Cat Mountain August 2009
entrance sign
After a pleasant nights rest on the side of the road I headed further into the Adirondacks on my way to Lake George for a hike up Cat Mountain. I was in the area for the Phish show at SPAC and didn’t want to waste a golden opportunity to hike this beautiful part of the country. The directions I had were pretty good and within 30 minutes of leaving the rest stop I was in the parking lot and trail head to Cat Mountain. What I found was what I expected, an empty lot. Being a Monday, most people would be at work and I had the whole mountain to myself.
I packed my camera bag with what little water I had, a few snacks and started my journey. The current weather was pretty comfortable with low humidity at 8:30 in the morning. But I knew as the day went on and the sun rose things would get much hotter. At approximately 3 miles one way it would take me a little while to make it to the submit of the mountain so I wanted to started as early as possible. I believe by the time I got to the top it was just over 2 hours to hike one way. That time is a little long because I stopped often to take pictures.
Most of the trail was pretty wide with quite a bit of undergrowth. About a third of the way up the trail I came around the corner and found this picturesque little lake. In the background was a mountain, not sure what mountain it was, but it looked very forbidding. The lake itself was calm and provided a great reflection of the sky and surrounding tree line. I spent about 20 minutes taking pictures of the lake. Having the time to rest was also a bonus. The temperature and especially the humidity was climbing quickly and it was wearing me out.
a very calm lake
Just after the lake things started to much steeper. The undulating trail gave way to a more strenuous climb up the mountain. I wanted nothing more than to drink what little water I had with me, but I needed to conserve it for the entire. I would have been much worse off if I didn’t have at least some water for the trip down. It was also about this time the trail became difficult to follow. The only markers where small colored circles sparsely placed on the trail. At times the trail would fork and I didn’t know for certain which way to hike. Poor trail markers are one of my pet peeves while hiking. You are already out in the dense woods with few people, the last thing you want is to get lost because of poor trail markers.
With only a few hundred feet before the summit the trail again makes this crazy turn. The yellow trail goes forward, it’s nice and wide with only a little under brush. To the left there is a blue marker for what doesn’t even look like a trail heading straight up the mountain. It seemed like there was no possible way it was a trail, but there nailed on a tree was a tiny blue marker. It was not like I could get lost heading up this trail, I love an adventure, so I hiked into the unknown with only a little confidence in it getting me to the summit. The higher I got things didn’t get any better. There is eventually a small opening, but you can’t see much so I started looking around for another tiny blue marker. On a tree far to my right I spot it and follow the trail further up the mountain.
Eventually my hunting paid off and the forest opened up and presented me with a great view of Lake George. I had finally reached the top of Cat Mountain, I must have sweated 2 gallons, but I made it. I stood there for a while just looking out across the valley in wonderment. I couldn’t see far today, the haze and humidity really limited my visibility. I didn’t have much choice in what day I hiked so I was stuck with mediocre visibility.
Lake George is some where
I decided to setup camp for a few minutes, eat some lunch, relax and just enjoy the view. Up here it was very quite and I loved that. There were no cars or people. Civilizations faded away on top of that mountain and I was simply left with splendor and wounder. Thousands of years ago the receding glaciers carved out mountains and valleys in the Adirondacks and I was now witnessing what was left behind.
As I walked across the top of the mountain my peace and quite was interrupted by another hiker that followed me up. I am a pretty open guy and I love to talk to people, but this guy was just plain weird. He never introduced himself, but he knew who I was because of the sign in log at the base of the mountain. He was disappointed that I made it up the mountain before he did. I didnt’ want to stick around so I went to another side of the mountain to get some more pictures. After plenty of time on top of the mountain I headed down. It was another three miles but went much quicker because I didn’t stop to take a tone of pictures like I did going up. Plus, down hill simply uses less energy.
I probably packed up the car and started driving home around 1pm. I had planned on 8 hours to get home, but in actuality it was about 10 hours later before I got to my doorstep. At the time I was certainly ready for a little seat time with some air conditioning after a long hot hike up the mountain. I was certainly happy when I arrived home that night, I would be able to sleep in my own bed that night.
I caught two Phish show and hiked in the Adirondacks, I would certainly call that a successful weekend.
a small toad
