Suggestions for Short Hikes in the ADKs

[TFR]

(Inspired by the 'Pyramid' thread)

This comes up from time to time. You have a few hours to kill, or you have a 'non-peakbagger' friend who wants a short hike, or you just did a monster hike yesterday and you don't want to kill yourself, but the weather forecast looks great. So, where to go? Consider any of these (almost all have views of one kind or another).

Peaks (listed in more or less increasing difficulty order)

• Owl Head - Rt. 73 - NOTE! Can not be accessed on weekends!
• Belfry
• Mt. Jo
• Baxter
• Coney Mt. - South end of Tupper Lake.
• Giant Nubble
• Owl Head Lookout - Near Giant
• The Crows
• Pharaoh
• Treadway
• Crane
• Peaked Pond
• Chimney
• Rondaxe (Bald)
• Round (above Chapel Pond)
• Thomas & Cat
• Black
• Buck
• Sleeping Beauty
• Tongue Range
• Five-Mile
• Fifth Peak
• Hopkins
• Rooster Comb / Snow
• Pitchoff
• Catamount
• Noonmark
• Ampersand
• Jay Range

Added 7/2018 - Thanks to Learning The Trails!

- Mount Gilligan (2 mile RT) in Elizabethtown near the RPR trailhead. (Maintained by CATS).

- Van Hoevenberg - A little surprised it isn't on the list! Love Van Hoe!

- Silver Lake Mountain (2 mile RT) a bang for the buck!

- Cheney Mountain (2 mile RT) - Near Port Henry. Some nice views of the ADK, VT & Lake Champlain. (Maintained by CATS).

- Rattlesnake - (2.5 mile RT) - Willsboro - Privately owned & open to the public (aside for a weekend or two during hunting season). The Snake is a gem!

- Wildway Lookout Trail (South Boquet Mountain - 2 mile RT) - This is a great trail for those with little kids. Follows an old logging road to a nice lookout over the Boquet Valley, Split Rock, Champlain & VT. (Maintained by CATS).


Most of the Fire Towers have great views, but especially consider these:

• Poke-O-Moonshine
• Hadley
• Adams
• Vanderwhacker
• Lyon
• Goodnow
• Blue Mountain Lake
• Hurricane
• Arab

A longer list is here.

Non-Peaks:

• Giant's Washbowl
• Rainbow Falls
• Indian Head / Fish Hawk Cliffs
• Avalanche Pass
• Good Luck Cliffs

(Additions welcome, but note this is a list of non-46R Peaks)

Cathedral Rocks - Mini dike and hanging boulder you have to walk under.
Moxham Mountain between North Creek and Minerva, new trail in 2013, 2+ miles each way.

[Neil]

We'll let this thread run it's course and then we can finalize Tom's first post and make it a sticky.

Tom, how about furnishing locations of parking areas with distances (both ways) from prominent landmarks, distances and elevation changes of the trails, some geo-referenced pictures, links to Acme Mapper maps with little balloons and Google-Earth fly-over tracklogs. Detailed verbal description of the trails would be good too, especially with regards to crossings, muddy patches and any tricky steep sections.

Thanks in advance!

[pete_hickey]

I'd suggest ordering them in levels of difficulty (or at least grouping them) While most are easier than the 'high peaks' there is much more variation. eg, Mt Jo, and Owls Head(73) are an order of magnitude easier than, say Hurricane.

[Neil]

I'd suggest ordering them in levels of difficulty (or at least grouping them) While most are easier than the 'high peaks' there is much more variation. eg, Mt Jo, and Owls Head(73) are an order of magnitude easier than, say Hurricane.

Along those same lines, Adams is tougher than Cascade.

[TFR]

how about furnishing locations of parking areas with distances (both ways) from prominent landmarks, distances and elevation changes of the trails, some geo-referenced pictures, links to Acme Mapper maps with little balloons and Google-Earth fly-over tracklogs. Detailed verbal description of the trails would be good too, especially with regards to crossings, muddy patches and any tricky steep sections.

I kind of thought about doing that as I typed the list, but it sounded like a whole new web site in the making! No thanks!

Pete: Done, comments welcome...

[PA Ridgerunner]

Tom, one minor correction. Owl's Head near Giant is actually Owl (singular, nonpossesive) Head Lookout.

[Dick]

If non-High Peaks mountains are being considered (such as Blue Mt.), that opens the door wide for many more, of course. Off the top of my head:
Pharaoh Mt.
Treadway Mt.
Crane Mt.
Vanderwhacker Mt. (fire tower)
Good Luck Cliffs
Peaked Pond Mt.
Chimney Mt.
Rondaxe (Bald) Mt.

Lake George area:
Thomas & Cat Mtns.
Black
Buck
Sleeping Beauty
Tongue Range (Lake George)
Five-Mile Mt.
Fifth Peak

Hadley Mt.

I didn't rank these, but all have good to excellent views, and most in what I would call the "easy to moderate" category.

[TFR]

Steve and Dick: Updates made, list order is getting questionable!

[pete_hickey]

..... list order is getting questionable!

Questionable is fine. Totally out of order is not.

[Dick]

I had no intention of putting my entries in any particular order, or even what that order should be. No one would agree on it anyway.

Dick

[mirabela]

Round Mtn. (the one above Chapel Pond) is an awesome hike. You can put it together with Noonmark for a loop that I think runs around 5-6 miles. Start at a reasonable hour and be done in time for a late lunch. And *such* a pretty walk.

[QuietHikergirlJ]

Suggestions for short hikes in the adk's

The only one I never heard of is Good Luck Cliff's, where are these located?
sounds interesting.
Jeanne

[Dick]

The only one I never heard of is Good Luck Cliff's, where are these located?
sounds interesting.
Jeanne

Off of Rt. 10, near Arietta, off the beaten track from the high peaks. Here are some links from the internet:

http://www.adirondackexplorer.org/stories/goodluck.php
http://andyarthur.org/fodder/hikesadks/goodluck.html

Dick

[TFR]

Updated Good Luck, and added Round.

[Neil]

In addition to arranging the peaks in rough easy to more difficult order I would classify them as to region.