Pitchoff - 5/25/8 - Fantastic!

[Tom Rankin]

Saturday, we spent the day working with the 46R's on the trails near 'Summit Rock', underneath Wallface. We cut a lot of trees, clipped branches, and cleaned out a lean-to. It was about 11 miles over 8 hours. It's a really cool area, with a huge old dam, beaver meadows, waterfalls and still a fair amount of snow!

http://viewsandbrews.com/temp/p3.jpg - Dam
http://viewsandbrews.com/temp/p4.jpg - Meadow
http://viewsandbrews.com/temp/p5.jpg - Snow

We knew Sunday was going to be a beautiful day, so we decided that Pitchoff would be a good choice, given that we were a little beat from the previous day's work, and we heard that there was a LOT of snow up high. (I just read that it snowed on 5/20!). We could also see a lot of snow Friday and Saturday from various places on the loftiest of the High Peaks.

http://viewsandbrews.com/temp/p0.jpg - Marcy on Friday

So we hit the Western (or higher) end of Pitchoff at 8:00 AM. It was sunny and about 45 degrees. The start of the trail is right across the road from the Cascade trailhead, and we bumped into JudgeH (from ADKHP) as he and a friend were about to start their climb to Cascade. We had a brief, pleasant chat and off we went. A few minutes later my phone rang. It was KMorgan, telling me that DB was missing! I gave him the names of a few people who I thought might be able to help, and we continued on (It turns out he's fine!).

After just a few hundred feet of elevation gain, we started getting great views! Do not do this hike if you are in a hurry, the views just keep changing every 10 minutes! As we got higher, we could see more and more mountains, and see them from ever-changing vantage points. To me, this was the best part. Laurie was taking pictures like crazy!

http://viewsandbrews.com/temp/p1.jpg - Marcy from Pitchoff
http://viewsandbrews.com/temp/p6.jpg - Marcy thru the trees
http://viewsandbrews.com/temp/p7.jpg - Rugged, steep trail

We hit the first and true summit around 9:45. Ironically, it does not have a great view, but that's ok, there are so many views on this trail. At some point, as you go over the many bumps, the trail swings to the Northern side of the ridge, and you can see the Sentinels and Whiteface. We could also look down into the valley that the Jackrabbit trail passes thru. What a beautiful place! There is one bump that has an almost 360 degree view. Vermont can be seen to the east, along with the tiny-looking firetower on Hurricane.

http://viewsandbrews.com/temp/p15.jpg - Looking down on the Jackrabbit trail
http://viewsandbrews.com/temp/p20.jpg - Hurricane

In one place, we saw about 50 Painted Trillium growing all together! What a beautiful sight!

http://viewsandbrews.com/temp/p8.jpg - Tremendous Trillium

This trail has some steep spots, and it does go up and down several times, but the elevation loss is never more than 100'. The middle section is the most unused, as people seem to go up either end and not do a traverse. There is a fair amount of blow-down on this trail, but nothing that can not be easily skirted. It was mostly dry, but there are a few wet and twig-covered rocks that can be tricky to walk on. I slipped and butt-slid down one short, slippery rock face, but I was unscathed!

http://viewsandbrews.com/temp/p9.jpg - Views
http://viewsandbrews.com/temp/p11.jpg - Views
http://viewsandbrews.com/temp/p13.jpg - More Views!
http://viewsandbrews.com/temp/p14.jpg - Still more Views!
http://viewsandbrews.com/temp/p12.jpg - Whiteface Views!

When we got to the last bump on the ridge, we stopped for an early lunch. It was dry and sunny, with almost no clouds in the sky, about 60 degrees, and just a bit of breeze. Almost perfect! Once in a while there would be a black fly, but they were almost a non-event.

I had thought it would take quite a while to get back down, but it took less than an hour to drop back to the east end of the loop. This side is mostly tree covered, but the leaves have not really filled in yet, so it wasn't particularly shady. We finally saw some people on this side, 3 groups in all. We told them what a treat was waiting for them at the top!

At the road, I hitched a ride, and came back to pick up Laurie. Since it was still not even 1:00, we stopped at the little park between the Cascade lakes. The Cascade cascade cascades steeply down the mountain here before joining the lakes. There is a short (but steep!) herd path to the base of the cascade. The water was flowing pretty well, but amazingly, the stream vanishes underground, just a few hundred feet from the base of the falls!

http://viewsandbrews.com/temp/p16.jpg - Views with Cascade Pass
http://viewsandbrews.com/temp/p17.jpg - Cascade Cascade

This was a great hike, on a great day! Oh and BTW, another ADK HH!

 

[forestgnome]

Thanks for sharing the pics! Nice looking mountains and forest!

happy trails

 

[Paradox]

Beautiful!

 

[MattC]

Great pics. Funny about the painted trillium. I was just commenting to Ted over the weekend how in the Catskills you don't usually see more than or two of the painted ones, whereas in the ADKs patches seem more common.

That little Cascade park is indeed nice. One time on a down day the Funky one and I hung out there with our guitars playin' and singin'. I remember it was noticeably cooler there than right up on the road. The only problem with that place is that the turn-off is a little dicey when there is a lot of traffic and you are traveling west. Nice shot of the Cascade cascade cascading.

Matt

 

[Peakbagr]

The park is the site of the old hotel that burned down 'way back when'. Before Cascade received the currently marked trail, the route to Cascade by hotel residents ascended the mountain next to cascade and then straight for the summit. Its still one of my favorite 'whacks. Once above the steep initial section, its a lot of birch and ferns directly to the top of Cascade. The only thick spot is the easily passed collar of spruce just below the top.

 

[Tom Rankin]

The park is the site of the old hotel that burned down 'way back when'. Before Cascade received the currently marked trail, the route to Cascade by hotel residents ascended the mountain next to cascade and then straight for the summit. Its still one of my favorite 'whacks. Once above the steep initial section, its a lot of birch and ferns directly to the top of Cascade. The only thick spot is the easily passed collar of spruce just below the top.

That's the 2nd mention of a hotel there I've heard in 2 days!

Amazing, there is nothing left now, unless the cement area was the basement?

From Pitchoff, you can see all the water courses quite clearly, and notice that one goes quite high up the side of the mountain. IIRC, it's right and then left.

 

[Peakbagr]

One of the nicest 'whacks in the ADKs.