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
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 4th 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.
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| The trail head is nearly across the street from the Adirondack Museum. |
PICTURES:
And finally, here are some of the
pictures (8) we took along the way!
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| 4th of July at Old Forge, waiting for fireworks to begin. |
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| Teena & I are always happy to be back in the Adirondacks again! |
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| At the trail head, notice how dry we are! |
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| Showing off the latest in Dr. Seuss hiking style! |
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| A quick pause at the summit of Blue Mountain. Those skies are deceptive. |
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| Drenched. Luckily, the parking lot was dry. |
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| "Show me your goofy smiles!" |
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| The boy obviously missed the memo to "give me some good smiles now!" |
