OTHER Trip Report 10/16/2016

Peak(s):	Mount Skylight - 4926 Gray Peak - 4840 Nye Mountain - 3871 Street Mountain - 4166
Date Posted:	10/16/2016
Date Climbed:	10/08/2016
Author:	nyker

Adirondack 46ers in Peak Foliage
Adirondack 46ers in Peak Foliage, New York I typically come up here in late Winter/early Spring snow or in Autumn when it gets colder and the mosquitoes and summer crowds are gone. Both times offer better hiking and climbing though conditions might be more harsh. For the first time ever, I actually managed to be up here in what I feel were the two peak days of Fall foliage colors for the year which was pretty cool to see. Although on one of the two days it rained for 7 of the ~10 hours of daylight and for the other, about half the day, nonetheless, I was able to get two full days of hiking and climbing in, summiting four "46ers". Mount Marcy and the surrounding High Peaks as viewed from the summit of Skylight Mountain. Day 1 Mount Skylight 4,926ft Gray Peak 4,840ft Day 2 Nye Mountain 3,871ft Street Mountain 4,166ft ______________________ Total Distance: 30.6 miles Vertical gain: +8,505ft Mount Skylight and Gray Peak The main goal today was Mount Skylight, which is about 18 miles roundtrip located right in the heart of the High Peaks Wilderness. Weather and fitness permitting I was planning on adding on Gray Peak, which is done via an unmarked route about 1.5-2 miles roundtrip off the trail to Skylight with another 400-500ft vertical gain to the top. These two peaks are both reached off the same initial trail and route, which begin at the Adirondack Loj trailhead (not visible on the map below, but is a couple miles further to the north). There is no single clear route to get to Skylight, so you'll need to piece together several trail segments to get there and follow your map. Starting from the Loj, you'll take the main trail leaving at the southern end of the last parking lot, then aim towards the Marcy Dam and then towards Avalanche Lean To (but don't follow the path to Avalanche Mountain nor Avalance Lake, you'll add unnecessary mileage to Skylight). From here, turn off again towards Lake Arnold continuing on towards Feldspar then southwest towards Four Corners where you'll find the last junction for Skylight. The below map section shows the upper reaches of the routes to Mount Skylight and Gray Peak - towards bottom right on map (source City of Lake Placid): The Loj (Lodge) is a historic building owned and operated by the Adirondack Mountain Club (AMC). This is probably the busiest trailhead in the region, with five pay-parking lots and overflow parking along the road on the way in. On this weekend, there were probably 500+ cars. Needless to say, not my favorite trailhead. As I'd later discover, in addition to Columbus Day weekend, it was Canadian Thanksgiving and since the Canada-US border is less than an hour away, most of the hikers and climbers this weekend were from across the border. The Adirondack Loj is the starting point for day trips to a dozen peaks plus several backpacking routes as well as a few short hikes for tourists, so this place is usually crowded even in the dead of winter as it's a popular place for cross country skiing as well. Such was the case today. If you're after a lengthy backbacking trip, you could hike and climb for weeks here and seldom hit the same section of trail twice. Other distant trailheads are also reachable from here on long hikes or multi-night trips. It wasn't too chilly on the morning, hovering just above freezing. I put on two layers and my headlamp, and I was off. Although I started out 90 minutes before sunrise, there were a dozen people starting out around the same time. Since the first part of the route is fairly flat, it's easy to do in the dark. You don't really want to do the upper parts of the mountain in the dark, just wouldn't be fun. This was my view for while my headlamp illuminating the trail covered with fallen leaves: As the sun rose and it started to get lighter, the colors became more vibrant with the morning light. Note nice easy trail at the start. This doesn't last. As usual around these parts, the trail from the start begins on a nice flat, scenic route. Foliage was at its peak, with maples and birch in full color and coupled with the low light made for especially rich colors and idyllic setting in the forest down below. (I took these later on but it's the same spot on the beginning of the route). You're hiking in the forest the entire time. You will eventually reach a junction where several paths split off; once you turn off the herd path towards the upper routes, the terrain becomes more involved and people more scarce. Pretty soon after the main route turnoffs up the various peaks, the route up to Skylight steepens and becomes covered with rocks and boulders and stays this way for the rest of the day. Theodore Roosevelt Mountain (TR) is on the left as you climb up, reachable only by unmarked path/bushwhacking. For the next eight miles, I saw nobody. I was surprised how continually rocky this route was. After the initial couple of turnoffs, there was no real way to move quickly on this terrain and an ankle breaker