Eagle Eyrie - McKenzie Mountain Wilderness - 5/28/17

While Leesa was attending the 46er spring meeting and the Crowne Plaza hotel in Lake Placid on Saturday, I was charge of keeping our dog Rev occupied.  I dropped Leesa off at 11:30 and then headed to Whiteface Mountain Road to hike Eagle Eyrie (2631') via the Shore Owners Association (SOA) Lake Trail.

Eagle Eyrie has been on my list for awhile, and I had attempted it once, but the snow was too deep and I had turned around.  This time, all I needed was my bug head net to keep the black flies out of my face.  I started at Bloget Road and fo;;owed the road a couple hundred yards until the trail began on the left hand side of the road just before the road gate.

The Lake Shore trail is nothing special, but it leads to a bunch of options.  The signage is good on all the SOA trails, but they don't get much foot traffic, so sometimes you cannot even tell you are on a trail.  The trail discs are pretty good, but you occasionally have to look for them.  On this day, I just stayed on the Lake Shore trail all the say to the Eagle Eyrie trail.  It was about 4.8 miles on the Lake Shore Trail and then another 0.7 to the top.

A pair of the many good signs along the way. 

A foot bridge near the beginning of the Lake Shore Trail. 

Eagle Ryrie in the center left background.

When I got near the north shore of Lake Placide, just west of Head Brook, I found the remains of a house:  foundation, sink, tub, beds & stove.

An old firebox 

I think I'll pass...

A twin size bedframe

 Just after crossing Head Brook, there is a 0.1 spur trail to the lake, where boaters have access to a 0.8 mile hike to Eagle Eyrie.  Still the trail is lightly used. It appears that not many boaters have stopped to do this hike.  

A 2nd option is to approach Eagle Eyrie from Connery Popnd and Whiteface Landing.  That would be a slightly shorter and easier hike,

The climb from the lake is about a 600' elevation gain in 0.8 miles, with the forest transitioning from hardwoods to a coniferous forest about halfway up.

The Eagle Eyrie Trail.

The actual summit of Eagle Eyrie is heavily forested, but there is a small lookout which provides a nice view of Lake Placid.

lake Placid from Eagle Eyrie

The Eagle has landed...

A couple zoom views...

Mount Colden and the McIntyre Range in the background.

I returned via the same route.  I only saw one person all day, even though it was a holiday weekend.  It just goes to show that the SOA trail don't generally receive many visi

One of the many brook crossings

An SOA trail  to a Cascade and Pool(o.7 miles)  leads partway before a sign tells hikers to follow the streambed.

I got back in time to feed the dog and get myself some dinner before picking up Leesa from the Crowne Plaza.  Rev was sufficiently tired so slept on the drive home.


Hike Stats:
Hike Distance:  11.7 miles
Hike Time:  6 hours
Total Vertical Gain:  ~ 1300'

The route

The route on the Nat Geo map

McKenzie Mountain (3860') The- McKenzie Mountain Wilderness, Lake Placid - 1/25/14

I've made a few trips recently to the McKenzie Mountain Wilderness to tackle some of the Shore Owners Association trails, and today Leesa, Rev and I headed back there to climb the Barlett Pond Trail.  This trail leads from the Lake Trail up to Bartlett Pond, then climbs steeply to the McKenzie Mountain ridge, rising over 1000' in 0.8 miles.    

We were once again blessed with great weather.  The forecast was for mostly cloudy skies, but we had a good deal of blue sky all day long.  Temps were in the low to mid 20's.

After parking on Whiteface Inn Road, we followed Bloget Road to where the trail begins on the left side just prior to a metal gate on the road.  This is the Lake Trail, which we followed until the junction with the Twin Ponds Trail.  There was about 6" of fluffy snow on the Lake Trail.  After .5 miles, we reached the fork where Bartlett Pond Trail bears left, and Twin Brook trail bears right.  We took the left towards Bartlett.  

The split of the Twin Brooks Trail/Bartlett Pond Trail

As we climbed towards Bartlett Pond, the snow got deeper, as expected.  The trail changes to a moderate grade.  The snow was still clinging to the trees and the sun was shining.  We were plenty warm as we climbed.

We ran into one one hiker was had gone a far as Bartlett Pond, and slightly beyond, before heading down.  He told us no one had broken the trail above that point.     

Bartlett Pond (Elev. 2770') ... and the dividing line of blue sky and gray sky!

A panorama of Bartlett Pond

We had some snacks at Bartlett Pond, then geared up for the final push to the top of the ridge.  I found were the lone hiker had turned around and the the trail breaking began.  I had given up hopes of climbing both McKenzie and Moose, but knew I could tackle McKenzie by itself.

   

The sign at Bartlett Pond

Leesa told me to push on with Rev and she would follow at her pace.  We only had 0.8 miles to go.

I thought she would be right behind me, but I gave her a radio just in case.  It turned out that, even with my trail breaking, I was climbing a bit faster than she was.  Rev and I reached the ridge and she was still halfway up.  I continued on to McKenzie and took a series of pictures from the 2 summit viewpoints. 

The ridge to McKenzie... Rev continued to lead 

Nice view of the Great Range

My picture of the summit disc came out a little blurry, but I had to include it in the picture set.

The summit disc at 3860'

There was some nice rime ice on the trees at the north facing overlook.

Looking towards Saranac Lake 

The northern overlook

looking SW to  Lake Placid

I radioed Leesa from the top and said we'd come down to get her.  She interpreted that to mean we were headed down, so she turned around.  I had meant to meet here and then reclimb.  Oh well, she didn't care either way.  Rev and I caught back up with her before Bartlett Pond.

Moose Mountain (L), Whiteface Mountain (R), from McKenzie 

The walk down was a joy on freshly packed powder and glistening snow.  We got back to the car at 1 PM and decided to go over to the Peninsula Trails in Lake Placid and hike those for a couple hours, but I'll put that in the next post.

Hike Stats:

Hike Distance:  6.6 miles

Hike Time:  4 hours, 45 minutes

Total Vertical Gain:  ~ 2050'

Today's route is shown in blue.  The dots indicate sign locations (click image to enlarge)