My first VFTT trip report! At 9 PM Friday night I got the word from an unnamed but highly placed official in our household that I was child and obligation-free for Saturday. I quickly decided to take the Plattsburg ferry over from Vermont and check out some previously unexplored terrain on the Lyon Mountain massif west of Plattsburgh, NY. I had just read Spence’s recent VFTT trip report for Averill and Lyon, and for a while have been intrigued about reports of old forests - “lightly cut” in the conservation vernacular – that were included in the State of New York and TNC purchases and easements on the Domtar Industries lands around Lyon Mountain. So I had a general destination. I didn’t know exactly where the lightly cut woods were, but I reckoned five or so miles of bushwhacking should turn up a candidate site or two.
My previous hiking experience in this area was limited to a quick stroll years ago up the standard Lyon Mountain trail from the east. On that hike I gazed upon the antenna crowned shoulder of Averill, and coveted its hundred highest summit, tower blight and all. But after poking around and searching fruitlessly for a “reasonable opening” through the spruce-fir thickets that ringed the open summit of Lyon, I reckoned that “there’s gotta be an easier way” to reach a mountaintop with a huge communication tower. So I put the project off for a decade. Middle age and a young child will do that. In the interim, occasionally hiking northeastern 3,000 footers unfortunately crept back onto my list of “things to do”. By the time I headed back to Averill by the easy route I was forced to acknowledge the existence of South Lyon and Northwest Lyon, solely due to their arbitrary inclusion on some silly list, and to at least entertain the idea of bagging them (as Pigpen recently said so eloquently to the eminent Dennis Crispo “thanks a lot”
).
Perhaps it would have been helpful to inquire on this illustrious forum about directions to the trailhead and such. But, hey, there were some tiny red road lines in my ancient Delorme that lead from the hamlet of Lyon Mountain to the summit of Averill. Plus, as a guy of the north country, I instinctively knew that I could find the trailhead without asking directions. Ended up parking at the end of a dead end dirt road that was clearly not the trailhead, directly north of a small on-stream reservoir and a little past the gated entrance to the old iron mine. Crossed the dam outlet to a dirt road and reached what looked like the official end of traveled road trailhead just past a large municipal water supply tank.
I cruised up to the big antenna and assorted communications detritus in about an hour or so. I could see higher terrain off to the northeast, so I started off through the woods and quickly came across a flagged path to the summit of Averill. The view of northern Vermont was outstanding from the big east-facing summit ledges, as was the view of the ridgeline and col route over to Lyon. From the southern ledge atop Averill I could also see what appeared to be the summit ridge of South Lyon, so I took a compass bearing and used that plus a topo map to bushwhack over to the peak.
The bushwhack from Averill to South Lyon was actually “rather pleasant”, speaking in the understated upmanship code that characterizes certain bushwhacking discussions. In any event, there was little sensation of any previous human activity once I left behind the surreal tangles of old tower cables and huge abandoned electrical transformer canisters with official stickers that claimed that PCB levels were too low for anyone to worry their pretty little heads about (or take responsibility for). It took me a little less than two hours to leisurely ‘thwack south to the summit of South Lyon. Spotted one old yellow double blazed hardwood along a possible ancient trail or route in the col between Averill and South Lyon, and also crossed a northwesterly (I think) line of extremely recent blazes and pink flagging that I suspect was related to recent boundary marking work I came across shortly after.
As I crested the summit ridge of South Lyon, tired and proud, the first thing I saw was a backpack on the ground and a line of east-west trending orange blazes with extremely fresh paint (I could smell it). Dude probably traipses up there every day to hang out and dab a little orange on the trees. The whooooosh of my rapidly deflating ego was audible upon reaching this "rarely visited peak". I headed east for a short distance and came upon two more backpacks, a hand paint sprayer, and a chainsaw hanging on a tree, all within about 25 feet or so of what I though was the actual summit highpoint. I hooted a few times to locate the blazing crew but got no response. I wonder if the recent blazing activity is related to the recent New York or TNC land purchase or conservation easement on 120,000 acres of Domtar land?
I suspected that a pink-flagged rocky knoll near the blaze line was the true summit, so I headed there to look around for a summit register. I didn’t find one but spotted an old pint sized or so plastic peanut butter container on the ground a few feet away, partially chewed and mangled, with moss growing inside, and wondered if it might have housed a register once upon a time. A blazed and cut line trends westerly (and also southerly I vaguely recollect), so I wonder if there is a new relatively easy access to South Lyon via the blazed line from the west, where the topo map shows a 4WD road in the valley to the west of Averill and South Lyon. Sad to think of missing out on such a sweet bushwhack though.
My return plan was to descent the shoulder of South Lyon and bushwhack north for a few miles along the western flank of Averill to eventually intersect the powerline and ATV trail to Averill. I descended to the South Lyon - Averill col, then headed north, passing through two sections of forest that distinctly felt like old growth around the 2,400 feet elevation. Very cool. Big gnarly old hardwoods, principally yellow birch. Huge old rotting snags and stumps. Lots of dead wood in varying states of decay. Lots of forest regeneration, mostly softwoods. No evidence of historical logging. Possible Old Growth? It stirs the soul to hike for a while in a northeastern U.S. forest and not feel the weight of human land use history beneath ones feet.
