Backpacking in Adirondack, New York

We went backpacking in upstate New York for the first time. 

We did a 15.2 mile loop in Adirondack. This covers Bear Den Mountain, Dial Mountain, Nippletop, Indianhead, Beaver Meadow Falls, and Wedge Brook Cascades. 

Leaving Boston at 6 a.m. was early enough, I thought. It was not at all. The parking lot was full. The side of highway was all taken wherever it is allowed to park. The next possible parking spot was 0.6 mile away from the trailhead. Wow. Adirondack is very popular. I didn't know that.

So the hike started by walking on the State highway73. Then, there is another paved road walking. This is a little weird. To go to the forest area, hikers need to pass some private lands including houses and gulf courses. This area is paved, but only vehicles belonged to the land owners can drive. This system started this year (2019). According to the internet, cars are allowed to park along this road until the actual trailhead. After a paved road walk finally actual trailhead showed up!

Climbing up via Leach trail was surprisingly peaceful. I had expected there would have been hikers everywhere considering the numbers of cars, however, most people went hiking other easier trails. I definitely like quiet trails, so it was good. 

The first view was after 2 mile hike. It was nice to have some views periodically. Then the next view point was Bear Den Mountain. This mountain top was in the forest without view. However, there is a campsite with obvious fire ring. It looks not bad to camp quietly in the forest. I looked around bear dens, but I was not sure. I am curious about bear dens.

Dial Mountain

Then next view point was Dial Mountain. Although it was windy, the view was nice. How green it is. The green is still new after long long winter, so new leaves are still light green. Now it is a mixture of light an dark green. I like the light green season. It is more pop and casual.

Here we saw two parties. Both were doing the entire loop in a day. They are from state of New York, so they could start earlier than us. Including the two groups, most hikers seemed to do the loop the opposite way we did, probably because people want to the steepest portion as uphill but not downhill. The reason we chose the direction differently was to have a campsite a little past the half way of the loop and after all the uphill of loop. In that way we can relax more.

Grrr

After Dial Mountains, the trail got muddier and muddier. By the time I reached the Nippletop, my shoes became the color of mud, as left picture. 

Then finally we arrived the top of Nippletop. The name of this peak is weird...to be honest, but the view was nice. Both clouds and mountains are continuous like ocean wave. This kind of clouds are often seen in Northeast of US but I don't recall in the west. 

I ate chocolate and some crackers. I always like to have snack at the top of mountain.

Nippletop

After Nippletop, downhill is very steep. This is the steepest slope of this loop. The slope is about 40-43%. It is still less steep than Clear Creek Trail of Mt Shasta, but still! Besides, the trails in the northeast US are rocky. I understand why dogs are not allowed here. Doggies will have to whining a lot on the steep rocky trails. 

After descending 1000 feet, there are official backpacking campsites near the pond. It is great that Adirondack offers free campsites. Also it is not competitive. The two of them were both available. This time we brought cup-noodles for dinner. It was cup-udon. I love Japanese style dinner for camping. This cup udon was much better than I had expected. Camp dinner is the best. 

At the campsite, sounds of birds and frogs were nice. Relaxing tones. With sounds, I enjoyed looking at ponds, trees, and eating udon and chocolate. 

Indianhead

Next day we descended a lot. I realized how much we had ascended a day before. Day2's viewpoint was Indian head. Two lakes are visible: upper and lower. It is great to see such canyon from the higher standpoint. We took a rest here. This is one of the most popular dayhike destinations in the area. Actually almost all people at the parking lot of the trailhead go here. One thing I was surprised was that more than half or the hikers at the Indian head were French Canadian. Working at French company, I can recognize French in a second. Wow. Some people were talking about being from Montreal. It seems Quebec people are very outdoorsy. 

Ausable River

After Indianhead, we walked down the West river trail. It is literally along the river (the left picture). It is nice to walk hearing water sound. It is chilling. Again on this trail I saw several French Canadians. 

One point I saw one deer made noise and ran away. Maybe a little scared? But cute!

 

Beaver Meadow Falls

Wedge Brook Cascades

 

 

 

 

 

 

not named

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The amount of water is actually impressive. Indeed along the way, we saw three falls. Beaver Meadow falls, falls with no name, and Wedge Brook Cascades. 

Although it was far to go to Adirondack compared to White mountains in New Hampshire, having a variety of places is nice. Once in a while definitely will come back to Adirondack. 

After being full of nature for 2 days, we ended the trip by eating artificial and unhealthy KFC.