Number 8 Hill - Pharaoh Lake Wilderness - 12/17/17

We had about 10 inches of snow on Tuesday the 12th.  Of course that made me anxious to get out on my cross country skis.  I spent some time on Saturday at the Lake George Rec Trails.  I skied most of the trails there, then followed the old jeep road up towards Prospect Mountain before dropping down to the Prospect Mountain Auto Road and a nice glide out.

Today I wanted a combo ski and hike.  I decided to repeat a trek I've made several times before.  Number 8 Hill in the Pharoah Lake Wilderness would be my goal.  I drove to the hamlet of Adirondac and parked at the trailhead for the Sucker Brook trail on the East side of Schroon Lake.  As I passed Schroon Lake, it looked quite magical with water vapor coming off the warm water and freezing in the cold air before crystallizing on the trees on the shoreline.  I didn't get any pictures that quite captured it, but it was a beautiful site.

  

A beautiful morning at Schroon Lake

The Sucker Brook trail is an old jeep road and is now marked as a horse trail, but it gets little use; in fact there were no tracks in the snow when I got there, and no cars parked.   I opened the hatch of the car and Rev leaped out, ready for adventure.

The sign at the parking area.

For my combo adventure, I was going to ski approximately 3.5 miles to the southern base of Number 8 Hill, then ditch the skis and climb the short distance to the summit from the south approach.  This is a lovely route, it I believe today was my fourth time.

The old horse trail discs.  I've never seen evidence of any horses here...   

It was quite cold today; 2 degrees at the start but winds were calm and the skies were blue.  I attached my snowshoes to my pack, put my skis on, and set off to get warm.  The old jeep road is smooth in the beginning, so 10 inches of snow was adequate.  About 2 miles in the road gets rougher, with exposed rock.  Although the rock was covered  in snow, I twice hit rocks that didn't move... so I did.  It wasn't pleasant having these abrupt visits to the ground, but it's the price to pay for early season skiing in the woods.  I also came to a few small drainages that I couldn't cross on skis so I had to take them off and carry them across.

By the time I got to the location where I wanted to jump off the trail, I was glad to take the skis off.  It was a short 0.9 mile climb up the southern ridge.  Most of my pictures were taken on the southern ridgeline or on the summit.

      

The open southern approach (this pic and the next five!)

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Rev on the summit, with Pharaoh Mountain in the background.

A better look at Pharaoh Mountain. 

You can't tell from my pictures, but there is a nice view of Hoffman Mountain in Schroon Lake and also the Great Range in the horizon.

Rev awaiting treats... then wanting to get moving again.  

A memorial of sorts... for a Grant MacDonald 

Brant Lake

I enjoyed a thermos of hot chocolate on the summit and patted myself on the back for remembering to bring it!  It hit the spot.  It was definitely worth coming back to Number 8 Hill a forth time.  The views are awesome and the bushwhacking is easy and enjoyable. 

Rev and I returned to the trail so I could get my skis.  The return trip trip was slightly downhill and I now had my previous track to glide in, making the trip out a little bit faster.  It felt great to be back on skis again, although as I type this blog post, I can tell I used some different muscle groups that haven't been used recently!

Another nice day out.  Rev and I didn't see another person all day.

Trip Stats:

Ski Distance:  7.2 miles

Hike Distance:  2 miles

Total Vertical Gain:  1200'

Trip Time:  5 hours (including stops)

Barton High Cliffs - Pharaoh Lake Wilderness - 4/22/17

Saturday Rev and I ventured off to the Pharaoh Lake Wilderness explore some of the terrain on the north side of Route 8 near Brant Lake.  I started by climbing Brace Hill from one of the parking pulloffs.  The first thing I noticed was a survey marker encased in concrete near the parking lot.

As I started to climb, the woods were very open hardwoods.  There were many scattered piles of rocks that seemed to have no rhyme or reason as to why they were placed that way.  I've seen this before in other areas.

Survey Marker adjacent to the parking lot

One of many rockpiles in the lower hardwoods just above the parking lot.

