Eastern and Central Adirondacks: April 13th-April 18th, 2024

My original plan for this was to knock out all of the remaining fire tower peaks in the Adirondacks, along with all of the remaining Lake George 12sters. I started out strong, hitting Hurricane, Swede, Thomas, and Vanderwhacker in quick succession, despite a poor experience hiking the last of those. However, after hiking Snowy, I realized that there was simply too much of a snowpack on Pillsbury and Wakely to justify biking ten miles to each of them and then packing out deep slush without snowshoes. So I elected to leave both of those peaks for a summer trip, along with Gore. After deploying to the eastern side of Lake George, I hiked Black and was about to finish the 12sters with Erebus and Buck, but an occasionally-stalling transmission on my van, combined with a few other minor issues, convinced me it would be better to relocate to the Upper Valley for the last week before my spring job started. Ironically, my two highest priority peaks - Snowy and Black as the last two P2ks in New York - ended up being the last two I hiked as part of this trip, a testament to reprioritization once things starting going haywire

Hurricane Mountain, April 13th

This mountain, more than any other mountain in recent memory, gives me "classic Vera" vibes when thinking back to my first (and most difficult per hike) project of the Northeast 115. Maybe it was being in the high peaks again, but it just felt so natural and I really enjoyed the experience. Hurricane is a well documented peak so all I'll add is that there is that rainfall contributes significantly to the swampage early on in the hike. Other than that, I can see why this one is such a popular mountain!

Swede Mountain, April 14th

Swede was a pretty straightforward hike that I went up after spending the night at a nearby highway pulloff. Not too much to say other than the organization that maintains this, like that for Buck, takes the spirit of NYSDEC trail maintenance - especially as it relates to drainage!!!

Cat and Thomas Mountain, April 14th

I was originally planning on doing this as a mini-traverse, parking my car at the Cat Mountain Trailhead and then biking up to Thomas, but I wanted to conserve the charge on my eBike for Vanderwhacker the following day, since I've been having electricity woes for the past few weeks and can't just charge it from my van's rig (thank you shitty manufacturing at Renogy). Anyhow, the loop was straightforward and not too difficult despite the extra 300' of vertical. Nice views on both of the 12sters on this loop!

Vanderwhacker Mountain, April 15th

Back in the fall of 2020, after I had finished my first round of the 46, and after I had done all the 4000fters in the Catskills and Vermont, I was searching for something to do for the last two weeks I had before I moved back to Alaska for the winter. Vanderwhacker was one of the hikes I did, on one of the first snowy days of the year. I remember being blown away by how wonderful the views up top were, and the rest of the hike was honestly pretty great too. Suffice to say, I was looking forward to my second go at the mountain as part of the Fire Tower challenge - along with being a 131er on my list. I knew that the road was out to 28N, but I was encouraged by the lack of snow I had seen on Hurricane - virtually none up to a few isolated patches past 3300ft. Additionally, I knew that most of the trail was on the south side of the mountain, so hopefully the exposure to sun would replicate the conditions I saw north of the High Peaks. I figured I would give it a shot with biking on the flat and then going up the (hopefully fully thawed) trail

As always, fate doesn't give the slightest fuck what encourages me. Somehow Vanderwhacker had more snow at 1600ft than Hurricane did at 3000ft - and that only got worse with elevation. I only got about 60% of the way along the road before having to stop due to low battery on my bike - I made the right call by doing a Thomas loop the day before. The road is totally bikable, and maybe the snow hides some tread problems, but I'm honestly not sure why they closed it up. Thehiking trail was swampy but tenable up to about 2500ft, where it turned into a narrow stream with a lot of overgrowth and treedowns. I can't help but wonder if the flooding that inspired them to close the road also halted regular maintenance on the trail. Anyhow, the blowdowns didn't help. Silly me forgot to take my gaiters, and so when I postholed continuously past 3000ft, I cried several times. Somehow I managed to pull it together for the photos, but I was no happy camper. Also it was raining the entire time, did I mention that? I had a much worse experience this second time around, but at least I know in better conditions this is a good mountain

Snowy Mountain, April 17th

For Snowy, I went over to the trailhead at Rt 30, unsure of exactly how much snowpack there would be at higher elevations on this peak. I got ready and headed up, finding the trail to be in overall pretty good condition for a NYSDEC trail up until around 3000ft, where isolated patches of snow started. It was at 3500ft, however, where it got really steep really quickly on the north side of the mountain. The snow banks were in places more than six feet deep, which was a nightmare to carefully step through without snowshoes - as postholing that deep isn't fun in the slightest. That being said, it was in the 50s, so I wasn't concerned about hypothermia - just breaking a leg. Anyhow, I got up to the fire tower and found the best fire tower view in the Adirondacks save perhaps Adams. The way down required me buttsliding, and the descent was overall decent. My first new P2k of the year! And it won't be the last!

Black Mountain, April 18th

I was originally planning on doing Gore this day, but the persistent rain and low temperatures disuaded me from doing a hike that long. Similarly, my idea to do Wakely or Pillsbury using by bike struck me as a sub-optimal idea given the deep snowbanks I encountered the previous day on snowy. So I figured I would redeploy over to Lake George and climb the 12sters on the eastern side of the lake. I drove up to the Black Mtn Trailhead, which was a steep drive at times but which was all paved. The trail had pretty poor drainage throughout, but had a clear corridor and no tricky sections even in the rain. The summit was entirely ensconced in clouds so I saw nothing, but I got my photos and was able to get back down in quick succession. I didn't know it but this would end up being my last peak as part of this trip