A year ago, we hiked Owl's Head Mountain. From Owl's Head, we gazed up at Cascade and decided that we wanted to hike it next. It took a day shy of a year to do it, but we made it, and Lizzard and Turbo were able to ascend their first 46'er high peak - the 36th highest peak in NY! GREAT JOB Lizzard and Turbo! Details, a map, related information, stats, and 36 pictures follow.
The day was planned to start with a 6:30am wake up, 7:00am breakfast, and an 8:00am start on the trail so that we can get lunch and then head out to Hurricane Mountain. The best laid plans were delayed by an 8:00 am wake up, followed by cartoons. Cartoons? Hey! No problem... We're on
VACATION so we got to breakfast by 9:30, and got to the trail head for an 11:15am start of hiking.
Cascade is a very popular hike due to the fact that it's a "46'er" peak (
there are 46 mountains in the Adirondack High Peaks that are over 4,000' at the summit), it's the easiest 46'er peak to climb, it's relatively close to Lake Placid, and the summit offers gorgeous 360-degree views of the surrounding region. So when hiking Cascade, it's important to get there early in order to find a parking space! Luckily, we were able to get a spot, parking in the last space, furthest from the trail head! We used this as an opportunity to "warm up" for the hike! ;-)
Cascade's trail starts off going downhill. This is not logical to 8 and 9 year old children who are expecting to climb.
"Da-ad..... We're on the wrong trail. This one's going down." HA! Since this is their first 46'er peak, I told them
"enjoy it while it lasts!" From there, the trail flattened out and started a gradual climb.
I think Teena and I are getting the hang of this "hiking with kids" routine. A year ago, we took them on their first ADK hikes of
Mt. Joe and
Owl's Head, and learned that the kids fare better than the adults. So this year, we weren't as "worried" about them as we were a year ago, even though this was a 46'er peak. And, true to form, the kids scampered up and down the mountain like billy goats as their parents spent more time trying to save their knees!
The first half mile was basically a walk in the woods. At about the half-mile mark, we stopped to rest at the only water source - a small brook - that we'd see in the hike. If there's one thing we bring a lot of, it's water. But for anyone hiking the peak with a water pump, this is the last fill-up station! From there, the hiking continues at a relatively easy grade for maybe a quarter mile, after which, the trail gets rockier and the grade increases moderately with several sections that are somewhat steep. We obviously took many breaks on the way up. Er.... We
parents took many breaks. The gazelle - Lizzard and Turbo - were forced to stop, and were force-fed water. Lizzard and Turbo were able to quickly hike through this section, going over and around boulders, roots, steeps, etc. They did a great job!
About a mile into the climb, we reached a nice long, flat ridge. There were a few moderate sections, but it was generally flat until we arrived at a steep section that brought us to our first nice views at ~1.8 miles. This steep section reminded me of the Algonquin trail's last mile. ...Only this section was very short. Having climbed this mountain several times in the past, I remembered that we were going to break treeline soon, so I put away the camera that I could help the tykes climb. So, we passed the Porter trail junction, and exited the trees onto the bare rock of the summit.
The first thing we noticed...
WIND! There was none in the canopy, but the wind above the tree line was pretty stiff. Not enough to knock anyone over, but definitely making it's presence known. From there, we followed the yellow stripes painted onto the rock to the summit.
"Odd... That paint looks fresh!" I thought. As it turns out, there were two gentlemen performing trail maintenance by painting over the old, weathered stripes with new freshly painted stripes.
The final climb to the summit is the stuff that scares parents. Rock everywhere. Long drops. Wind. Fearless kids. Bouncing kids. There were a couple ledges that required me to extend a hand to assist Lizzard and Turbo with their climb, but they were able to handle the rest of the climb themselves, and... ...after 2 hours of hiking, we reached the summit. The summit was very windy. Hats were blowing off people's heads. (Yes..
Hats!) You can hear the wind in the video. The sun was blazing and the temps were probably in the low '70s.
The kids were really excited! (...Which I'm pretty happy about...) They spent time comparing mountains and asking a slug of questions. ...And they did a really good job of staying off the vegetation! We stuck around for about an hour to enjoy the sights, take pictures, and eat lunch. I remember the
massive subs we used to bring with us for lunch on our hikes a decade ago. Perhaps it was the short duration of the hike. Perhaps it's because we're frazzled parents and forgot to pack better. Or perhaps it didn't matter because we had a big (and late) breakfast. But today's lunch was comprised of granola bars and Scooby Snacks. I sure missed the subs!!!
The trip back to the car was pretty uneventful. One fun fact from the trip down to the car is that Turbo learned for the first time that leaves can be used as toilet paper!!! That alone makes this a hike we'll remember for a long time!
At the end of the hike, we headed once more to the High Peaks Information Center for pins, patches, and ice cream. Once we loaded up, we headed back to Heart Lake where Lizzard and Turbo spent a couple hours swimming and catching salamanders around the lake while Teena and I waded in the shallow waters. There were other children there with a blue sand bucket. After a couple of hours, that bucket was crawling with salamanders. I wouldn't be surprised if there were an article in the autumn Adirondac magazine describing a sudden drop of salamander population in Heart Lake. So, with that in mind, the group of us parents made sure the salamanders were set free, unharmed.
