ADIRONDACK HIKES: Blue Mountain - A Thunderous Finish!

SUMMARY:

A quick trip to Blue Mountain turns into a fun gully-washing finish! It’s a great little hike that can be easily completed in a morning or afternoon. We had a blast on this hike, and I spent extra effort to capture it all in the detailed story.

STATS SUMMARY:

Date of Summit: 07/5/2013

Team: Mike, Teena, Liz, Nick

Location: Adirondack High Peaks (43.8725634,-74.4009917)

Summit Elevation: 3,750'

Vertical Ascent: 1,559'

Approach: Blue Mountain Trail from Rt. 30, near Adirondack Museum

Trailhead to Summit: 2.0 miles

Time to summit: 2 hours

Weather at Start: Start: sunny and mild with temps in 70s

Weather at Finish: Gully-washing thunderstorm!

Trail Difficulty: Intermediate with steep and slippery terrain for the last half mile.

Trail Conditions: Variable due to sudden weather change

Gear: Solomon trail runners purchased in 2012

DETAILED STORY:

Another trip to the Adirondacks! It’s a busy summer, full of youth sports, family barbeques, yard work, and even a Tough Mudder! We broke time away for the 4^th of July weekend to visit Old Forge for some R&R, and take in a few fireworks. While there, we decided to get in a hike. …but where to go…where to go?

The last Adirondack hike we completed was mighty Algonquin back in September 2012. Since we’re on the western side of the Adirondacks, we decided to check out the mountains we can hike. Bald Mountain? Maybe the local ski hill – McCauley Mountain? We finally settled on Blue Mountain. We’ve passed Blue Mountain countless times over the years, and have always wanted to hike it. The trick with this particular hike will be timing. There are scattered thunderstorms in the area, and we could find ourselves in a race down the mountain.

We anticipated a 2 hour hike (2 miles) to the summit, so we had a leisurely morning in Old Forge, and departed for Blue Mountain around 11am. We took back roads to Inlet (to take in the scenery and look at houses), and then took 28 to Blue Mountain Lake. We arrived at the trail head parking lot after noon, downed some lunch and started our ascent by 12:45pm, keeping a wary eye on the skies.

The first mile of the hike is a moderate climb on a root-covered, rocky trail and stream bed. (Later, we found the stream bed observation to be an important detail!) It was easy and fun hiking. The kids were climbing every rock, and had fun running off trail as Teena and I lumbered on.

“RUMBLE!” We heard a distant rumble of a thunderstorm. Uh oh… “DA-A-AD?!?”

We stopped for a few moments to look at the skies, and assess whether we should continue. The skies to the north and east are obscured by the mountain, but the skies to the west and south are viewable. From the views, we could see the western skies were clear, and the clouds that were visible were heading east.

Another rumble… It was more distant and rolling that the first one. We deduced that the storm clouds were north and/or east of us. And since the thunder was getting softer, it’s probably not heading our way. So we decided to continue the hike. “We’ll keep going, but be prepared to turn back any moment” I barked at the kids as they quickly scampered up the trail to the summit.

I kept a close eye on the western and southern skies the rest of the hike. If there were any signs of change, we’d have to turn around immediately.

Blue Mountain is a pretty cool hike. The first and second miles are very different. Whereas the first mile was moderate and relatively easy, the second mile is a long and steep sidewalk of smooth, wet rock. Each step is elevation gain, causing and the lungs and heart to feel like they are going to burst. This portion of the trail is potentially very slippery, and getting stuck at the summit in a thunderstorm would create a difficult hike back to the car. It’s a good thing we’ve outfitted the kids with good hiking boots!

In the last tenth of a mile, the pitch of the trail reduces, and the steep and smooth sidewalk of rock becomes a relatively gentle tree-lined path of evergreens to the summit. We arrived on the summit in a little under two hours.

Blue Mountain’s summit is treed with no good views. There is, however, a fire tower with an operational ladder. The climb up the fire tower is steep and cramped, but it rewards climbers with a 360-degree view of the north-south chain-lakes region, and great views of the High Peaks to the east. The Blue Mountain Fire Observation Station was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2001.

Our assessment of the thunderstorm activity was correct. From the fire tower, we could see thunderheads to the north and east…and…now…the south. But was the west still clear? …Uh oh…Not so clear. On the western horizon, I could see a line of large black clouds closing in on the sun, with maybe 30-60 minutes before it hits us.

Forget lunch at the summit! It’s time to go!

Another family was at the summit with us, and we swapped picture-taking opportunities with them. I relayed the weather prognosis, and we all agreed that it was time to go. A gentle rumble of thunder from the west was validation that a storm was indeed approaching. Both families agreed to hike down together in case the weather turned ugly enough that we needed each other’s help.

More rumbling. The hike down was a quick scamper. Another rumble, louder this time. My immediate concern was clearing the steep section of rock safely before the rains hit. More rumbles. Louder rumbles. A deafening crack! Our hearts jumped and our pace quickened. With a storm approaching, it’s tempting to take the steep slope at unsafe speeds because none of us wanted to find out how slippery that part of the trail gets in the rain. We exited the steep section after only a half hour…just as the rain started to fall. We all took a break, slapping a lot of high-fives in the knowledge that we beat the rain.

The rain intensified. As did the thunder as it echoed and bounced off and around the mountains. We hiked the rest of the trail in a gully-washer of a storm. Lightning and thunder were almost constant, and even though we were in the trees, our visibility was poor from the monsoon-like rains. This is where that “stream bed” observation becomes relevant…we hiked most of the bottom half-mile in ankle-deep water that was flowing from the top of the mountain. The hiking was nearly treacherous – it was very easy to slip – and we warned the five children to plant their feet carefully, not quickly. By the time we reached the parking lot, the trail was submerged under water that went nearly up to our kids knees. They ran excitedly through it screaming “this is the best hike ever!”

We arrived back at the parking lot less than 1.5 hours after we departed the summit. Almost as soon as we entered the parking lot, the rains stopped, and the thunder moved on. We were SOAKED! Luckily, we had dry clothes that we were able to change into for the ride back to Old Forge.

TOPO MAP:

The following map was created in Google Maps, and saved as a png file. If you click the link, you can play with the map and see what's nearby.