Palmer Pond Hill - Hoffman Notch Wilderness - 7/4/16

For an Independence Day hike I chose a place that I was almost certain would have no other visitors on this day.  In fact, the hill I chose doesn't even have a name.  I call it Palmer Pond Hill since it lies immediately south of Palmer Pond.  If you haven't heard of Palmer Pond, it is immediately west of I87 Exit 29.

The best way to get to this unnamed hill, however, is to take an old jeep road off Route 9 in North Hudson west to the Schroon River.  At the river, you have to wade across.  It was calf deep or less on this day.  The next thing to do is find the culvert under I87 designed for walking; it takes a little effort since it sees very little use.   I've done this bushwhack before so I knew where to look for the culvert.    

The walking culvert in North Hudson.

Once through the culvert Leesa and I turned north for a short distance to get to the base of the ridge that leads west up to the top of the hill.  The climb is beautiful, but it does have two very steep parts, one at the base of the ridge, and one just before the summit.

The ridge is graced with a red pine forest and lots of ledges and rock to scramble up or around.

An early look SW to Schroon Lake.

A zoom view of Schroon Lake.

A good look at the southern portion of the Dix Range.

This hike is only 5.2 miles roundtrip, but allow 4-5 hours for this trip.  You can perhaps do it faster, but you won't want to.  The summit is a beautiful open rock promenade that faces west.  Views are expansive, from Schroon Lake to the SW, all the way to high peaks to the north.

Leesa had not been to this fascinating summit before, hence my selection of this location for our Independence Day hike.  The breezes and views were as great as my first visit here.  We stayed on top much longer than we normally stay on a summit.

    

 

One of the ledges near the summit. 

Another view of  Schroon Lake.

The Adirondack Buffalo Company is in the distance.

On the way out the Schroon River crossing was nice on the feet.

  

The Schroon River

I imagine I'll be back to this place again in the future.  It's high on my list of short bushwhack destinations.

Hike Stats:

Hike Distance:  5.2 miles

Hike Time:  4.5 hours

Total Vertical Gain:  ~1500'

The Route.

The route on the NG topo.

Kayaking the Schroon River - Warrensburg, NY - 3/18/12

I enjoy kayaking the Schroon River (although I've never done it in March before)!  I haven't done the whitewater sections, since I have a touring boat, but now I've done most of the quiet water sections.

Today's paddle was the meandering section beginning in Bolton, south of Riverbank, at the location where the river starts to wind back and forth.  Just to the north are some small rapids, which I would have done in the summer, but I didn't want to take a chance in March.

I must say it felt strange kayaking in mid-March, even though the weather was more like May.  As I paddled though, I came across both cool and warm thermals in the air.  The water was certainly cold, but I managed to stay dry.

Map showing my Launch and Take Out locations - click to enlarge

This paddle measured 6.8 miles and took an hour and a half to paddle.  There were lots of Mergansers along the way and some geese.  I had not paddled this section of the river before.  It is a little wider and deeper than my favorite section (Schroon Falls - south the Schroon Lake).  There are not as many inviting little beaches either.  Still a nice paddle.

A nice easy launch location - I didn't even get my feet wet

  

Several embankments line the river

Not too many sandbars on this section of the river, but here's one

I love these old small "out-buildings"

 

Quite a few ducks and geese were in this field

 

Another small beach

 

Still some ice on the back bays, but not in the main river channel

 

The "take out" was just beyond the bridge (County Home Road) on paddler's left

Just so you know, you will hear some interstate noise as you get closer to the take-out (especially with the leaves down).  In my mind it's not horrible.  That section of the interstate doesn't get much traffic.  By the way, since I was solo on this trip, I left a bicycle at the take-out.  It provided an easy way to get back to the car after my paddle.  I simply peddled north on scenic County Route 10 for 4.25 miles.

This is the first time I've gone skiing, snowshoeing, hiking, bicycling and kayaking in the same week.  It was great.  I hope the boat gets to stay out.  With this warm weather pattern extending for most of the coming week, perhaps I'll go kayaking again mid-week with my daughter during "spring break"!  This time I'll let her choose between all the activities mentioned above.

Kayaking the Schroon River at EveryTrail

Schroon River & Bald Peak - 8/20/11

Any day paddling on the Schroon River is a good day.  My college buddy Craig came up for a weekend visit and we chose to do a half day paddle and a half day hike on Saturday 8/20.  We started with the paddle.  Schroon Falls is a nice launch spot from off of Route 9 and makes for about a 4 hour paddle to the State Boat Launch in the Town of Schroon Lake. 

When I had paddled the Schroon River 2 weeks earlier, the gauge at Riverbank had been at about 2.5 feet and the river was a little scratchy, but with a good dose of rain on 8/15 the gauge was up to about 3.35 feet.  You still had to watch for shallow spots, but it was a much nicer paddle with the extra water.

We got on the water just after 8 AM.  Lots of ducks, but no herons or egrets on this trip.  We didn't see another boat until we entered the lake.  About two-thirds of the way to the lake we pulled up onto a sand bar and put a swim and baked in the sun for a few minutes.   

Our paddle for the day - Schroon Falls to the State Boat Launch

Gauge height at Riverbank was about 3.35 feet on 8/20/11

Just starting out from Schroon Falls

One of many nice sand bars

Hoffman Mountain in the background

just arrived at the North end of Schroon Lake

heading south along the lake

This guy had 2 dogs with him on his sit-on-top.  Both dogs looked scared.  The dog in front was barking and the dog in back was whimpering.  If either one fell in, I don't know how he would have gotten them back into the boat.

Schroon Lake Public Beach

Schroon Lake Boathouse Theater behind the boat launch

Craig enjoying the lake

After our paddle, we had lunch and headed for Rocky Peak Ridge.  We parked at the New Russia trailhead on Route 9 at 2:20 PM.   From the trailhead to Bald Peak was 3.9 miles, one way, and that was a good distance for us hike for an afternoon.

Summit Coordinates:  44° 9' 36'' N; 73° 39' 57'' W

Elev. at Summit:  3035'
Distance New Russia to Bald Peak:  3.9 miles
Total distance round trip:  7.8 miles
Round trip time:  4 hours

Our route is highlighted in blue

1st viewpoint was about 40 minutes into the hike (before Blueberry Cobbles)

Summit of Bald Peak

Looking towards Rocky Peak Ridge from Bald Peak

Some interesting clouds came in during the afternoon, but we didn't get any rain

Zoom of Dix Range from Bald Peak

Rocky Peak Ridge is a fantastic hike.  It is unusual, in that about 60 % of the ridge is open with views!  After 45 minutes of hiking from Route 9, you start to get almost continuous views.  Several groups we saw were hiking the whole ridge from New Russia to Giant Peak and back (about a 16 mile hike).  Others had parked 2 cars (one on Route 9 and another on route 73) and were hiking thru.... about 11 miles.

No matter how you chose to do it, it's a great hike.