was under nearly every footstep. No mountain biking up these routes! There are many bogs, creeks and ponds you'll need to cross, some with rocks and boards to walk over, some without. Below is a shot of an interesting section with precariously placed thin boards you'll need to walk across. Not sure how deep the water was since it was stained by tannins and visibility was about one inch. I was hoping a moose wouldn't appear and surprise me here, since it's prime moose habitat and you're pretty vulnerable while crossing. There is still a lot of blow down you'll have to navigate from recent hurricanes that have impacted the region. Along the way, you'll drop down and lose maybe 800ft of elevation that you'll have to make up and then reclimb on the way back. At an elevation of roughly 4,293ft, You'll soon come across Lake Tear of the Clouds, which is the highest Source of the Hudson River. The waters flowing out of the lake form Feldspar Brook, which then joins the Opalescent River into Lake Henderson out of which is where the Hudson River formally forms. Lake Tear of the Clouds with Mount Marcy rising in the background. It was also at Lake Tear of the Clouds where Theodore Roosevelt, then hiking the same path learned of then President McKinley's deteriorating condition after getting shot and was summoned. Upon hiking out, President McKinley passed away and Roosevelt was sworn in as next President of the United States. After a bit more walking, you'll reach a main junction. It is ~8+ miles to get to this junction and there is actually a nice marked signpost, pointing to Mount Marcy (climbers left) and Skylight (climbers right). Go right which leads you another 0.5 mile to go and about ~+500 vertical feet up the last steepest part of the route to the summit plateau and summit. The summit cairns appear, guiding you to stay on the rocks not the surrounding terrain on which rare and fragile (to the boot step anyway) alpine vegetation grows. The route up to the summit became increasingly whited out in low lying clouds and increasingly windy. On the summit I was met with a near whiteout without much view. You could barely make out the surrounding peaks. Walking to summit proper, everything was completely socked in with strong winds and little visibility. Summit selfie with cairn in the background. Sadly, Skylight has some of the best views around, but I wasn't able to see much at all at this point given the weather. I'd soon discover this shell was not waterproof at all, despite the sales rep swearing to me it was. So much for exploring new fabric technologies...should have stayed with my Gore Tex shell. Live and learn. The summit was cold and windy with a constant 40mph wind blowing. Disappointed by lack of clear skies, I quickly had a snack, snapped some photos and descended back to the junction and headed back looking for signs for the turnoff to Gray Peak. As I was walking, I noticed It getting brighter. A break in the clouds appeared and I turned around and looked up and suddenly saw the summit of nearby Marcy! Seemed there was a window of opportunity... So, after some thought, I decided to hike back and then reclimb back up to Skylight's summit and see if the view was better. 50 minutes later I was back on top. Sure enough it had cleared was and definitely worth the additional 500 vertical to get the views up top. The lunar landscape was pretty cool with all rocks covered in fragile alpine lichen and vegetation showing their own fall colors with a backdrop of many of the 46ers. Note the red forest below in peak colors. Apparently, you can see 30 of the "46ers" from Skylight's summit. Surprisingly, there was no normal sized USGS benchmark on this one; the actual summit marker is small and hidden and not easy to spot. Descending for the second time, I figured with the skies looking better and I'd opt to go for Gray Peak. After about a mile of walking down, you'll reach the Lake again. The route for Gray is unmarked and unmaintained and starts at the southwest end of the Lake Tear of the Clouds. The start for the route up is not clear and I looked around for another way, but it is there. Look for a path which immediately starts ascending Northeast. I was told there was a cairn here, but never saw one. As soon as you see the beginning on the lake, its right there. This "route" to use the term loosely, is relentlessly steep and travels over tough mixed terrain of boulders, granite slaps, fallen trees and eroded ravine. It's hard to discern in spots, but if you pay attention, you can make out a route. When in doubt, keep traveling in a Northeast bearing. There are a few 20-30ft granite headwalls/slabs you'll need to get over. I imagine if they ever formalize this route, they'll put a ladder here like on the more touristy mountains. Gear fail: Note I have one pole and one stick in the above photo. For the fourth time, a Black Diamond Z pole broke, just as I took it out of my pack to start the day before I even started hiking. So, I needed to find a replacement hiking stick. I don't know what the issue is with these poles, but the connecting mechanism is terrible and stops working with no reason usually