Dial and Nippletop from Round Pond via Gravestone Brook - 5/25/14

This was a repeat of a trip I did in July of 2013 with my dog Rev.  This time my wife Leesa wanted to go this route so she could hike Dial and Nippletop; two peaks she had not climbed.  These would be #'s 38 and 39 for her.  Since Rev was going with us we used Gravestone Brook to get from the Dix Trail to Dial.

It was a nice morning; sunny and about 50 degrees.  An afternoon thunder storm was possible, but we never saw any rain.  We arrived at the Round Pond trailhead just after 7:30 and claimed the last parking spot in the lot.  In minutes we arrived at Round Pond.  There was a tent at the first campsite on the right.  Three canoes were out on the pond with men fishing.

  

Round Pond in the morning sunlight

It was a peaceful morning at the pond.  I'm sure the men were enjoying the fishing.  We continued on and reached the height of land at 1.6 miles after 45 minutes from the car.  Next we dropped down along the Boquet River and followed it towards the Boquet lean-to.  

Round Pond

This was the first time on the Dix Trail for Leesa in spring.  Her only previous trip on this trail was in winter so everything looked different from when she last was here.  

A beautiful oxbow along the Boquet 

At the 3.5 mile mark we reached Gravestone Brook and it was time to do a little bushwhacking.  From my previous trip, I recalled that the right side of the brook was easier terrain to navigate and we chose that way again.  There is a slight herd path (animal path) that we followed along the way.  The biggest impediment was a lot of Witch-Hobble which would trip us up occasionally.

Witch-Hobble 

We enjoyed the cascades of Gravestone Brook.  There are numerous 4' drops and lots of areas where water slides down sheets of rock.  We weren't always at the waters edge.  At times, the walking was a little easier a short distance away from the brook.

Near the top of the brook, it splits in a Y.  We took the right hand fork to avoid bushwhacking up the steeper left fork.  Shortly the brook ended and soon we popped out on the trail near the Dial/Bear Den col, just slightly on the Dial side.  The elevation at this point was 3200'.

  

Gravestone Brook

The trail felt easy after the bushwhack, and we quickly climbed the 800' to the summit of Dial.  Number 38 for Leesa.  There was one lone gentleman enjoying the view of the Great Range from the summit rock.  We still had blue skies and some nice puffy cumulus clouds.  Rain was nowhere in sight.   

We stopped and had some left over pizza here.  I had brought a few drinks (some frozen) and the frozen ones weren't thawing as fast as I thought they might.  I fact, they were still half frozen when we got back to the car.

The Great Range!

Great Range, take two.

Leesa and Rev

As we made our way up the pointless ups-and-downs (PUDs), we soon began to see a few hikers and had a couple nice chats along the way.   We reached the summit and shared it with four other folks before they all left and we had a little time to ourselves at the top.  I didn't expect that on Memorial Day weekend.  High peak number 39 for Leesa! 

On the way down we saw one man with a dog near the sign for Elk Pass.  I didn't think to ask him which way he came up with his dog. 

I love this view of Dix from Nippletop

We had an uneventful descent.  The bushwhack seemed longer on the return, even though it was downhill. 

Elk Lake in the distance (from Nippletop)

A couple more clouds, but still nice

Dix

A PUD on the way back to Dial

This was the only patch of snow we saw.  They were also a couple small ice patches.

We stopped twice to soak our feet in the cold water on the return; once at the bottom of Gravestone Brook, and once at the Noonmark Trail junction.  It always feels good to stick hot feet in cold water!

We saw one tent pitched a mere 20 feet off the trail just a little east of the Noonmark Trail junction.  The holiday weekend crowd don't always know the rules (150' from water or trail, and no camping above 3500' unless at a designated location).

We got back to the car around 6:30 after another nice day in the woods.  Rev slept on the way back to Schroon Lake.

Hike Stats:

Hike Distance:  15 miles

Hike Time:  10 hours + stoppage time

Total Vertical Gain:  ~ 4000'

    

The route (click image to enlarge)

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)