it was a cloud. And, as we soon learned with a blinding flash, static crackle, and deafening roar… It was a thundercloud!

There we were…  Standing just shy of Indian Falls, ready to begin the last leg of the ascent up Tabletop Mountain. Our intentions were to reach the summit of Tabletop, and then visit the top of Phelps on the way back to the Loj parking lot. In an instant, our dreams for the day would be all wet. While hiking to the Indian Falls landmark, we entered a cloud - not uncommon for hiking in these parts. There wasn't anything particularly special or menacing about this cloud - or perhaps we need to attend an outdoors clinic ("How to identify thunderstorms while hiking"). Not even a rumble was heard to announce what was to come…

Suddenly, our hair stood on the well-defined goose bumps coating our skin as an electrostatic charge filled the air around us. Then… The instantaneous blinding flash and deafening roar of an uncomfortably close lightening strike turned our nerves to jelly! The air became liquefied as torrential rain fell upon us, and the trail began to disappear under newly formed streams of water. With more haste than precaution, we scampered down the hill like gazelle! Again & again, crackling zaps of static electricity with brilliant flashes and deafening rumbles accompanied us in our rain-soaked scramble to Marcy Dam. Our wonderful weekend excursion of high peaks hiking became a desperate race to safety. Ironically, as soon as we arrived at the Marcy Dam campsite, the thunder subsided into distant rumbling echoes. The rain still fell in torrents however, and we sloshed our way through the rest of our hike back to our car at the Loj parking lot. Once back, Mike took great pleasure in drawing cartoonish images in the trail register of lightening bolts "zooting" merry hikers! Despite the rain, we still cooked our steaks and drank Merlot at the campsite under the handy tarp we erected the night before.  We comfortably slept that night atop our queen-sized air mattress in our family-sized tent under the pitter-patter of constant heavy rainfall.  It doesn't get much better than that.  Since Sunday was also very wet, we decided to head into Lake Placid where we purchased winter boots for Teena, and "antique" snowshoes for our sports wall back home.  We departed on Monday morning after breaking camp and packing away our thoroughly soaked tent & supplies.

Overall, the trip was a roaring blast!

After all, how many times in life do you get to experience events that are so awesome that you are accused of exaggerating their stories even though you've toned down the truth somewhat?

Pictures:

TBD - Converting all the old trip reports into this blog

Gothics

Trip Report:  A Stone Phillips "Survivor!" Story on Gothics?

Dates:          May 6, 2000

Team:          Mike Bowen & Mark Salas

Location:     Adirondack High Peaks

Destination: Gothics Peak (4,736')

Approach:    Ausable Club parking to trailhead

Author:         Mike

Summary:

After the obligatory 5-hour ride from Rochester on Friday night, we checked into the Woodlake Motor Lodge on Saranac Avenue in Lake Placid. Our intended excursion was to hike the summits of Gothics (4,736') and Armstrong (4,400') Peaks. Due to the extensive post-hole maneuvering we performed up to the summit of Gothics, we did not have enough time to hike Armstrong and get back before dark. So we hiked down the back side of Gothics peak, into the messy abyss left in the wake of Tropical Storm Floyd six months earlier. We didn't stay at the top of Gothics for any period of time due to very high winds and cold temperatures. At the end of the day, we had dinner at the Artist's Café in Lake Placid, and drove back to Rochester on Sunday, but not until we got some good mountain biking in!

Details:

What a fantabulously beautiful day! We could not have asked for better weather at the onset of our hiking adventure. The skies were partly cloudy (mostly sunny!) and the temperatures, though cool at the start, reached between 40 and 50 degrees Fahrenheit. We started hiking the dirt road to Ausable lake early, and reached the dam in good time. We were feeling rather competent that the results of this day would yield great stories of mountains conquered. Maybe something was in the air. Could the fresh scents of spring have clouded our vision? Nah… We were mountain men. So began the day.

The ascent to Gothics was rather smooth and easy. That is… Until we hit the snow pack. Although we brought our snowshoes, we decided to leave them in the car. After all, it was May and we just finished with another easy winter. Lack of snowshoes hampered our trip immensely as we both post-holed our way up the mountain. Our once brisk pace slowed to a painful crawl. To add additional interest to the story, we started to hear rumbles ("is that thunder?") as the skies darkened, the temperatures dropped, and the winds picked up. But… We were determined, and we reached the summit around 1:00pm.

