Surfing and Swimming the Lower West River (R2)

Surfing and Swimming the West River from Mountain Visions on Vimeo.
I've become quite adept at finding gentle keeper hydraulics. This benign hole spiced up the lower West River a bit during the first day of 2016 West Fest in Jamaica, Vermont and sent me for a much needed swim. The lower section, between Jamaica State Park and the Route 100 bridge, is pretty tame in a raft, but we wanted to get our dog out and decided to run the lower section with him. One of the main reasons we got the raft was so we could bring him along and the cool thing about whitewater is you don't need class IV water to practice class IV moves. On day two we ran the upper section, which is somewhat technical class III. Although we had no problems with it, I'd be hesitant to bring the dog due to the potential for some technical swims, especially through the Dumplings.

Snowy Mountain, The High Peak That Isn't

Snowy Mountain is higher than two "official" Adirondack High Peaks, yet doesn't get much attention from peak baggers. Generally if it's not required for the 46er patch it's not worth hiking till you knock off the official 46.



The ADK 46 is a sickness of sorts. Luckily my only affliction is avoiding list during my free time. As such I'll eventually hike all 46 (in winter no less) but perhaps 5, 10, 15 years. When you actively seek the patch your life becomes enslaved to checking off peaks as rapidly as possible. I've hiked with people who admitted to a certain peak being a favorite but refused to hike it again because it was checked off the list. On the other hand, I've hiked the same peak in consecutive weekends before with no regrets. Nothing wrong with either route, but the list route just isn't for me.

That said, Snowy is definitely harder than a handful of official 4000 footers, and it's officially only 110 feet shy of being a true 4000 footer.



I've never hiked Snowy but it's been on my "list" for some time. So I lied, I do have list. I should have said, I don't like being committed to schedules.

The first thing I noticed on the drive up in early afternoon was no traffic on the roads or cars at the trail heads. As we drove down Route 30 towards Indian Lake and the Snowy Mountain pullout and trail head the roads remained quiet. At the pull out it was empty aside from a few cars, two of which were leaving as we pulled in. We didn't see the first group on the trail to halfway in, and only saw 5 people all day.



On the trail we were immediately greeted by wildflowers filling the forest floor, and black flies filling the air. The flies weren't biting but they were swarming. At one point, just before the flies disappeared at about 3250ft I had to cover my mouth to keep the flies out while trying to move fast enough to keep them from bugging me to death. Well I'd like to say as a conservationist I wasn't using DEET or any other bug spray because the flys need to eat as well, but truth is like that first sunburn of the year, I just need a little reminder of how bad the bugs can be. However, I usually avoid the DEET till i can't take it anymore. That stuff really isn't good for anyone and the less I use the better.



Aim was breaking in the new boots she got the weekend before for the first time on trail, and with a few attempts at getting some wildflower macros with the test K20D and 35mm Macro Limited we ended up taking a slow 3.5 hours to hike the 4 miles to the summit.

 

At about 3500 feet the trail got steep and deep with about 3 feet of snow still on the ground, along with some water soaked slabs, and a few drippy rock scrambles. Everything that makes a mountain fun to climb in the spring. Well, everything but the rotten snow that didn't hold me too often.

 

The summit has a nice east facing overlook right off the trail which you can see about 180 degrees or more, and there are some additional overlooks around the mountain. Snowy Mountain offers excellent rock climbing, a slide climb, and a recent first ascent of a moderate ice climb. Snowy has no reason to be envious of it's neighbors to the north. This almost High Peak has everything you typically find in the high peaks, plus it has a fully restored fire tower.



We spent about 30 minutes in the cab, snacking and taking photos. The wind was pounding the tower and I'd guess the air temperature was in the high 40s. Unfortunately the sky had clouded up by this point so the views were a bit distracted by the gray skies.



The trip down was a blast for me. Everyone knows my penchant for taking the fast route down a mountain, and give me a few hundred feet of snow on a steep mountain side and I'll be down as fast as gravity allows. Aim on the other hand is slower than Christmas. So no matter how fast Caney, with his built in 4 paw drive, or me with my magical ability to prove the theory of gravity get down the mountain, we have to wait.,,and wait...and wait.



6h45m and 4400 feet later we were back at the car.

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Noonmark

Went up to Keene last night to camp and get an early(er) start Monday. After getting the tent setup around 10pm I had to figure out where I was going in the morning. It came down to Ampersand, Noonmark, Whiteface, or Catamount.

Although Catamount is another great smaller peak, it got the boot because it simply was too short for a full days hiking. It was also the furthest from camp. So I went to bed with one less choice for the morning.

When I got up at 8am, I ran into Agustina and Stephane and promptly found out that it was St. Jean Baptiste Day. This would explain the packed lot at the Alpine Club. So Whiteface was out.

Ampersand added 1 hour roundtrip to my drive and Noonmark was essentially on the way home...it then occured to me that I hadn't hiked Noonmark since 2001 following back surgery, and now it was 2007 and following knee surgery. Noonmark it was.

After a quick swim for Caney, and enough time for my "breakfast" to digest -a roast beef sandwhich and chocolate milk- we were off to the summit of Noonmark.

I actually forgot how great the views were on the summit of this pointy sundial over the valley. The mountain earned it's name because it does cast a shadow over the valley at noonish. And for the hiker 360* views, almost totally unobstructed. Dix, the Great Range, Giant, and Keene Valley are all within clear view. And way back out in the middle of no where is Whiteface with potentially crowds of tourist on it's summit.

On Noonmark today, for the price of a some sweat and fresh air, there were just 6 other people on the summit in the 2 hours I spent up top. I forgot this little 3500ft mountain had some of the best views in all of the Adirondacks.

Well, other than the black flies -who were swarming but didn't draw blood till the summit- and the fact that it was 15* hotter then forecast, we really couldn't have asked for a better day to be in the mountains.

Some photos from our short overnighter.

Big(ger) Verison.... (full size is over 16,000 pixels wide, this is 1/4 downsized).

technorati tags:ADK, Noonmark, High Peaks, wilderness, Daks, Adirondacks, hiking, climbing, dog, trail dog, panorama, Dix, Great Range

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Dogs Can Fly Too

These are a few photos from the USDAA agility trials are Saratoga Springs this weekend.

These animals are simply amazing when you consider they run the course about as fast as a professional football player (US football). they run about 20ft/6m per second which would give them a 6.5 second 40m time. Top flight receivers run about 4 seconds per 40 but don't have tubes, tunnels, rings, stairs, hurdles and other assorted obstacles in their way. And they don't have to cut left and right constantly while maintaining that speed.

(to view full size images click the thumbnails):

technorati tags:dog, Agility, USDAA, Saratoga, NY, Pentax, K10D, Photography, canine

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