Neil
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It seems like most of the ADK TR's have been done by Pin-Pin lately so I thought I would add my 25 cents. (inflation and CDN currency).
Pitchoff is a real gem of a mountain right across the street from Cascade but with about 1/10th the people. It lies in the Sentinel Wilderness and has knock 'em dead views which are just as nice as it's loftier neighbours. Not only that but you can do this hike end to end either spotting a car or easily hitching a ride back to your starting point. A quick perusal of the topo map will show you that this peak is in fact a long ridge that falls steeply away on both sides and has several summits along the way. Many of these bumps and knobs are open rock and I'm sure you know what that means, view-wise. The entire hike is just under 5 miles and with all the up and downs involves just under 3000 feet of elevation gain and loss. That sounds like a lot but there are many little ups and downs hidden between the contour intervals. (Anyway it's what my gps said).
We started our hike at 9:30 Thursday morning at the east end and as we stepped out of the vehicle a cold wind hit us. It wasn't that cold but with all the warm weather we've been having lately it FELT cold. 4 or 5 inches of fresh, fluffy powder snow lay on the ground and this was a blessing and a curse. The blessing was the winter scene complete with the moaning wind and our far away but visible first summit. The curse was that the snow hid all the rocks and rubble that lay underfoot and, wearing crampons, we kept stumbling as we stepped with only one or two crampon points upon some hidden rock.
We climbed through the wonderland until we got some awesome views and then the camera came out. Breaking out into brilliant sunshine with a gazillion snow diamonds twinkling away is always a treat. The first, easternmost summit was bare rock and from there we could see Hurricane, Giant, Cascade and the rest of Pitchoff to the south-west. In summer I'm sure navigation is a no-brainer thanks to the abundant trailmarkers and, I'm sure, yellow paint on the rock. There was enough snow to hide any yellow paint and we spent a little bit of time hunting for the trail which we always found.
Heading SW we cruised from viewpoint to viewpoint enjoying the scenery on both sides of the ridge. To our left Cascade dominated the view and to our right it was the Sentinel Range, one of the wildest and most inaccessible regions in the Adirondacks.
Nearing the west end of our hike and well below the ridge we came to a split in the trail. Left leads to a viewpoint and you must check it out. Two huge glacial erratics dominate a large, exposed outcrop that drops away precipitously on three sides. The views of Cascade are none too shabby from this windward point. There are some amazingly deep cracks in the rock and if I was a parent of young children I wouldn't be able to relax up there if they were running all over the place.
After gaining the main trail we descended steeply to where the trail runs along the top of the Pitchoff cliffs. Looking up over our left shoulders we could see the cliffs below the balancing rocks and straight ahead we had Cascade right in our faces. Walking along the top of the cliffs you get very nice views of Cascade lakes several hundred feet below.
We signed in 6½ hours after signing out and my gps said we had spent ½ of that time stopped. That alone should tell you how nice a hike this was. It took me 10 minutes to hitch a ride back to our car.
Our pictures are right here.
Pitchoff is a real gem of a mountain right across the street from Cascade but with about 1/10th the people. It lies in the Sentinel Wilderness and has knock 'em dead views which are just as nice as it's loftier neighbours. Not only that but you can do this hike end to end either spotting a car or easily hitching a ride back to your starting point. A quick perusal of the topo map will show you that this peak is in fact a long ridge that falls steeply away on both sides and has several summits along the way. Many of these bumps and knobs are open rock and I'm sure you know what that means, view-wise. The entire hike is just under 5 miles and with all the up and downs involves just under 3000 feet of elevation gain and loss. That sounds like a lot but there are many little ups and downs hidden between the contour intervals. (Anyway it's what my gps said).
We started our hike at 9:30 Thursday morning at the east end and as we stepped out of the vehicle a cold wind hit us. It wasn't that cold but with all the warm weather we've been having lately it FELT cold. 4 or 5 inches of fresh, fluffy powder snow lay on the ground and this was a blessing and a curse. The blessing was the winter scene complete with the moaning wind and our far away but visible first summit. The curse was that the snow hid all the rocks and rubble that lay underfoot and, wearing crampons, we kept stumbling as we stepped with only one or two crampon points upon some hidden rock.
We climbed through the wonderland until we got some awesome views and then the camera came out. Breaking out into brilliant sunshine with a gazillion snow diamonds twinkling away is always a treat. The first, easternmost summit was bare rock and from there we could see Hurricane, Giant, Cascade and the rest of Pitchoff to the south-west. In summer I'm sure navigation is a no-brainer thanks to the abundant trailmarkers and, I'm sure, yellow paint on the rock. There was enough snow to hide any yellow paint and we spent a little bit of time hunting for the trail which we always found.
Heading SW we cruised from viewpoint to viewpoint enjoying the scenery on both sides of the ridge. To our left Cascade dominated the view and to our right it was the Sentinel Range, one of the wildest and most inaccessible regions in the Adirondacks.
Nearing the west end of our hike and well below the ridge we came to a split in the trail. Left leads to a viewpoint and you must check it out. Two huge glacial erratics dominate a large, exposed outcrop that drops away precipitously on three sides. The views of Cascade are none too shabby from this windward point. There are some amazingly deep cracks in the rock and if I was a parent of young children I wouldn't be able to relax up there if they were running all over the place.
After gaining the main trail we descended steeply to where the trail runs along the top of the Pitchoff cliffs. Looking up over our left shoulders we could see the cliffs below the balancing rocks and straight ahead we had Cascade right in our faces. Walking along the top of the cliffs you get very nice views of Cascade lakes several hundred feet below.
We signed in 6½ hours after signing out and my gps said we had spent ½ of that time stopped. That alone should tell you how nice a hike this was. It took me 10 minutes to hitch a ride back to our car.
Our pictures are right here.
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