before a long day. I thought I would keep trying them as they are the lightest ones out there, but going forward I will stick my old Leki standbys. There are 3-4 steep granite walls and slabs you'll need to deal with which more often than not will be wet. Be careful here. This is not the place to turn an ankle. If you make a mistake, you won't fall a thousand feet, but you could fall 20ft, which is enough to ruin your day at the least. The first shots gives an idea of the angle, so make sure you have grippy soles on your shoes. These sections are actually easier with crampons when a nice coating of ice covers them. Continue up, scrambling, climbing, boulder hopping and grabbing tree roots until you reach the semi sheltered summit. After maybe 30 minutes of this, you'll see a view of Marcy on top. Given it was getting late and forecast not great, I wanted to get down into safer terrain before the inevitable rain came. Five minutes after descending, it started raining and poured for the next 5 hours of walking out. Day 2 Nye and Street are a paired peak system that can be reached on the same route. The route up requires you to pay more attention than normal as the "trail" is unmaintained and unmarked. The starting points for these routes are not marked either and a ranger needed to point me in the right direction. In contrast to the formal Loj trailhead, it was empty over there. I didn't see anyone on these peaks until near the summits. Starting out from behind the Loj on the trail to Mount Jo, pass the turn off for Mount Jo and continue hiking another half mile partially around Heart Lake. The foliage on the other side of the lake was stunning, even under grey skies. Walking around the lake, you'll come upon another turnoff for Mount Jo, pass this and continue on the trail until you reach another junction where you'll have left and right options; take the hikers right option on the Old Nye winter ski route. This is the start of the routes up both peaks. Again, there is no sign stating so, but this is it. Now the hiking is in the forest. You will start gradually descending and will keep losing elevation for about 45 minutes. What trail segments you come across are not always clear and being that everything is covered with fallen leaves, makes it tougher to identify. Pay close attention and if you find yourself walking for more than 2-3 minutes in trail-less open forest, backtrack until you locate a trail segment and try again... You'll come to the first of 2-3 river/stream crossings. There is no bridge here so you'll have to search around for the best way across, though water was running low, so wasn't too hard. Shortly after the first crossing, you'll reach another one. Pay attention to the two cairns on either side of the more dry portion of the creek, you can see them in the photo below and they mark one of the easier sections from which to cross over. If you miss these cairns, you'll definitely get wet if you cross in another area. This will get you back on the west side of the creek and the correct side for the remainder of the climb up. The loss of elevation stops here and now you begin gaining elevation in earnest. Luckily not much water was flowing this week or this time of year really; Water level is higher in late Spring and early summer. This is all frozen under six feet of snow in winter. Foliage in the forest was nice though. Once the water crossings are past, the route finally starts to gain elevation again and progresses through a stunning colorful forest. The terrain steepens quite a bit now and all the elevation you lost getting here now must be made up. After another hour of hiking up you'll reach the col/ junction which has markings cut into a fir tree finally indicating you followed the right path. I picked Nye to do first then Street. The routes are steep from the Nye-Street col and then both flatten out near the top. The terrain up to both peaks is similar and looks like a rainforest, wet, very green with logs and rocks all covered in rich green mosses and lichen. I half expected to see a little blue smurf emerge from the log. Looked like the Pacific Northwest or New Zealand. Occasionally I had a glimpse of the forest below that you walk through to get to this point. Stunning colors. Once on top of Nye, it takes maybe 45-60min to get down and climb up to Street. The summits of Nye and Street, while welcome, are rather anticlimactic. Each summit is treed over with no view, but you're met with a sign on each summit confirming for the first time you climbed the right mountain! These are not popular peaks to climb, hence no marked route to the top and no trailhead sign. Most people climbing them are looking to finish the "46ers". Of the 46 High Peaks, about a dozen have no marked route and are typically situated further off the beaten path, literally than the more popular peaks. Coming down, there are actually better views on a couple of granite slab outcroppings than there are on the actual summits Despite the rain and tough terrain, it made for a good weekend and the fresh air made it worthwhile. Get up there while you can! Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):

