Siamese Ponds - Siamese Ponds Wilderness - 9/5/16

When I asked my wife Leesa what kind of a hike she wanted for Labor Day, she said wanted a trail hike (no bushwhack), kind of long, somewhat flat, with water along the way and not a lot of people. The hike that came to my mind was Siamese Ponds from the Eleventh Mountain parking area on Route 8.  While I often xc ski to the Sacandaga leanto at the suspension bridge, I hadn't been to Siamese Ponds since 1983!

We got a late 10:30 start, but knew we had plenty of time to do this hike.  I've only done this route in fall and winter, so it looked a bit different today.  It was another beautiful day today; as it has been all week.  I can't remember a Labor Day weekend with weather this good.

  

Signs at the trailhead.

Looking towards the southern shoulder of 11th mountain from the trail. 

The trail starts with a quick climb to a pass just south of 11th mountain.  Once through the pass is a nice mocerate descent (great on skis) to a footbridge at Diamond Brook.  About a half mile past the footbridge is a nice waterhole on the river and we stopped for a bit.  Leesa took off her shoes and soaked her feet. 

East Branch Sacandaga River (with a low water level)!

Leesa... getting ready to soak her feet.

Continuing on, we passed a man who had been backpacking for a couple days and he was on his way out.  After a total of 4 pleasant miles, we arrived at the Sacandaga leanto.  I was really surprised that no one was there, since we had seen 5 cars in the parking lot when we arrived.  

Orange and yellow leaves on this tree.

This must be a practive log for this beaver.

We sat down in the leanto and started to pull out lunch.  Almost immediately two guys with a dog came across the bridge from the Siamese Ponds direction.  Unfortunately their dog and Rev played for a minute but then got into a tussle.  We had to seperate the dogs and they went on their way.

Sacandaga leanto 

With it quiet once again, we ate our lunch at this beautiful spot.   I'm still amazed that a suspension bridge was built here.  I know one was needed to cross the East Branch Sacandaga River, but the hiker traffic through here is rather light, even on holiday weekends with perfect weather.  In any case, I'm glad the bridge is there.  We used it after lunch.  Leesa and Rev aren't super comfortable with suspension bridge, especially long ones like this, but it isn't very high over the river and they did it. 

Sacandaga suspension bridge.

The view of the river from the bridge.

It's lunchtime...

From the leanto it is another 2.3 miles to Siamese Ponds.  This is the portion of the trail that I had not been on since 1983.  I had no recollection of it.  I thought it would be somewhat overgrown, but I was wrong.  It was in pretty good shape except for a couple recent fallen trees.

After an hour of hiking we reached the pond and it was quite beautiful.  There was a sandy area at the trail terminus and the pond bottom was sandy as well.  Leesa went for a swim and I walked north a little ways on the eastern shore.

A large nice campsite just before the trail reaches the pond.

The end of the trail.

There is actually a pair of ponds, and I've never seen the more westerly upper pond.  There is supposedly a nice campsite on the small piece of land between the two ponds, but we didn't have time today to bushwhack around the lower pond to check it out.  Sometime I'll have to go back in to see it, or we'll have to camp and do some more exploration.  Not a bad idea.

 The only trail back was the way we had come.  Not horrible, and it was such a nice day.  We stopped again at the same waterhole we used on the way in to stop again and stick our feet in the water.  A very peaceful day and a nice hike.  Leesa said that my choice of hikes was just what she had wanted for the day.  We got back to the car around 4:45 PM.

Hike Stats:
Hike Distance:  12.9 miles
Hike Time:  6 hours, 15 minutes, including stops
Total Vertical Gain:  ~1650'

The trail

The route as shown on the Nat Geo map

Nun-Da-Ga-O Loop - Hurricane Mountain Primitive Area - 7/4/15

For a 4th of July hike this year, Leesa and I chose the Nun-Da-Ga-O loop (also known as the Soda Range) in the Hurricane Mountain Primitive Area in Keene, NY.  This is a great 6 mile loop that offers a pond, 2 leantos, some nice open rock views from a horseshoe shaped ridge.  The loop is part marked trail and part unmarked herd path.  The unmarked portion is pretty easy to follow in the non-winter months.  You can get twisted around there in the winter if the trail hasn't been broken out.

Last year I did this loop in a clockwise direction and also incorporated an out-and-back trip to Hurricane Mountain.  This year we went in a counter-clockwise direction.  Our first stop was the almost new Gulf Brook leanto; just a 30 minute walk from the O'Toole Road trailhead.  It was recently relocated and rebuilt and now has been stained.  It's been moved away from Gulf Brook, but still have a drainage nearby for water.    

Gulf Brook leanto 

Our next stop was Lost Pond.  It always looks very peaceful.  