Before reaching the summit, we stopped for a quick lunch on a false summit, and took some pictures. We were pretty badly beat up - our shins were cut & bruised from the constant post-holing despite the fact that we were wearing gators. The temperature had dropped precipitously during our ascent, and the winds were very fierce, nearly knocking each of us off. Since we burned most of our energy on the ascent, and the weather was turning ugly, we decided to high-tail it out of there as quickly as possible!

Why is it that when choosing to take the path already traveled or to take the "other" path down from a summit, we humans usually take the "other" path? Is it for the experiences? Is it for the thrill? For certainly, we had BOTH on the way down. In hiking the trail between Gothics & Armstrong, we reached a point where the damage from Tropical storm Floyd made the trail impassable. At this point, we had to decide between hiking back up the mountain, or finding our way down, trail-less, amongst blow down and mudslide damage. We chose to hike down.

Throughout the hike down, we encountered blow down and damage on a scale that is hard for us to conceive to this day. We climbed over, across, under, and through mud, brush, trees, etc. At one point, we used a series of felled trees as catwalks to get across a very tall and expansive slide. It was getting late, 4:00pm to be exact, and we were still fighting for every inch of progress. Amidst visions of being the subject of a Stone Phillips "Survivor!" special, and stumbling across a bear's den (with cubs), we arrived at a clearing - the bare rock slides on the south side of Gothics/Armstrong. Nearly 3 hours of hiking, and we only dropped several hundred feet.

With time running out on our day, the slides resembled expressways. Steep? Yes. Traversable? Yes. Comfortable? No. But it was the only way to go if we even wanted to get to Ausable Lake before dark. We began our decent cautiously for the slides were wet & icy. For the step sections, we crab-walked our way down… In minutes, we had broken through the worst of the blow down & damage. Within ~20 minutes of exiting the slides, we discovered the trail that would take us to the Ausable Club and our freedom. We got back to Lake Placid just before 7:00pm that night, exhausted. We crashed early after dinner, and slept through our alarm clocks the next morning. Stiff & sore, we packed up the car, choked down some bagels & coffee, and headed out to do about 10 miles of mountain biking before heading back to Rochester.

Did we learn anything? Yup. To this day, we're both still throttled by the amount of devastation that one storm can wreak on an area.  In human terms, it's enormous!  However, by nature's definition, the damage was just a tiny amount in a small area.  I suppose that's the thought that throttles us the most!  J

Pictures:

TBD - Converting all the old trip reports into this blog

Skiing Trip to Vermont

SUMMARY:
TBD - Converting all the old trip reports into this blog

Mike Bowen, Teena Bowen

Skiing Gore Mountain

Trip Report: Gore Mountain Ski Trip 
Dates: February 11, 2000 - February 13, 2000
Details:

We drove to Gore Mountain on Friday, 2/11/2000. Stayed at the "Inn on Gore Mountain" - approx 1/4 mile from Gore entrance (although the literature says it's 500' - 800') on Friday & Saturday nights. Skied on Saturday, and drove back to Rochester on Sunday morning.  Travel time is approximately 4 hours, including stopping for bio breaks.
We woke up at 6:15 am Sat, drove into town to get breakfast at Marsha's Family Restaurant - it was recommended to us by the Inn owner. We arrived at Gore mountain to ski by 7:50am. Unknown to us, Gore Mountain has free lockers that skiers can throw a padlock onto. Since we got there early enough, Teena grabbed a locker while I went to the ski store to buy a padlock ($9.00!!!). Although expensive, it was less of a hassle to deal with since we would've easily used up 3 of the PUNY lockers they had. Not only that, but we expected to revisit the locker later in the day to change into warmer clothes.
We got on our 1st lift (Gondola) at 8:15am. Official literature claims that the lifts don't start until 9:00am. However, if the mountain's been checked out by ski patrol and cleared, most places will start loading skiers earlier. We took the Gondola to the mountain mid-point, and skied down to the "summit chair" that, incidentally, took us to the summit. During the chair lift ride, the following Adirondack High Peaks were all visible:

• Santononi Range
• Seward Range
• McIntyre Range - Iroquois, Boarder, Algonquin
• Colden
• Marcy & Skylight (& part of Gray)
• Haystack, Sawteeth, Saddleback & Gothics (& part of Armstrong)
• The top of Basin
• Giant & Rocky Peak
• That's just what I could PERSONALLY identify while on the lift! Basically, a person can see the entire High Peaks region from the south side vantage point.

During the day, we did the following:

• 8:15 - 10:30 Skied the summit runs
• 10:30 - 11:00 We both rested at the mid station
• 11:00 - 11:45 Mike Skied 2 runs & rode the Gondola! Teena rested in the mid-station
• 11:45 - 2:15 We both skied
• 2:15 - 3:00 We went to the base lodge (Teena was done, Mike got a beer)
• 3:00 - 4:00 Mike Skied another 5 runs.