Adirondack 46ers in Peak Foliage

Adirondack 46ers in Peak Foliage, New York

I typically come up here in late Winter/early Spring snow or in Autumn when it gets colder and the mosquitoes and summer crowds are gone. Both times offer better hiking and climbing though conditions might be more harsh.

For the first time ever, I actually managed to be up here in what I feel were the two peak days of Fall foliage colors for the year which was pretty cool to see. Although on one of the two days it rained for 7 of the ~10 hours of daylight and for the other, about half the day, nonetheless, I was able to get two full days of hiking and climbing in, summiting four "46ers".

Mount Marcy and the surrounding High Peaks as viewed from the summit of Skylight Mountain.

Day 1

Mount Skylight 4,926ft
Gray Peak 4,840ft

Day 2

Nye Mountain 3,871ft
Street Mountain 4,166ft
______________________
Total Distance: 30.6 miles
Vertical gain: +8,505ft

Mount Skylight and Gray Peak

The main goal today was Mount Skylight, which is about 18 miles roundtrip located right in the heart of the High Peaks Wilderness. Weather and fitness permitting I was planning on adding on Gray Peak, which is done via an unmarked route about 1.5-2 miles roundtrip off the trail to Skylight with another 400-500ft vertical gain to the top.

These two peaks are both reached off the same initial trail and route, which begin at the Adirondack Loj trailhead (not visible on the map below, but is a couple miles further to the north). There is no single clear route to get to Skylight, so you'll need to piece together several trail segments to get there and follow your map. Starting from the Loj, you'll take the main trail leaving at the southern end of the last parking lot, then aim towards the Marcy Dam and then towards Avalanche Lean To (but don't follow the path to Avalanche Mountain nor Avalance Lake, you'll add unnecessary mileage to Skylight). From here, turn off again towards Lake Arnold continuing on towards Feldspar then southwest towards Four Corners where you'll find the last junction for Skylight.

The below map section shows the upper reaches of the routes to Mount Skylight and Gray Peak - towards bottom right on map (source City of Lake Placid):

The Loj (Lodge) is a historic building owned and operated by the Adirondack Mountain Club (AMC). This is probably the busiest trailhead in the region, with five pay-parking lots and overflow parking along the road on the way in. On this weekend, there were probably 500+ cars. Needless to say, not my favorite trailhead. As I'd later discover, in addition to Columbus Day weekend, it was Canadian Thanksgiving and since the Canada-US border is less than an hour away, most of the hikers and climbers this weekend were from across the border.

The Adirondack Loj is the starting point for day trips to a dozen peaks plus several backpacking routes as well as a few short hikes for tourists, so this place is usually crowded even in the dead of winter as it's a popular place for cross country skiing as well. Such was the case today. If you're after a lengthy backbacking trip, you could hike and climb for weeks here and seldom hit the same section of trail twice. Other distant trailheads are also reachable from here on long hikes or multi-night trips.

It wasn't too chilly on the morning, hovering just above freezing. I put on two layers and my headlamp, and I was off.

Although I started out 90 minutes before sunrise, there were a dozen people starting out around the same time. Since the first part of the route is fairly flat, it's easy to do in the dark. You don't really want to do the upper parts of the mountain in the dark, just wouldn't be fun.

This was my view for while my headlamp illuminating the trail covered with fallen leaves:

As the sun rose and it started to get lighter, the colors became more vibrant with the morning light. Note nice easy trail at the start. This doesn't last.

As usual around these parts, the trail from the start begins on a nice flat, scenic route. Foliage was at its peak, with maples and birch in full color and coupled with the low light made for especially rich colors and idyllic setting in the forest down below. (I took these later on but it's the same spot on the beginning of the route). You're hiking in the forest the entire time.