Lost Pond

Just north of Lost Pond is the newly rebuilt Biesemeyer leanto which also has a fresh coat of stain.

Biesemeyer leanto

After Biesemeyer leanto is the steepest climb of the day.  It's a short but steep ascent up to Weston Mountain.  Don't miss the view from the open rock ledge; it's just off the trail at the height of land.  I

think the view from Weston is the best of the hike, but it's tough to judge.  An awful lot of high peaks can be seen from Weston.

  

Looking down at Lost Pond from Weston Mountain.  Storm clouds over the High Peaks were threatening.

After Weston Mountain we were back in the woods on the unmarked trail until the mid-point of the hike when a nice stretch of rock ridge appears. 

A sample of the rock ridge midway along the Nun-Da-Ga-O range.

A look north to the Jay Mountain range

Rev is waiting for Leesa and I to get moving.

We love this stretch of rock.

Rain clouds were getting closer.

Near the end of the loop, we reached the junction with the trail to Big Crow Mountain and decided to climb the steep 0.2 miles to the summit of Big Crow, even though it was now starting to rain.  Big Crow is a great destination for a short hike with kids.  It's only 0.7 miles from the trailhead to the summit and it offers big views.  It's steep, but many kids like steep anyway.

We could hear rolling thunder and it was fun to watch the rain clouds moving in on us.  We stayed long enough to watch for a few minutes, then headed down before the steep rock sloping trail got slick from rain.   

This hike is a nice alternative to the more crowded high peaks.  The loop has a lot to offer and we had another fine day here.

Hike Stats:
Hike Distance:  6.4 miles
Hike Time:  4.5 hours, including stops
Total Vertical Gain:  ~1500'

The route (click image to enlarge)

The route on the Nat Geo topo map

Bailey Hill (3054') - Hoffman Notch Wilderness - 1/11/15

Bailey Hill in the Hoffman Notch Wilderness Area has been calling my name for awhile.  It's probably the closest named peak to my house that I had not climbed.  Today I was getting a late start, so I decided to stay close to home and climb Bailey.

The easiest approach is from the Loch Muller trailhead and that's where I parked.  It was 10 degrees at the start and overcast.  I followed the Bailey Pond Trail for the 1st .85 miles to Bailey Pond.  Once past the pond, the trail becomes a herd path on an old road.  The herd path leads to Marion Pond, but that was going to be my second destination, time permitting.

Bailey Pond

At the 1.7 mile mark, the herd path makes a sharp left and begins to climb the steep slope that guards Marion Pond.  At the top of the slope, the herd path turns left again, leading to Marion Pond.  This was my jump off point to turn right and begin my bushwhack north to Bailey Hill.  My plan was to head almost due north, keeping the ledge on my right.  I was 2.2 miles into the hike at this point.  It turns out that it was another 2.2 miles to the summit.

My plan worked well.  The forest was quite open and mostly hardwoods.  I didn't come across any blowdown or thick spruce, for which I'm always grateful!  Near the summit the forest changed to spruce, but they were larger spruce spaced nicely.  I didn't even get snow covered.

A quiet open spruce forest near the summit of Bailey

At the start, there had been about 3" of powder snow on top of a hard crust.  At the summit, the powder had increased to about 6".  I wore snowshoes the entire hike, and they worked well.

From the northern edge of the summit cone I could see through hardwood the high peaks.  This view would be blocked by leaves in the summertime.  

I had Rev wear her coat to stay warm.  She hates it though!  She runs away when I try to put it on her.  

I believe this is Sand Pond Mountain to the northeast.

This large glacial erratic lies almost exactly at the summit

From the summit it continued west to a lower false summit.  I was searching for the best spot to get views looking north and I succeded, although the best views were near the true summit.  

A large birch near the summit

Zoom view of Mount Haystack, 14 miles to the north 

Mount Marcy

This was a small col between the summit (on the right) and a lower false summit (on the left)  

It was almost 2 PM when I was leaving the summit.  I was doubting I'd have time to get over to Marion Pond, but by retracing my steps and flying down the the hill, I got to Marion Pond by 3 PM.   

Hayes Mountain to the south as I was descending Bailey Hill

One of two rowboats that still exist at Marion Pond

Marion Pond

Panorama of Marion Pond

Of course since it was 3 PM when I reached Marion Pond, I just stayed for a couple minutes before heading back to Loch Muller.  It was a nice quiet day in the woods.  I climbed a new peak and Rev is now laying on the couch in front of the fireplace with her paws stretched out.  It must have been a good day.

Hike Stats:

Hike Distance:  11 miles

Hike Time:  6 hours

Total Vertical Gain:  ~ 1950'  

The route (click image to enlarge)

The route (click image to enlarge)