Brace Hill was an easy climb and was rather nondescript.  I was planning on continuing on to Barton Mountain.  There are two mountains labeled as Barton Mountain on the topo map.  I was intending to head for the higher more northerly peak.

I could see Barton Mountain from the top of Brace Hill.  What caught my eye though was the cliffs to the right of Barton.  They were on the northwest face of the hill labeled with an elevation of 1910 on the topo map.  I would later learn these cliffs are known as the Barton High Cliffs; which I had heard of before, but I didn't make the association at the time.

I decided to head for the cliffs and check them out.  I could see a massive vertical face and a huge rockpile at the bottom.

     

Barton High Cliffs in the back right of the photo as seen from Brace Hill.

Spuytenduivel Brook.

Approaching Barton High Cliffs from the southwest.

As I neared the base of the cliffs, I stayed on the opposite side of the draw from the cliffs and soon found a herd path which is likely used by rock climbers.  Cairns marked the faint path.  I was amazed at the sheer size of the cliffs.  They weren't that much smaller than the Wallface Cliffs in the High Peaks.  As I traversed the herd path near the base of the cliffs, I was looked carefully at the top to see if there were open level ledges that would be reachable.  If so, they would most certainly offer views.

It did appear that the top of the cliffs would be approachable, so I looked to see how I could get up there.

Climbing the cliff face is not an option.  I continued past the cliffs and hooked around the north side until I was able to climb.  once I found a way up, I made my way over to the top of the ledge and then began a traverse southwest along the ridge.         

An interesting tree along the way.

The summit ledges looked like they'd be approachable from the top.

The climb to the top of the high cliffs was worth it.  There were two locations on top that offered ledges with nice views.

  

Brant Lake in the distance with 2nd Brother and 3rd Brother on the right.

Stevens Mountain in the right rear.

Rev... always a hiking partner. 

Once I finishing the traverse of the ledges on top of Barton High Cliffs, I decided to head back to the car instead of looping back to the north to Barton Mountain.  

Hike Stats:

Hike Distance:  4.6 miles

Hike Time:  3 hours

Total Vertical Gain:  ~ 1300'

The Dam Hill and Number 8 Hill - Pharaoh Lake Wilderness - 3/12/16

I had just gone to Number 8 Hill in the Pharaoh Lake Wilderness on 2/14/16, but it impressed me so much take I went back there today with Leesa to show it to her.  On the first trip, I did a six pack of hills, finishing with Number 8 hill from the west.

This time, we started from the south and climbed the shoulder of Number 8 Mountain, then " The Dam Hill" (1324'), then climbed Number 8 Hill (1877') via the beautiful open rock SW ridge.  I can't imagine a more beautiful approach; especially considering that this peak is less than 2000' high.

Brant Lake from the shoulder of Number 8 Mountain

Rev, crossing Mill Brook 

The summit of "The Dam Hill"

Climbing the SW ridge of Number 8 Hill

Looking down the SW ridge of Number 8 Hill 

Nearing the top

The summit of Number 8 Hill.  Looking north to Pharaoh Mountain.

Pharaoh Mountain from Number 8 Hill

Looking south to Brant Lake.

A memorial on the summit of Number 8 Hill.

A closer look at the memorial.

Zoom view of Gore Mountain

Zoom view of Crane Mountain

Leesa giving Rev a reward on top of Number 8 Hill.

Looking NW to Hoffman Mountain and some of the high peaks in the distance.

We enjoyed the summit for quite a while, basking in the perfect 55 degree weather and bluebird skies.  Eventually we continued on by dropping down to the eastern sub-summit where there is quite a cliff and continued views east and north.

 

Pharaoh from the cliff at the eastern sub-summit of Number 8 Hill.

We went SW from the cliff and headed down on a parallel path tto our ascent route; just slightly more to the east.  We bypassed The Dam Hill on the way out and crossed Desolate Brook on the log we usd on the way in.

 

This log was our means of crossing the high flowing Desolate Brook

I'll probably be back to Number 8 Hill again at some point.  It is a fabulous place.

Hike Stats:

Hike Distance:  8.75 miles

Hike Time:  5.5 hours

Total Vertical Gain:  ~2300'

The Route (click image to enlarge)