You will eventually reach a junction where several paths split off; once you turn off the herd path towards the upper routes, the terrain becomes more involved and people more scarce. Pretty soon after the main route turnoffs up the various peaks, the route up to Skylight steepens and becomes covered with rocks and boulders and stays this way for the rest of the day. Theodore Roosevelt Mountain (TR) is on the left as you climb up, reachable only by unmarked path/bushwhacking. For the next eight miles, I saw nobody.

I was surprised how continually rocky this route was. After the initial couple of turnoffs, there was no real way to move quickly on this terrain and an ankle breaker was under nearly every footstep. No mountain biking up these routes!

There are many bogs, creeks and ponds you'll need to cross, some with rocks and boards to walk over, some without. Below is a shot of an interesting section with precariously placed thin boards you'll need to walk across. Not sure how deep the water was since it was stained by tannins and visibility was about one inch.

I was hoping a moose wouldn't appear and surprise me here, since it's prime moose habitat and you're pretty vulnerable while crossing.

There is still a lot of blow down you'll have to navigate from recent hurricanes that have impacted the region.

Along the way, you'll drop down and lose maybe 800ft of elevation that you'll have to make up and then reclimb on the way back. At an elevation of roughly 4,293ft, You'll soon come across Lake Tear of the Clouds, which is the highest Source of the Hudson River. The waters flowing out of the lake form Feldspar Brook, which then joins the Opalescent River into Lake Henderson out of which is where the Hudson River formally forms.

Lake Tear of the Clouds with Mount Marcy rising in the background.

It was also at Lake Tear of the Clouds where Theodore Roosevelt, then hiking the same path learned of then President McKinley's deteriorating condition after getting shot and was summoned. Upon hiking out, President McKinley passed away and Roosevelt was sworn in as next President of the United States.

After a bit more walking, you'll reach a main junction. It is ~8+ miles to get to this junction and there is actually a nice marked signpost, pointing to Mount Marcy (climbers left) and Skylight (climbers right). Go right which leads you another 0.5 mile to go and about ~+500 vertical feet up the last steepest part of the route to the summit plateau and summit.

The summit cairns appear, guiding you to stay on the rocks not the surrounding terrain on which rare and fragile (to the boot step anyway) alpine vegetation grows. The route up to the summit became increasingly whited out in low lying clouds and increasingly windy.

On the summit I was met with a near whiteout without much view. You could barely make out the surrounding peaks. Walking to summit proper, everything was completely socked in with strong winds and little visibility.

Summit selfie with cairn in the background. Sadly, Skylight has some of the best views around, but I wasn't able to see much at all at this point given the weather.

I'd soon discover this shell was not waterproof at all, despite the sales rep swearing to me it was. So much for exploring new fabric technologies...should have stayed with my Gore Tex shell. Live and learn.

The summit was cold and windy with a constant 40mph wind blowing. Disappointed by lack of clear skies, I quickly had a snack, snapped some photos and descended back to the junction and headed back looking for signs for the turnoff to Gray Peak. As I was walking, I noticed It getting brighter. A break in the clouds appeared and I turned around and looked up and suddenly saw the summit of nearby Marcy! Seemed there was a window of opportunity...

So, after some thought, I decided to hike back and then reclimb back up to Skylight's summit and see if the view was better. 50 minutes later I was back on top. Sure enough it had cleared was and definitely worth the additional 500 vertical to get the views up top. The lunar landscape was pretty cool with all rocks covered in fragile alpine lichen and vegetation showing their own fall colors with a backdrop of many of the 46ers. Note the red forest below in peak colors. Apparently, you can see 30 of the "46ers" from Skylight's summit.

Surprisingly, there was no normal sized USGS benchmark on this one; the actual summit marker is small and hidden and not easy to spot.

Descending for the second time, I figured with the skies looking better and I'd opt to go for Gray Peak. After about a mile of walking down, you'll reach the Lake again. The route for Gray is unmarked and unmaintained and starts at the southwest end of the Lake Tear of the Clouds. The start for the route up is not clear and I looked around for another way, but it is there. Look for a path which immediately starts ascending Northeast. I was told there was a cairn here, but never saw one. As soon as you see the beginning on the lake, its right there.

