Moose and McKenzie Mountains - McKenzie Mountain Wilderness - 8/9/14

My goal for Saturday was to climb Moose Mountain (3899') in the McKenzie Mountain Wilderness Area.  This is a peak on the hundred highest list in New York.  The plan was to park on Whiteface Inn Road, take the Jackrabbit Trail to the McKenzie Mountain Trail, climb McKenzie, then follow the Shore Owners Association (SOA) herd paths in a loop to complete the hike.

I had climbed McKenzie (3861) previously on an early November day in winter conditions.  Look at the conditions I had that day!  I also had climbed Haystack on that day.  Haystack is a nice destination on it's own. 

As I drove to Lake Plaid, I noticed all the trailheads in Keene were absolutely packed, with cars lining the road for great distances.  This was another reason to climb at a location outside the High Peaks, even though Moose and McKenzie are darn close to high peaks.

My previous trip to McKenzie started from Route 86, so that is why I chose to start this trip from the Jackrabbit Trail on Whiteface Inn Road.  This time I was also starting late, 11:15, so I wanted to move quick.  It took 30 minutes to walk the 1.8 mile section of the Jackrabbit Trail to the intersection with the McKenzie Trail.  There is nothing too exciting about hiking the Jackrabbit in summer, also in winter it is a fine ski trail.

At the McKenzie Trail, I turned right, and immediately began the steep climb up McKenzie.  From the junction, the trail climbs 1000' feet in the next .7 miles.  It then tapers off a little as you go over several false summits.    



Sign at the trailhead

I slowed down considerably on the steep upward climb, but still managed to reach the first viewpoint at 2900' an hour from the start. 

Early viewpoint

a zoom view from the first viewpoint

While this trail was less crowded than it's high peak counterparts, I did see a dozen or so people and 5 dogs on the trail.   

Wonderful hiking on summit ridge

After an hour and 45 minutes of hiking, I was on the summit of McKenzie.  While the summit is wooded, there are several viewpoints on the east and west sides of the summit that offer great views.



Views from the summit

Lake Placid from McKenzie

From the summit of McKenzie, I left the people behind and continued north on the SOA herd path to Moose Mountain.  Then I was on McKenzie previously, I had turned around shortly after starting on this herd path, due to blowdown and lots of fresh snow.  This time the path was wonderful.  It has a rugged remote feel and offers hiking on duff instead of rocks, roots and mud. 

The path drops approximately 600' between the two mountains so you have some work to do, but I loved the trail.  It is a little faint in spots due to lots of ferns hanging over the trail, but I just followed my dog Rev, who knew exactly where to go.  You shouldn't lose the trail if you carefully follow it.  The trail is marked by white SOA discs with red lettering.  On many of the discs, the red lettering has faded to yellow.  There are also plain yellow discs which are short spurs leading to viewpoints. 

A non-faded SOA marker

A view of Moose, shortly after leaving McKenzie

Just 0.2 miles north of McKenzie is an optional trail if you want just a McKenzie loop hike.  This trail takes you down past Bartlett Pond and down to the Lake Trail and Whiteface Inn Road. 

Just north of Moose is an SOA trail leading down to Bartlett Pond and the Lake Trail

Here is an example of the many ferns along the SOA trail to Moose

Nearing the Moose Mountain summit ridge

It is 3.1 miles from McKenzie to Moose and this section of the hike took me an hour and 45 minutes.  I has now 3.5 hours into the hike.  I was quite surprised when I reached the summit of Moose to find 2 young women (perhaps in their early twenties) there.  They had climbed from the SOA Two Brooks Trail and said it had taken them three hours.  These were the only people I saw once I left McKenzie.

Moose Mountain offer 2 viewpoints; one looks over Lake Placid, and the other offers views of Catamount and Whiteface.  I sat down with Rev to have some snacks.  It was a beautiful day out.  Not quite bluebird skies, but nice temps and no humidity.  I was surprised but the amount of ordinary house flies buzzing around us on Moose as we ate out snacks.  No other bugs bothered us all day.

    

Catamount from Moose 

Whiteface from Moose

A closer look at Whiteface

... and Catamount

No summit sign on Moose, but a sign telling you how far to McKenzie 

Great view of Lake Placid 

a zoom

From Moose it was time to complete the loop.  We left the summit and quickly came to a fork in the SOA trails.  The left fork goes to Loch Bonnie (.5 to Loch Bonnie, then .3 to Two Brooks), the right fork bypasses Loch Bonnie and goes directly to the Two Brooks trail (.6 miles).  I chose to go the extra .2 and see Loch Bonnie.

The trail to Loch Bonnie is steep smooth duff.  Again, no rocks roots or mud, just steep duff.  Very unusual for the ADK's.  Loch Bonnie is a small quiet tarn.  Once there, you reach another trail split; left to Undercliff and the lake, right to go to Two Brooks trail and back to Whiteface Inn Road.  

Loch Bonnie

The cutover trail from Loch Bonnie to the Two Brooks Trail is only .3 miles, but it has not been maintained and is full of very thick blowdown.  You reach a little hill and cannot tell where the trail is.  I don't recommend this cutoff trail.  I would either skip Loch Bonnie, or re-climb Moose and take the right fork (Two Brooks Trail).   