After that, we took a last look around, and started the trip back to the hotel in Lake Placid. The next day, we got in the car for
5 hrs 12 mins to drive the 291 miles required to get us back home.
MAP:
I made the following map with Google Maps using the directions provided via Google's walking feature. The map is not entirely accurate because Google Maps is using an old "Cascade-Porter-Blueberry" trail in it's map. According to the ADK "Guide To Adirondack Trails - High Peaks," the old trail was steep and eroded, and was replaced in 1974 when the Algonquin Chapter of ADK laid out a new trail that is still used today. That trail follows the SW ridge, and is generally moderate except for a few steep pitches. Still, this map "does the trick" in showing the elevation gain and the ridges.
View Larger Map
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:
For Additional Information on Cascade Mountain, click on one of the following links:
STATS SUMMARY:
Date of Summit: 07/07/2011
Team: Mike, Teena, Liz, Nick
Summit Elevation: 4,098'
Vertical Ascent: ~2,000'
Approach: Via trailhead on Rt 73
Trailhead to Summit: ~2.2 miles
Time to Summit: ~2 hours
Weather: Sunny, and temps in the mid-70's. Slightly breezy. Windy on the summit.
Trail Difficulty: Easiest of the 46 High Peaks - boulders, roots, dirt, granite. Kid friendly.
PICTURES: (36 pictures) Click on picture to see a larger version. Click again to make it even bigger!
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| Perhaps the best road sign I've ever seen! Moose are making a comeback in the Adirondacks. This sign is just east of Loj Road. |
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| Starting off the hike! Notice the boulders are already bigger than the ones on yesterday's hike of Baxter. |
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| Lizzard and Turbo pose above a section of gnarly rooks and rock. |
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| Happy Campers? Oh... Wait... We're staying in a hotel. :-o |
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| This picture was taken at the only creek crossing of the hike. If you hike Cascade, it's a short hike, but there are no water sources if you run out. |
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| This is part of that creek. The green "slime" (as Lizzard calls it) is very slippery to walk on. It's steeper than the picture tells too. |
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| Are we almost there? This hike was longer, steeper, and had 3x the vertical ascent that yesterday's hike of Baxter provided. |
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| Lizzard on the rocky trail, going up up up! |
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| Follow the red markers, kids... The trail to the summit is so well worn that the use of trail markers really isn't needed. |
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| Bouldering! |
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| This is a close up of the gnarly roots covering one of the rocks in the prior picture. Pretty cool, eh? |
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| A couple on their honeymoon took this picture of us one day prior to our 11-year anniversary! |
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| The trail isn't very steep in most places... |
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| Turbo discovers that roots make good benches while Lizzard displays proper hydration. |
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| Hmmmm.... What's in that water? |
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| Getting closer to the summit! The trees are getting shorter, and the sky is getting lower. |
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| More gnarly roots! Do you get the impression that they are everywhere? (You'd be right... They are everywhere.) |
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| We're about 1.8 miles into the hike. The first nice views are just above us in that opening ahead. This is the steepest hiking we've seen so far. Turbo and Lizzard exclaimed "That's not steep!" I put the camera away at this point. The next 0.3 miles were relatively flat hiking through alpine forest. From there, the trail opens up to an open rock summit. |
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| Teena at the summit with Marcy, Colden, and Algonquin in the background. The mountain in the foreground and to the left of Teena is Yard Mountain. The final ascent to the summit required climbing some relatively steep sections, but we only had to physically assist the tykes on one small section. |
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| On the summit with mighty mighty Algonquin behind/between us. |
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| On the summit with the summit cairn in front of us. Notice the hair... It was WINDY up there! |
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| On the summit, with Pitchoff and Whiteface Mountains behind us. Whiteface is the pointy peak to the right. |
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| There are four of these anchors on the summit. We learned that these anchors were used by the original survey team to measure the height of Cascade. The surveying equipment was anchored to these anchor points. |
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| That's Marcy in the background behind me. NY's tallest peak. |
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| How is a trail marked when there are no trees to place trail markers on? The answer... PAINT. Small 1' stripes are painted onto the rock to mark the course of the trail. These gentlemen are a trail maintenance crew. They were also very informative, telling us that the anchor points on the summit were used for the survey equipment. |
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| What kind of paint? Yellow Latex. |
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| The "Great Range Trail" is in the background with lower Wolf Jaw, Upper Wolf Jaw, Armstrong, Gothics, Sawteeth, and Saddleback mountains. Gothics is the mountain with all the rock slides. Sawteeth is to the right of Gothics, and Saddleback is just right of Sawteeth (it looks like a horse's saddle). To the right of Saddleback is Haystack and Marcy. The Great Range Trail is a terrific hike! Click here to read the trip report for the Lower range hike in 2004. |
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| I think that's Dix Mountain with all the rock slides on it. (I haven't been there yet...) |
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| Hurricane Mountain is the pointy nub on the left. Baxter Mountain (that we hiked only yesterday) is the little nub rising from the highway right of center in the background. |
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| The vegetation and flowers at the summit are hardy alpine-zone wildflowers. They are extremely fragile. |
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| All good things..... Time to begin the descent. |
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| Lizzard caught many salamanders in Heart Lake, but in the end... The salamanders are free, and Lizzard is soaked to the point where she has to wear her dad's shirt. I'd say the salamanders won! |
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| ...And they beat Turbo too. |