In the late afternoon clear conditions changed rather rapidly, and it started snowing heavily on the bushwhack slog north. After a couple hours and several miles I finally popped out of the woods on the powerline trail to Averill at around the 2400 foot elevation, cold, wet, and a little spent. I headed uphill as shadows fell and poked around in a quick search for the illusive 3,010+ foot summit of NW Lyon, and ultimately decided that it would have to wait for another day. I was tired and chilled. Darkness, quite frankly, had officially fallen. It looks like easy access to the summit of NW Lyon off the trail to Averill, and I’ll be back to hit it sometime soon, perhaps on the way over to Lyon through the highly touted Lyon-Averill col.
My previous hiking experience in this area was limited to a quick stroll years ago up the standard Lyon Mountain trail from the east. On that hike I gazed upon the antenna crowned shoulder of Averill, and coveted its hundred highest summit, tower blight and all. But after poking around and searching fruitlessly for a “reasonable opening” through the spruce-fir thickets that ringed the open summit of Lyon, I reckoned that “there’s gotta be an easier way” to reach a mountaintop with a huge communication tower. So I put the project off for a decade. Middle age and a young child will do that. In the interim, occasionally hiking northeastern 3,000 footers unfortunately crept back onto my list of “things to do”. By the time I headed back to Averill by the easy route I was forced to acknowledge the existence of South Lyon and Northwest Lyon, solely due to their arbitrary inclusion on some silly list, and to at least entertain the idea of bagging them (as Pigpen recently said so eloquently to the eminent Dennis Crispo “thanks a lot”
).Perhaps it would have been helpful to inquire on this illustrious forum about directions to the trailhead and such. But, hey, there were some tiny red road lines in my ancient Delorme that lead from the hamlet of Lyon Mountain to the summit of Averill. Plus, as a guy of the north country, I instinctively knew that I could find the trailhead without asking directions. Ended up parking at the end of a dead end dirt road that was clearly not the trailhead, directly north of a small on-stream reservoir and a little past the gated entrance to the old iron mine. Crossed the dam outlet to a dirt road and reached what looked like the official end of traveled road trailhead just past a large municipal water supply tank.
I cruised up to the big antenna and assorted communications detritus in about an hour or so. I could see higher terrain off to the northeast, so I started off through the woods and quickly came across a flagged path to the summit of Averill. The view of northern Vermont was outstanding from the big east-facing summit ledges, as was the view of the ridgeline and col route over to Lyon. From the southern ledge atop Averill I could also see what appeared to be the summit ridge of South Lyon, so I took a compass bearing and used that plus a topo map to bushwhack over to the peak.
The bushwhack from Averill to South Lyon was actually “rather pleasant”, speaking in the understated upmanship code that characterizes certain bushwhacking discussions. In any event, there was little sensation of any previous human activity once I left behind the surreal tangles of old tower cables and huge abandoned electrical transformer canisters with official stickers that claimed that PCB levels were too low for anyone to worry their pretty little heads about (or take responsibility for). It took me a little less than two hours to leisurely ‘thwack south to the summit of South Lyon. Spotted one old yellow double blazed hardwood along a possible ancient trail or route in the col between Averill and South Lyon, and also crossed a northwesterly (I think) line of extremely recent blazes and pink flagging that I suspect was related to recent boundary marking work I came across shortly after.
As I crested the summit ridge of South Lyon, tired and proud, the first thing I saw was a backpack on the ground and a line of east-west trending orange blazes with extremely fresh paint (I could smell it). Dude probably traipses up there every day to hang out and dab a little orange on the trees. The whooooosh of my rapidly deflating ego was audible upon reaching this "rarely visited peak". I headed east for a short distance and came upon two more backpacks, a hand paint sprayer, and a chainsaw hanging on a tree, all within about 25 feet or so of what I though was the actual summit highpoint. I hooted a few times to locate the blazing crew but got no response. I wonder if the recent blazing activity is related to the recent New York or TNC land purchase or conservation easement on 120,000 acres of Domtar land?
I suspected that a pink-flagged rocky knoll near the blaze line was the true summit, so I headed there to look around for a summit register. I didn’t find one but spotted an old pint sized or so plastic peanut butter container on the ground a few feet away, partially chewed and mangled, with moss growing inside, and wondered if it might have housed a register once upon a time. A blazed and cut line trends westerly (and also southerly I vaguely recollect), so I wonder if there is a new relatively easy access to South Lyon via the blazed line from the west, where the topo map shows a 4WD road in the valley to the west of Averill and South Lyon. Sad to think of missing out on such a sweet bushwhack though.
My return plan was to descent the shoulder of South Lyon and bushwhack north for a few miles along the western flank of Averill to eventually intersect the powerline and ATV trail to Averill. I descended to the South Lyon - Averill col, then headed north, passing through two sections of forest that distinctly felt like old growth around the 2,400 feet elevation. Very cool. Big gnarly old hardwoods, principally yellow birch. Huge old rotting snags and stumps. Lots of dead wood in varying states of decay. Lots of forest regeneration, mostly softwoods. No evidence of historical logging. Possible Old Growth? It stirs the soul to hike for a while in a northeastern U.S. forest and not feel the weight of human land use history beneath ones feet.
In the late afternoon clear conditions changed rather rapidly, and it started snowing heavily on the bushwhack slog north. After a couple hours and several miles I finally popped out of the woods on the powerline trail to Averill at around the 2400 foot elevation, cold, wet, and a little spent. I headed uphill as shadows fell and poked around in a quick search for the illusive 3,010+ foot summit of NW Lyon, and ultimately decided that it would have to wait for another day. I was tired and chilled. Darkness, quite frankly, had officially fallen. It looks like easy access to the summit of NW Lyon off the trail to Averill, and I’ll be back to hit it sometime soon, perhaps on the way over to Lyon through the highly touted Lyon-Averill col.
