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It was the perfect day with a bluebird sky, no wind, and, with rain in the forecast for next week, maybe the last bug-free day of the spring. Christine and I started at the gate on Gulf Brook Road at 8:10, reached the dam 6.5 miles in at 11:00, and a clearing below the mountain, 2.5 miles beyond...

Trail to from register to cairn mostly ice. Also lots of running water but rock hopping was easy. The slide was exceptionally loose with gravel, cobbles, and small boulders all at their maximum angle of repose. It was about half covered with spines of frozen snow, soft enough for good grip w/...

The DEC stopped maintaining the Cold Brook Pass trail between Indian Pass and Lake Colden five years ago and it is encumbered with deadfalls that require getting down on hands and knees. The dozens upon dozens of small streams crossing all the trails, and sometimes running in them, were unfrozen...

It was the perfect day; sunny, low 70s, windless, and peak color. Christine was familiar with the route, having been that way more than once, which was off the club road (entry by permission of a member) following LeClair Brook but keeping to the open hardwoods to the left (south) side of the...

Last summer EC and I joined CG, who was doing a botanical study on Whiteface. We hiked up the Stag Brook Trail, which starts immediately above the NYSEF building (and which, if you've never seen it, is worth doing in itself) to midstation, thence up Excelsior and Paren's Run to the top of the...

This post will be read by many who don't need the message, and those who do will likely ignore it, but here goes. Earlier this summer it was discovered that a sign near the top of Gray, advising bushwhackers NOT to use the seemingly easy shortcut to Marcy along the connecting ridge was missing...

Yesterday CB and I climbed Gray and Marcy via the L. Arnold trail. The beaver flooding between the Opalescent crossing and the return to dry land further along was once bridged by board planking and semi-floating logs. That all started to fall apart years ago. It is now worse than we have ever...

Anyone bound for Gothics on Saturday should find it easier now. Above the Lost Lookout junction, soft, unbroken, knee-deep powder had drifted in and covered earlier tracks. Chris, who finished on Allen last Saturday, did an awesome job breaking trail. The summit ridge was spectacular. The...

Christine, who had done it three times both summer and winter, kindly agreed to go a fourth time with me. It was my fourth time also, with only this minor difference; my first three attempts were for naught due to circumstances detailed in my previous TRs. But now I am happy to report success at...

Despite recently acquired access and new trail the DEC is "discouraging" use pending further infrastructure improvements, such as trailhead register and signage. To those with hiking in their blood, of course, any new trail that is not forbidden is compulsory. So, being at leisure on a bluebird...

This was my last of the four Blue Ridges for the HH. Christine had done it once before with Gary. It was a 7 1/2 hour day, with 6+ hours of easy and less than an hour of hard. First the easy: NPT to Brown Brook bridge, old road (very nice!!!) for nearly 3 miles to abandoned car at end of road...

WPM is surrounded by private land so there are only two legal ways to climb it. One is via the Ragged Mountain F&G Club, which would require either becoming a member or being accompanied by a member. (According to a reliable source it's not enough for a member to give permission; they'd have to...

Last Thursday I set out to do Lost Pond Mountain by myself. Half an hour into the bushwhack I began to lose a sole. Continuing with a temporary repair seemed like a bad idea so I turned back, drove to Keene Valley, and purchased a new pair of boots. This was my second try. It left me with a...

The plan until 2 days previous had been to bag one of my remaining HH but the forecast of heat and humidity made the thought of whacking through thick fir to a viewless summit unappealing. It was a good day to get high with a view. Besides, I've been eager to see the new Ketch walk. I signed in...

It's been five or six years since the last good beech nut drop. Has anyone out there seen beech nuts in the woods lately, or even not so recently? I've hiked in plenty of beech woods during all seasons and see lots of young beech trees coming up, but no beech nuts either on the trees or on the...

This was Christine's second time. Considering that she was willing to do it again, plus Inge's description from last winter, I had the idea that it would be easy. HAH! We started at the first gated road on the left past the Cellar Pond road at 10:15. The flat area south of there is an extensive...

It was sunny and cool when I signed in at 8:10 but the Bradley Pond trail offered a counterpoint to the pleasant weather with it's usual mudholes and the brook running down the trail, which would be noteworthy anywhere else but are the norm here. The frequent boot-sucking quagmires are...

BIG OOPS! IT SHOULD BE JUNE 8, NOT 12. I tried to edit the post but couldn't figure out how to change the date! Anyhow...having done the towers, the next logical thing was to bag the mountains that used to have a tower. Crane, in the hinterlands west of Chestertown, is one. The trailhead is at...

Peggy is closing in on her W46x4 and I tagged along just 'cuz. We signed in at the gate at 7:45 and were back at the car before 5. It was a perfect winter day with bright sun, no wind, and gorgeous views of the Great Range. We took microspikes, snowshoes, and crampons, and needed all of it...

"Many a man that couldn't direct ye to th' drug store on th' corner when he was thirty will get a respectful hearin' when age has further impaired his mind." - Finley Peter Dunne Just so, there are those who dissipated a misspent youth in other frivolities and took up winter mountaineering only...