I would've skied more runs between 3:00 and 4:00, except that one of the lifts - the North Quad - was ridiculously slow! It also stopped often.

Skiing Highlights:

• Mike skied every black diamond, Teena skied all but three! We did most of them twice.
• Teena & Mike skied 2 double black diamonds (Experts only) - Hullabaloo & Lies!
• Teena had to be cajoled down Hullabaloo & Lies, but
she DIDN'T FALL!
• We primarily skied the mountain summit, ignoring the base area due to large crowds
• Gore Trail Map
• Lift lines at the gondola & other base chairlifts were running almost 1/2 hour during most parts of the day.
• Lift lines at the summit chair were non-existent until 10:30am. Then they were steady, but tolerable (5 min/per ?) until 2:00. During the last hour (maybe two), the lift lines were non-existent again.
• A warming hut and 2 outhouses are located at the summit. The outhouse doors were frozen 25% open - they couldn't be closed! Although certain anatomical parts of us got much colder than necessary, and privacy was somewhat lacking, we agreed that it was much better than skiing down to the mid-station or the base!
• Finally, the weather was AWESOME!!! Dark
BLUE skies, blazing sun! No wind. Base temp reached 25 degrees. Summit was much cooler, but still... What a gorgeous day!

We ate dinner at a new restaurant (Casey's North) ~ 2 miles down Rt. 28, across from Stewart's. It was awesome! It's divided into 3 parts, formal dining, bar, and bar/grill restaurant. We sat in the bar/grill area and watched Warren Miller ski flicks on a projection TV.
We were both pretty dead, so we left the bar around 7:30 pm to go back to the Inn. We watched TV until Teena fell asleep around 8:30, and I fell asleep around 10:00. On Sunday morning, we left to drive back to Rochester at 9:15am, arriving in Rochester at ~1:30 pm. We took Rt. 8 back to the Thruway, but won't make that mistake again. When we got home, we proceeded to CC ski at Mendon Ponds Park. until 6:00pm.

Trip Ratings:

Skiing: Awesome! Good conditions & good weather helped. But the summit runs are great fun! I'd stay away from the base lifts (incl. the gondola) because the lines get wickedly long. I'd also get there & be ready to ski by 8:00am!
Lodging: The Inn on Gore Mountain ($80/night, incl. taxes) is quite rustic. Our room's loud heater kept both of us sleepless for two nights. Additionally, the heater in the bathroom was out of order (BRRRRRRR!), and there was no hot water available for showers (or maybe other guests used it up?). We also got a nice surprise when a big, ugly, hairy black spider (did I mention that it was fast) freaked Teena out by running across our bedding. If rustic travel isn't your preferred style, there are several other places nearby that looked nice - The Valhaus Motel, the Lamplight Inn, and Alynn's Butterfly Inn. If all else fails, there's a Super 8 Motel on Rt. 9, right off the Northway exit, approximately 23 miles from the entrance to Gore Mountain.
Dining: Awesome! We highly recommend Marsha's Diner (on Main St. in North Creek) for breakfast, and Casey's North for dinner. The breakfast we had at Marsha's was excellent, and there was a lot of it! The prices were quite reasonable too (we spent $20 including tip, but we definitely pigged out!). Casey's North is definitely worth the trip for dinner. The avg. entree price was ~$13.00, while burgers & sandwiches went for ~$6.00. My Guinness draft was $4.00, & Teena's White Russian was about the same price. We also liked the fact that we could vegg out on the Warren Miller ski flicks playing on the large screen TV overhead (We especially liked the canoeing and mountain biking down extreme slopes!).
Driving: Unless you have excellent suspension on your vehicle, and you like driving through speed trap towns, I'd stick to the Thruway & the Northway. Take exit 23 off the Northway to Rt. 9. Stay on Rt. 9 for 5 miles until you hit Rt. 28. Then take Rt. 28 for ~16 miles to Peaceful Valley Road. Follow the signs for Gore Mountain.  Route 8 is scenic & beautiful. However, it's also is a wreck. For ~30 or 40 miles, my car was constantly rocked by potholes and repaired potholes. Rt. 8 connects to Rt. 30, & then 30A which hits the Thruway at Fultonville. Although we put fewer miles on the car, it took nearly the same amount of time to travel home as it did to travel up to Gore Mountain when we took the Adirondack Northway (Rt. 87) on Friday night.  And I'm certain the wear and tear on my car was worse!

Overall, the trip was a big success, and we plan to go back!