Labor Day weekend started out with a rainy Saturday, but I decided to head out for a hike anyways. My destination was Hayes Mountain in the Hoffman Notch Wilderness Area in Schroon Lake, NY.
The mountain lies just southwest of Loch Muller and the trailhead located there. I parked and got started at about 12:30 PM. It wasn't raining at the start, but I knew it would be shortly. I followed the marked trail to Bayly Pond. It was an easy 1 mile walk on an old jeep road.
The pond is pretty shallow and is mostly covered in lilypads. It began to rain as I arrived at the pond.
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| Bayly Pond |
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| Rev takes a look |
From Bayly Pond I followed an abandoned trail to Marion Pond. There are no markers, but it is still relatively easy to follow. The former path heads north for a ways before hooking around and heading south. The rain began to come down harder. Downpours alternating with light rain.
I arrived at Marion Pond after an hour and a half to find what appears to be an illegal campsite with some trash strewn about. At the waters edge were 2 rowboats. Nearby were a pile of mostly broken oars.
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| The illegal campsite at Marion Pond |
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| The pile of oars and other debris |
I made may way around Marion Pond and began the climb up Hayes Mountain. The rain was coming down and I was bushwhacking at this point. I was totally soaked. The tree density wasn't too bad and there wasn't much blowdown. I was able to reach the summit in about 45 minutes from Marion Pond.
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| Marion Pond and one of the rowboats |
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| Another view |
I took a quick look around, but I didn't see any open rock or ledges to provide a view. Granted I didn't look too hard since I was soaked and it was raining hard.
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| The summit of Hayes Mountain |
The summit of Hays is at about 2800 feet. Once I was satisfied that I found the true summit, I made my way back using the reverse route. Another peak climbed, but this one didn't have much to offer.
Hike Stats:
Hike Distance: 8.4 miles
Hike Time: 4 hours
Total Vertical Gain: ~ 1300'
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| My route for the day |
There are cliffs on Hayes mountain at
ReplyDelete43.8678, -73.9159
http://binged.it/14A0Xod
Though I have never been to them, I'm guessing you could find views there.
Yeah, in planning to hike Hayes, I saw that there were some cliffs to the south of the true summit. The weather was just so crappy and visibility so poor that I didn't do much exploring from the summit once I got there.
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