DSettahr
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- Apr 23, 2005
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My friend Will and I were looking for something easy to do friday, and we decided to climb Morgan Mountain, 98 on the list of the 100 highest Adirondack Peaks. We took the trail in from the south that starts just down the road from the tollbooth for the whiteface memorial highway. There is no sign or register, but we were able to easily find the right pull off by spotting a red trail marker from the road.
We decided to head to Cooper Kiln Pond to check out the lean to first before climbing the mountain. The trail in is in good shape in somes spots, and full of mud and exposed roots in others. The trail starts out flat, becomes moderately steep, then flattens out again as it passes through narrow gap between Morgan Mountain and the high point immediately adjacent to the north. It then descends gradually to Cooper Kiln pond. The lean to is situated a little bit close to the water, but it also appeared that beavers had recently raised the level of the water as well. The trail right before the lean to became very confusing due to the flooding and a new route appeared to have recently been cut and marked with snowmobil trail markers. We found that the best way to cross the outlet from the pond was by sticking as close to the shore of the pond as possible.
We returned back up into the gap, and left the trail at it's highest point, heading almost due south, and directly uphill. We crested the ridge after no more than 10 minutes, and turned to follow it towards the west. The woods were very open with little blowdown. After about 5 minutes, we reached the summit, which was marked with a wooden sign. There was also a Red DEC trail marker nailed to a tree about 15 feet away from the summit, which had no discernable purpose. We took a more direct route straight downhill to the trail, descending over some ledges along the way.
All in all, it was a nice short hike, no more than 3 and a half hours total to visit Cooper Kiln Pond and summit Morgan Mountain.
We decided to head to Cooper Kiln Pond to check out the lean to first before climbing the mountain. The trail in is in good shape in somes spots, and full of mud and exposed roots in others. The trail starts out flat, becomes moderately steep, then flattens out again as it passes through narrow gap between Morgan Mountain and the high point immediately adjacent to the north. It then descends gradually to Cooper Kiln pond. The lean to is situated a little bit close to the water, but it also appeared that beavers had recently raised the level of the water as well. The trail right before the lean to became very confusing due to the flooding and a new route appeared to have recently been cut and marked with snowmobil trail markers. We found that the best way to cross the outlet from the pond was by sticking as close to the shore of the pond as possible.
We returned back up into the gap, and left the trail at it's highest point, heading almost due south, and directly uphill. We crested the ridge after no more than 10 minutes, and turned to follow it towards the west. The woods were very open with little blowdown. After about 5 minutes, we reached the summit, which was marked with a wooden sign. There was also a Red DEC trail marker nailed to a tree about 15 feet away from the summit, which had no discernable purpose. We took a more direct route straight downhill to the trail, descending over some ledges along the way.
All in all, it was a nice short hike, no more than 3 and a half hours total to visit Cooper Kiln Pond and summit Morgan Mountain.