The beginning of the blowdown 

I would not take the .3 mile spur again from Loch Bonnie

Once I made it through the hellacious .3 mile spur, I was on the Two Brooks trail which was delightful.   About halfway down, I came across the junction with the Bartlett Pond trail to McKenzie.  I haven't taken this trail; something to do in the future.

Junction of Bartlett Pond Trail and Two Brooks Trail 

Continuing on, the trail crossed Two Brooks; a nice brook with great spots to soak your feet.  You also pass an old stone wall that looks like it was built to channel the brook.



Interesting wall.  I would like to know the history behind it 

Next you reach the Lake Trail which is a somewhat unattractive trail which just bypasses homes to get you back to Blodget Road where you walk the short distance to Whiteface Inn Road and the trailhead at the Jackrabbit.

Intersection of the Two Brooks Trail with the Lake Trail

Sign at Blodget Road (on the left if you are walking in here) where you leave the road to start the Lake Trail 

I really liked this hike, especially Moose Mountain.  I you want a shorter version, you can go in and out on the Two Brooks Trail, or do a loop with Bartlett Pond and Two Brooks (that may be my next version of this hike).

If you can find it, there is an out of print booklet called:  "Guide to the SOA Trails - A Hiker's Companion to the Historic Trails of the Lake Placid Home Owner's Association", by Richard Hayes Phillips.  He is the man who did the majority of the work in restoring the SOA trail network.  Well worth reading.

Hike Stats:

Hike Distance:  9.4 miles



Hike Time:  5.5 hours
Total Vertical Gain:  ~ 3000'

My route in red (clockwise); other SOA routes in blue (Click image to enlarge) 





Baldhead and Moose Mountains - Wilcox Lake Wild Forest - 12-14/12

Today I was looking to do a "most of the day"  hike, but I didn't want to get up early and I didn't want to drive too far.  I looked at my list of "to do" hikes and came up with a new one that had just been referred to me... Baldhead Mountain and Moose Mountain in the Wilcox Lake Wild Forest.

These mountains are located west of Warrensburg, and just north of Stony Creek.  They are just south of Crane Mountain (another fine hike).

I decided to do a loop hike and go up Baldhead, then over to Moose, down over Burnt Mountain to the road and back to the car.  If you look at the map at the bottom of this post, you can see that there is a sizable section of private land inbetween parcels of state land, necessiting my upsidedown horseshoe hike.  It was that or go back down the way I came.  I chose to do the loop and walk the mile on the road back to the car.

I started the climb towards the first unnamed bump south of Baldhead.  It was open hardwoods, but I got into some thick prickers for awhile.  I was rewarded however with a visit from a Snowshoe Hare.  It's funny, I just saw one yesterday on Niagar Mountain, but didn't have time to get a picture.  This time, he stopped and watched me while I took his picture.  As usual, my dog Rev was ahead of me, so she didn't see it.  Once the hare started to hop ahead, Rev caught a glance and it was off to the races.  Rev, to her credit, did come right back to me when I called out to her and told her to leave it.



 

A snowshoe hare!



  The prickers ended just before the first bump and they weren't a problem the rest of the hike.   After the first bump, there was a small downhill section and then I began to make my way up Baldhead.  It was a nice climb and there is lots of sloping rock that's not difficult to negotiate.  I could see the summit ridge up ahead and there was a band of rock there as well.
 



Heading up Baldhead Mountain from the south

 

The Baldhead summit ridge





Rev always gets there first

 

The summit of Baldhead is in and out of some spruce, but there are some fine views, especially of Moose Mountain and Crane Mountain. Be sure to poke around.  There's lots of nice little nooks and crannies with views.   I could tell Moose would be a nice summit.  You could tell the summit was mostly open.

After leaving Baldhead, we followed the ridge that hooks around towards Moose.  The walking continued to be easy.  It's nice in the hardwoods with the leaves down, you can easily tell which way to go without looking at your compass.  You can see the mountains in front of you.

 

Moose Mountain in the distance... next stop on the loop





As we bagan our climb up Moose, some clouds began to roll in. We never did get any precipitation, but the sky was darkening.  Moose has even more open rock than Baldhead, and is a very enjoyable peak.  The view to Crane Mountain are great.  You can also see Gore Mountain in the distance.

 

Looking north to Crane Mountain

We were on the summit of Moose at noon and chose a nice grassy spot to sit and have some lunch.  It was interesting to watch the changing sky.  It almost looked like a sunset to the west and it was only noon.

 

The summit of Moose Mountain

 

 

Some clouds came in, but no precipitation

Looking SW

Our last stop of the day would be to descend south via Burnt Mountain.   There was also a small pond that I could see on the shoulder of Burnt Mountain that I wanted to check out.  It wasn't shown on the map.  When we got down to it, it turned out to be a beaver pond.  The pond was starting to freeze, but still not a lot of ice for this time of year.

 

Burnt Mountain was not much more than a bump on the way out.  I was careful on the way down to follow a course to stay on the thin strip of state land that reaches the road.  Once at the road it was less than a mile back to the car.  I found this to be a great loop hike.  Alternatively, an up and back to Moose would be nice as a shorter alternative.



Looking towards Burnt Mountain as we were heading down off Moose

Beaver Pond in a col between Burnt Mountain and an unnamed bump to the north



My Route for the day

An approximation of the route on National Geographic TOPO

 

 

Hike Stats:

Hike Distance:  7.7miles

Hike Time:  5 hours

Total Vertical Gain:  ~2350'