Kane Mountain 11/16/10

[DSettahr]

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Over the past few weeks, I've driven back and forth between the Paul Smiths and the Albany areas quite regularly, and to save on gas, I often have tried to hike something along the way. Today, I was headed north from Albany to Paul Smiths, and decided to hike Kane Mountain, which I still needed for the Fire Tower Challenge.

And so this morning I found myself driving north out of Gloversville on Route 10. This is an area of the Adirondacks that I've never even visited, much less gone hiking in. I was somewhat surprised to see a thriving little town at Caroga Lake, shattering all conceptions I may have had at having visited every major town in the Adirondacks. I'll definitely have to visit again, perhaps in the summer during tourist season to take in some of the culture. And, while not the hiking mecca of the High Peaks region, there are a few opportunities for backcountry destinations in the area that I'd be curious to visit.

The trailhead was not at all difficult to locate. A sign on route 10 indicated the turn off onto the dirt lane that runs along Green Lake. At the far end of the lake, another sign indicated a turn to the left onto a single lane dirt track, and I soon found myself in a decently sized parking area after about 100 feet. Another car was parked there, and it's occupants (2 men and 1 dog) were just getting started as I pulled in.

Kane Mountain has three trails to the summit, two of which are accessible from this trailhead: the east trail and the north trail. I decided to ascend via the east trail, the shorter of the two, and return via the north trail which descends the north side of the mountain and returns to the trailhead via the Pine Lake-Green Lake ski trail. A third trail also leaves this trailhead, heading east towards Stewart and Indian Lakes.

I soon found myself ascending the east trail. This trail was formerly the jeep road to the summit, and as a result is quite wide and still rutted in spots, but overall is in decent shape. It meanders back and forth through switchbacks and sections of ascending straight up the contours, but is never very steep. Near the summit, I started to encounter some eroded and muddy sections, but nothing major. There was some blowdown here and there, but nothing significant. Overall, the going was quite easy, and after less than half an hour, I was approaching the summit and could see the tower through the trees.

My first stop on the summit was the observer's cabin. Overall, it is still in excellent shape, however, it is not locked up. Numerous names and messages have been etched, written, and painted on the inside and outside walls, and imprints of paint covered hands accompany the written graffiti. On the exterior are a couple of signs, one stating the that tower has been adopted by local group, another warning that continued vandalism and graffiti could result in the removal of the cabin, and a third stating that fires aren't allowed at the summit (this third rule has obviously largely been ignored, as I counted three separate fire pits on and near the summit). I also found a letter box (similar to a geocache, except one uses clues to find it instead of gps coordinates), out and opened on the porch. I replaced all of the contents, and hid it again. I had no idea what it's original intended location was, so I had to make a guess and decided to hide it under the porch. From the cabin, I could also clearly see the south trail, which ascend the mountain from Route 10 itself.

Next stop on the summit was the tower itself. The summit is wooded, and there are no views without ascending the tower. Despite the cloudy day, I had an excellent view in all directions from the cab (which was also covered in graffiti). Canada Lake was displayed in full to the south and west, while Pine Lake was clearly visible to the north. To the east, I could see the lowland mountains typical of the southern Adirondacks. The hills and summits beckoned to me; the Shaker Mountain Wild Forest is certainly a wilderness that I've yet to infiltrate and explore.

Finally, I quickly checked out the helipad on the summit. I found it by accident, I had thought that I was following the north trail down from the summit, but rather, I was following a footpath that led north from the tower only about a hundred feet before ending on a patch of exposed bedrock. The area had obviously been cleared of trees and brush, and it was obvious that its intended use was to provide helicopters a place to land and drop off equipment.

I returned to the summit, and soon found the actual north trail. It leaves from the base of the tower heading northwest, before turning back to the northeast to follow the ridge line after skirting the helipad. It was quite clear that this trail receives significantly less use than the east trail. While it was never hard to follow, the tread is less worn and the trail is only marked sporadically with red paint blazes and fluorescent flagging. It follows the ridgeline to the northeast, descending gradually at first. I passed between some neat glacial eratics, and observed that on the north bump of the mountain, there might be some flat ground where legal camping is possible.

Beyond this north bump, the trail begins to descend steeply. At first, it switchbacked a couple of times, but these were soon abandoned and the trail dropped straight down the mountain. These steep descent was quite eroded in spots, but not in horrible shape (presumably due to the lack of hiker traffic it receives). As with my ascent up the east trail, the blowdown on this trail was rare. Before long, I was at the intersection with the Pine Lake-Green Lake ski trail. While not shown on the map, this DEC-marked trail does continue farther west from this junction. The junction itself was marked with some home made signs pointing out the way to Kane Mountain, Pine Lake, and Green Lakes, but for some reason someone had spray painted over one the signs indicating the Kane Mountain trail with silver spray paint.

I took a right and continued south back to the trailhead along the ski trail. The going was quite easy at first, even though I had to regain some elevation to get back to the start. The last quarter mile, however, became quite muddy, and I found myself sloshing through ankle deep muddles and pits of mud before popping back out at the trailhead. The car belonging to the two gentlemen who'd started up the mountain ahead of me was still there, but I never saw any sign of them on the mountain. They must've either descended via the south trail, or decided to do some off trail exploring.

Before leaving, I took some time to explore the small pond just north of the parking area. No map I've looked at gives it a name, and the north shore appears to be privately owned, but standing at the outlet dam provides some nice views across the pond.

Overall, I'd rate this mountain as the second easiest fire tower mountain I've climbed so far, after Belfry. I've not yet climbed Cathedral Hill or Red Hill (in the Catskills) so they might be easier, but this is definitely one of the better fire tower climbs for families with young children that I've seen. Even when combining the east and north trails to make a loop, the entire hike took me less than an hour and a half.