LeClaire Hill - Dix Mountain Wilderness - 4/27/14

The State recently purchased a small piece of land of about 76 acres in the Dix Mountain Wilderness thereby giving access to the Dix Wilderness from the Blue Ridge Road (Boreas Road) in North Hudson.

Leesa and I were in the area and decided to take a short hike in to check out LeClaire Hill; one of the peaks I haven't been on in this area.

We parked off the shoulder on the Blue Ridge Road and bypassed a small inholding that is still private (a small camp within site of the road).  We reached the gravel pit shown on the topo map within a couple minutes.

At the gravel pit, we headed east to get a look at the Niagara River.  The water was still running high so it took some searching to find a place to rock hop across.  The river is quite pretty in this area. 




The Niagara River

 Once across the river, we followed in north for perhaps 1/2 mile.  We enjoyed the river and we also wanted to ascend LeClaire Hill from the NE, as it appeared to be an easier ascent route.

The woods were open and the walking was easy.  Once we reached the summit plateau, we found a nice ledge of rock facing west.   This was the best viewpoint we found.




The view west from the west viewpoint

 

 

 

 

The true summit was relatively open hard woods, but once leaves are on the trees, the filtered views will be gone except from the west ledge.
 

I made a small cairn at the true summit

 

Looking SW towards the Hoffman Notch Wilderness

 

The sun came out as we made our way back down.  We chose the more direct line on the way back.  We slope was manageable and just a little slick with mud under the leaves in a couple places.  

 

The blue sky arrived as we started down

 

 It really felt warm once the afternoon sun began to warm the west slope.

 

 

Leesa heading down

  

Open hard woods

Back at the river we re-crossed at the same spot and returned to the car.  This hill may not be worthy a destination in and of itself, but the southern portion of the Dix Wilderness now has an access point just SW of LeClaire Hill on Blue Ridge Road.  I'll be using this point again to launch into the southern Dixes.

 

 

LeClaire Hill

 

Hike Stats:

Hike Distance:  3.5 miles

HIke Time:  2 hours

Total Vertical Gain:  700' 

 



 

The Route (click image to enlarge)