This "route" to use the term loosely, is relentlessly steep and travels over tough mixed terrain of boulders, granite slaps, fallen trees and eroded ravine. It's hard to discern in spots, but if you pay attention, you can make out a route. When in doubt, keep traveling in a Northeast bearing. There are a few 20-30ft granite headwalls/slabs you'll need to get over. I imagine if they ever formalize this route, they'll put a ladder here like on the more touristy mountains.

Gear fail: Note I have one pole and one stick in the above photo. For the fourth time, a Black Diamond Z pole broke, just as I took it out of my pack to start the day before I even started hiking. So, I needed to find a replacement hiking stick. I don't know what the issue is with these poles, but the connecting mechanism is terrible and stops working with no reason usually before a long day. I thought I would keep trying them as they are the lightest ones out there, but going forward I will stick my old Leki standbys.

There are 3-4 steep granite walls and slabs you'll need to deal with which more often than not will be wet. Be careful here. This is not the place to turn an ankle. If you make a mistake, you won't fall a thousand feet, but you could fall 20ft, which is enough to ruin your day at the least. The first shots gives an idea of the angle, so make sure you have grippy soles on your shoes. These sections are actually easier with crampons when a nice coating of ice covers them.

Continue up, scrambling, climbing, boulder hopping and grabbing tree roots until you reach the semi sheltered summit. After maybe 30 minutes of this, you'll see a view of Marcy on top.

Given it was getting late and forecast not great, I wanted to get down into safer terrain before the inevitable rain came. Five minutes after descending, it started raining and poured for the next 5 hours of walking out.

Day 2

Nye and Street are a paired peak system that can be reached on the same route. The route up requires you to pay more attention than normal as the "trail" is unmaintained and unmarked. The starting points for these routes are not marked either and a ranger needed to point me in the right direction. In contrast to the formal Loj trailhead, it was empty over there. I didn't see anyone on these peaks until near the summits.

Starting out from behind the Loj on the trail to Mount Jo, pass the turn off for Mount Jo and continue hiking another half mile partially around Heart Lake.

The foliage on the other side of the lake was stunning, even under grey skies.

Walking around the lake, you'll come upon another turnoff for Mount Jo, pass this and continue on the trail until you reach another junction where you'll have left and right options; take the hikers right option on the Old Nye winter ski route. This is the start of the routes up both peaks. Again, there is no sign stating so, but this is it.

Now the hiking is in the forest. You will start gradually descending and will keep losing elevation for about 45 minutes. What trail segments you come across are not always clear and being that everything is covered with fallen leaves, makes it tougher to identify. Pay close attention and if you find yourself walking for more than 2-3 minutes in trail-less open forest, backtrack until you locate a trail segment and try again...

You'll come to the first of 2-3 river/stream crossings. There is no bridge here so you'll have to search around for the best way across, though water was running low, so wasn't too hard.

Shortly after the first crossing, you'll reach another one. Pay attention to the two cairns on either side of the more dry portion of the creek, you can see them in the photo below and they mark one of the easier sections from which to cross over.

If you miss these cairns, you'll definitely get wet if you cross in another area. This will get you back on the west side of the creek and the correct side for the remainder of the climb up. The loss of elevation stops here and now you begin gaining elevation in earnest.

Luckily not much water was flowing this week or this time of year really; Water level is higher in late Spring and early summer. This is all frozen under six feet of snow in winter. Foliage in the forest was nice though.

Once the water crossings are past, the route finally starts to gain elevation again and progresses through a stunning colorful forest. The terrain steepens quite a bit now and all the elevation you lost getting here now must be made up.

After another hour of hiking up you'll reach the col/ junction which has markings cut into a fir tree finally indicating you followed the right path.

I picked Nye to do first then Street. The routes are steep from the Nye-Street col and then both flatten out near the top. The terrain up to both peaks is similar and looks like a rainforest, wet, very green with logs and rocks all covered in rich green mosses and lichen. I half expected to see a little blue smurf emerge from the log. Looked like the Pacific Northwest or New Zealand.

