Mount Marshall - 5/27/12

What a pleasant surprise this weekend's weather turned out to be.  Scattered storms were forecast but we only saw nice weather.  Saturday Leesa and I hiked in the northern most section of the Adirondack Park (Lyon Mountain and Silver Lake mountain), but I'll report on those tomorrow.

On Sunday, we decided to climb another Adirondack High Peak - Mount Marshall.  We parked at Upper Works, off of Blue Ridge Road.  We didn't get to the trailhead until 9 AM, but there was still quite a bit of parking space available.  We were surprised, since it was a holiday weekend.  We chose this hike to purposely avoid the most popular hiking areas.

We headed north from the trailhead towards Indian Pass and after .4 miles, branched right on the Calamity Brook Trail.  The trail travels northeasterly along the brook for 4 miles to Flowed Lands.  The trail is a great backcountry ski trail in the winter.  This was my first time on the trail in summer, and it looked entirely different without the snow.  It's a nice gradual 1000' climb in the 4 mile route.  Once at Flowed lands, the trail skirts around the western shore.  We saw 3 or 4 tents in the Flowed land area.

     

Looking North from Flowed Lands towards Avalance Pass.  Mount Colden is on the right.

A Leanto at the junction of Calamity Brook Trail and Flowed Lands

Flowed Lands

New footbridge - a few paces south of the Herbert Brook herd path

At the NW end of Flowed Lands is the Beaver Point Lean-to and the beginning of the Herbert Brook herd path to Mount Marshall.  There is a rock cairn marking the start of the herd path.  

Cairn marking the start of the Herbert Brook herd path

We stopped for a few moments at the lean-to for a snack before starting up the herd path.  We knew from looking at the map that we would soon be climbing about 1500' over the course of the next 1.5 miles.

Beaver Point Lean-to 

View south from Beaver Point Lean-to

Another view of the Beaver Point Lean-to

One of many inviting water pools beneath a waterfall on the Herbert Brook herd path 

The Herbert Brook herd path is not an easy one.  It climbs rather steeply and has lots of roots and mud and also crosses the brook many times.  That said, it is a pretty trail.  The brook has many waterfalls and water slides.  There are also many inviting pools to cool off in during the hot weather.

The herd path crosses the Herbert Brook many times along the route

Very long water slides on Herbert Brook

Leesa and Rev on the summit.  Rev of course is hungry

We reached the summit around 2:30 and sat down for a bit to enjoy our accomplishment.  While on the summit, we met "Rockbiter" whom we had seen before on another hike (can't remember which one).  He gave Rev 4 pieces of beef jerky and she loved it.  She wasn't too polite though.  She barked for more.

Summit disk

As had been reported by others, Marshall doesn't have much of a view.  There is a limited view of Iroquois to the north, and if you walk slightly south from the summit, there is a decent view.  

View of Iroquois from Marshall

After a bit, we retraced our track back to the car.  We made better time on the way out and were back at the car at 6:30 (about 4 hours to return).  We quite enjoyed the nice day.  The weather was unexpectedly nice and there were no bugs!

Zoom in of Iroquois

A viewpoint (looking south) a short distance from the summit

From the viewpoint, looking east.  Mount Marcy on the left.

Zoom in view Looking towards Mount Colden

Hike Stats:

Hike Distance:  14 miles

Hike Time:  9.75 hours

Total Vertical Gain:  3185'

Trailhead Elevation:  1765'

Summit Elevation:  4360'

Our route shown in blue (click to enlarge)

Our GPS route to Mount Marshall