Ampersand Mountain - High Peaks Wilderness - 6/27/16

I had plans to hike the Sewards with my son Zack today.  We met at 9 AM at the Seward trailhead and it was raining.  We talked for a minute and decided we didn't want to take a chance on hiking a full day in the rain.  The forecast had predicted cloudy until 4 PM and then the possibility of a thunderstorm.  The forecast was obviously wrong and we considered what to do.  We decided to climb Ampersand Mountain, even though we had both climbed it before.  It was nearby, less than 3 miles each way, and it's a fantastic mountain.  Perhaps we'd see some interesting weather skies.

The rain stopped as soon as we were underway.  The rain shells came off immediately and things looked promising.  I thought the bugs would come out, but they did not.  Ampersand gets continually steeper as you climb and stone steps have been placed on most of the upper half of the trail to prevent the steep trail from eroding away.

I got loaded my pack with lots of liquid, in anticipation of climbing the Sewards, and I forgot to unload it prior to Ampersand, so I was carrying lots of unnecessary weight.  In any case, Zack forged ahead of me and I did my best to keep up.

Just before the summit, a guy passed us doing a trail run.  Also at that time it began to rain again.  We put our rainshells back on and left our packs under the trees at the treeline.  It was quite windy and the rain was blowing sideways.  There was still some visibility which was fortunate.  We bounded around the summit with our dogs and reminded ourselves how good this summit is. 

You can't really tell in the pictures below, but it continued to rain the whole time we were on the summit.    

   

Rain clouds blowing through.

Zack hanging onto his hat.  The trail runner is heading back down. 

Rev is getting a drink in a summit pool.

More threatening clouds.

Rev was not a fan of the wind.

A summit memorial to Walter Channing Rice.

After leaving the summit, the rain of course stopped and we took off our rainshells for the descent.  We saw quite few people; perhaps 10 or 12 people climbing while we made our way down.

Back at the car we took the 0.6 mile walk to Middle Saranac Lake.  Lulu splashed in the water while Rev stayed on the beach, except for wading in to get a drink.

Thanks Zack for meeting me in Saranac Lake for a hike.  I hope we can get out together again soon.

Hike Stats:

Hike Distance:  5.2 miles

HIke Time:  2 hours, 45 minutes

Vertical Gain:  ~1820'

+ 1.2 miles to Middle Saranac Lake and back

The route

XC to Moose Pond - High Peaks Wilderness, Newcomb - 2/7/15

The trail to the Great Camp Santanoni is a fantastic trail for a great cross-country ski trip.  It's 5.0 miles one way to the Great Camp.  A ten mile loop is enough for most people, but the destination is well worth it.

Another option, albeit much longer, is the 14 mile roundtrip cross-country ski trip to Moose Pond. Both trips share the same trailhead; the parking lot for the Great Camp.  Both trips also share the first 2.2 miles, before the Moose Pond trail bears left.  This was the option Leesa and I chose for today.

The kiosk and trail register for the Great Camp Santanoni trail

We were greatly surprised when we arrived at 10 AM that there were 3 cars in the parking lot, netting 3 lone skiers headed for the Great Camp.  This trail usually receives quite a bit of traffic.  There was 4 inches of fresh snow on top of the previous trail, which made for a nice quiet, yet quick ski to the junction.   Before the junction we passed 2 women heading in, and one man heading out.  These were the 3 skiers we saw in the morning.

The sign at the start

"The Farm at the 1 mile mark".   I like the stone Creamery building

As I expected when we reached the junction, the Moose Pond trail had to been broken out.  This gave me the chance to break trail in a foot of powder and not get too far ahead of Leesa.  Our dog Rev actually broke trail and she did a good job of it.  The snow was deep enough that her belly was dragging in the snow.  She didn't seem to mind.   

The Moose Pond Trail is actually a jeep road the entire length.  It has been well cared for in terms of clearing blowdown.  We had no issues as far as detouring around any fallen trees.

Rev, coming back to check on us. 

Somebody wrote 4.7 on the sign, which is actually more accurate than the adjacent sign that says 4.5 miles. 

The route to Moose Pond is an easy grade the entire length, making it a great trail for a novice skier. The only issue is that the trail is often not been broken out, as was the case today.  

At the 6 mile mark, we reached the far end of the trail that goes back to Newcomb Lake.  This trail had not been broken out either.  We continued on towards Moose Pond.

The Moose Pond/Newcomb Lake trail junction at the 6 mile mark

After another mile, we reached the final trail junction of our day.  This was the junction where a left turn goes to Moose Pond campsites 1 & 2, while the right fork goes around the east side of Moose Pond.

Leesa turned around at this point to get a head start on me for the trip back.  I continued on the 0.3 miles to the campsites at the waters edge.  There is a footpath branching right that leads past an outhouse to the campsites and the pond.  

Almost as bad as a "thunderbox".  The door has broken off.

Moose Pond.  Visibility was poor since the snowfall rate was picking up.  

Location of one of the campsites

There wasn't much to see at the pond in winter with snow falling.  I didn't ski out onto the lake since visibility was poor.  I turned around at the campsites and headed back to catch up to Leesa.

This is a typical shot of how easy and open the route is.  

At around the 5 mile mark on the way in, we had noticed lots of moose scrapings in a big open clearing area.  I stopped on the way back to take a few pictures of them.

Trees scraped by moose!

The skiing on the way back was much easier since we got to enjoy the fruits of our labor and ski out on the track we had just created.  It had taken 3 hours, 40 minutes on the way in, but we managed to cut an hour off that time on the way out

. 

Leesa on the way out

I pieced together 3 maps to show the entire route.

Ski Stats:

Ski Distance:  14.3 miles

Ski Time:  6.5 hours

Total Vertical Gain:  ~ 1200'

The route (click images to enlarge)

The route on the National Geographic Map