DSettahr
Active member
- Joined
- Apr 23, 2005
- Messages
- 981
- Reaction score
- 142
Had to drive down to Albany yesterday, and on a whim decided to climb Porter from the Garden on the way, since I'd never gone up that way and it'd be another trail for me to redline.
There was a dusting of snow at the Garden, which increased steadily as I climbed. The lower half of the trail to Little Porter Mountain is in great shape, although it's obvious that view people ever travel it. The bridge over Slide Brook was out, and I can imagine that this would be a sketchy stream crossing when the water is high.
Little Porter Mountain had about an inch of snow on the summit. This overlook is certainly a destination worth visiting in it's own right- great views of Keene Valley, Giant Mountain, Round and Noonmark Mountains, and the Great Range.
It was pretty obvious that the majority of hikers who venture down this trail turn around at the Little Porter Mounaint overlook- beyond, the trail got quite overgrown, and became fairly wet and muddy. I had to step carefully to keep my feet dry. As I continued to climb, the snow depth increased to about 2 inches. I encountered very little ice, just one or two small patches near the ridgeline.
On the ridge itself the snow wasn't quite as deep- perhaps only about an inch. I did encounter a couple of drifts that were 5 or 6 inches deep though, but nothing major. Once on the ridge, the final half mile to the summit went quickly and easily.
I reached the summit of Porter at 2 pm, about 2 and a half hours after I'd started hiking. I decided that I had plenty of daylight left, and there was no reason not to do Cascade as well, and so off I went down the trail on the other side of Porter.
In contrast to the trail from the garden, which was mostly ice free, this trail was pretty much solid ice the whole way. Fortunately, it was slushy, rotten ice, and I was able to get good purchase by digging my feet in, and never needed microspikes. After about 45 minutes, I emerged from treeline and made the final dash to the summit of Cascade. I only spent a few minutes there as the wind was blowing pretty fierce. I got one 5 second view of the road to Lake Placid, but for the most part the clouds were pretty thick.
The return hike back over Porter and down to the Garden went quickly and easily enough. I made to within about a quarter mile of the trailhead before I needed my headlamp, so the timing with regards to daylight certainly worked out in my favor. Definitely, of the three approaches to Cascade/Porter, this one is the easiest- less steep by far than the other two. The lower half of the trail is in great shape (having been rerouted in 2001), but the upper half needs some work to mitigate the wet/swampy conditions.
I would bet that conditions at elevation have changed pretty significantly since yesterday... with last nights sub-zero lows, the slushy ice has probably solidified pretty good by now. I could tell as I was descending during the afternoon even that the temperature was dropping and things were starting to solidify.