Occasionally I had a glimpse of the forest below that you walk through to get to this point. Stunning colors.

Once on top of Nye, it takes maybe 45-60min to get down and climb up to Street. The summits of Nye and Street, while welcome, are rather anticlimactic. Each summit is treed over with no view, but you're met with a sign on each summit confirming for the first time you climbed the right mountain!

These are not popular peaks to climb, hence no marked route to the top and no trailhead sign. Most people climbing them are looking to finish the "46ers". Of the 46 High Peaks, about a dozen have no marked route and are typically situated further off the beaten path, literally than the more popular peaks.

Coming down, there are actually better views on a couple of granite slab outcroppings than there are on the actual summits

Despite the rain and tough terrain, it made for a good weekend and the fresh air made it worthwhile. Get up there while you can!

Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):

Comments or Questions

kman	Fantastic... 10/16/2016 4:57pm and beautiful pictures. Those "mountains" look a lot bigger with the low cloud ceiling! I thoroughly enjoyed this and the other Adirondack trip report that you previously posted. Thanks for sharing this amazing part of the country with us! Yes, Colorado (and the Rocky Mountains in general) is/are majestic, but your photos and descriptive writing illustrate just how nice other parts of the country can be and that they should also be seen and experienced. I am working on becoming a 50 State highpointer, so I am really looking forward to getting up there, and specifically Mount Marcy. Thanks for posting.
MtnHub	Nice! 10/16/2016 5:13pm Steep slabs and rocky trail beds: welcome to the East! I've never hiked in NY but have hiked on many trails in NH and ME. One thing I learned very quickly, switchbacks and easy paths don't exist. It's always straight up and the trails frequently look like dry creek beds. But fall is a great time to get some in -- beautiful foliage! Nice report, Nyker! It brings back some good memories. Thanks for the vicarious trip!
crestone14ers	Lots of good memories... 10/17/2016 7:26am Spent two months up in the DAK'S, solo, Sept to November 1974, after graduating college and right before heading to Colorado. Svea 123 stove, Kelty pack, REI 60/40 parka, ragg wool socks, light canvas pants, two green cotton tee shirts to hide the dirt, wool sweater, slept in lean twos, constant dampness, water running down trails that went straight up, thick lush air, the smell of moss everywhere... and very few people. Came in for one resupply in Keene Valley, the rest of the time, body and mind got toughened for Colorado and the start of my real life. I prefer Colorado though because of its wide open skies, sunshine and low humidity. However, growing up in the Catskills, Upstate NY, and going to college in Binghamton, I understood the damp and humid and rainy conditions and why the solitude of NY mountains were so beautiful in its own way. Nice reminder of a time that set the stage for the next forty plus years.
Mtnman200	Nice fall colors... 10/17/2016 3:43pm ...especially Image #25 and Image #34. Thanks for sharing.
nyker	re: 10/17/2016 9:22pm Thanks guys! If you're ever in these parts, let me know. True, the peaks definitely seemed to grow in low lying clouds as viewed from a vantage point. I've done 27, so a few more to go...
LIV	Nice to see some different scenery! 10/18/2016 8:33am Beautiful - thanks for posting these.
jrbren_vt	beautiful 10/18/2016 12:18pm brings back memories, very nice. The photo captioned "The foliage on the other side of the lake was stunning, even under grey skies." is especially nice. Bright peak season foliage can brighten up the dreariest of days. I remember a dark rainy October day in Baxter SP many years ago (canoeing on the Allagash) where the foliage was such a bright yellow in the woods I almost needed sun glasses. Nye is legendary for its insignificance. My guess is it is the 46er club's version of hazing, let's nail a sign on a random tree on the woods and see who will go there. I have been there twice, both times thought I was climbing Nye and came upon the sign for Street. back in the 1990's there was a confusing maze of herd paths, but all eventually went to the same place (I think). I think I read they cleaned that up a few years back ? Thanks for the great report and photos !
AnnaG22	Trees 8/28/2018 3:46pm Came from the Sunlight thread. This makes me miss the Adirondacks, treed over summits and all.

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