Scarface 5-6-2017

"It's always a good day when you get to hike a Saranac Lake Sixer," I said to Kailee before she went to bed on the eve of our hike of Scarface.

Scarface Mountain has one of my favorite trails and I was glad that we would be joined by Mike & Matt (two of my hometown friends) for the adventure.

We all met up at the trailhead around 10AM shook hands & I introduced them to Kailee.

Everyone was working on their Saranac Lake 6er list except for me. It was kinda fun explaining what to expect on the trail.

Blowdown Throwdown!

One thing I expected to run into this time at Scarface was blowdown. The North Country had a major wind storm on Friday which left a wave of havoc. I was correct on my assumption. A number of times we we climbing over, under and around newly knocked over trees. It was a Blowdown Throwdown!  Fortunately, this wasn't too much of a problem for our crew.

Aside from the recent blowdown, Scarface has a very pretty trail with a 2 mile base walk before beginning the ascent. Mike and Matt hike at a slower speed than I do. So, it was a pleasant change sticking to their pace

Near the end of our base walk, Kailee spotted a garter snake!

SNAKE!

I had warned everyone that Scarface has a viewless Summit and that there was only one ledge on the trail with an obscured view. It didn't matter. They were all there for List Work.

At one point during our trek, Mike said "I can see why you speak so highly of this trail. It has enough things to keep it interesting as you move along like the the bench, the bridge, a river, and nice runoff. Nice stuff to look at."

However, since there wasn't any leaves on the trees we were afforded decent peeps through the trees of ponds and McKenzie Mountain whenever we turned around.

After climbing a decent stretch, we came across a herd path and decided to check it out.

Kailee led the way and we stumbled upon a ledge with a spectacular, unobstructed 180° view!

View of Ampersand from the Unobstructed Ledge.

This thing was way better than the viewpoint on the trail! We took pictures and enjoyed gazing at the Seward range. In hindsight, I wish I marked a waypoint for it on my GPS. Ah well...

It was a short climb from the herd path to the trail's ledge. When we got there, Matt ditched his pack and set up a folding chair that he was carrying in it.  The rest of us opted to keep our backpacks on for our push to the Summit.

View from the ledge on the Trail.

We encountered trail ice during this final stretch but microspikes weren't necessary (However, Mike and I chose to wear them while descending this section).

After a short time, we arrived at the Summit. There's only a little white marker that lets you know that you've arrived.

There's also a tree stump that everyone kicks when they arrive at the Summit... A hiker tradition so to speak. I told everyone "Kick that stump!" And, we all had a laugh.

Matt, Kailee, Myself & Mike celebrating at the Summit.

Kailee celebrated by doing some weird handstand thing with the Summit marker tree.

Matt departed for the ledge and his gear a few minutes before the rest of us. When we finally got back down to the ledge I thought it was pretty funny to see him sitting in his chair like he owned the place. Everyone had lunch on the ledge and took a few final pictures before we began out descent in earnest.

Having fun at the Trail Ledge!

As we walked, we discussed different trails that we've hiked and Kailee and Matt joked about mountain farts!

Eventually we were back at our cars. Kailee checked off her third Saranac Lake 6er, Mike got his first, and Matt also tagged his third. A successful and fun day for everyone!

Three Down!