Baxter Mountain 10/1/2017

This was the first week where I really struggled on deciding where to hike with Kailee. School is in full swing and the days are getting shorter. I've come up with a list of smaller mountains with short trails... But, it wasn't until 10:30PM last night that I settled on our next hike.

I decided upon climbing Baxter Mountain near Elizabethtown and it ended up being a great selection for an afternoon Autumn hike!


The first few feet of the trail are on private property but there is a small custom sign welcoming you to the mountain. I was a little surprised by the lack of a trail register as we passed under some power lines and onto the DEC maintained trail.

We followed the blue trail discs up Baxter's gentle switchbacks. Kailee noted that we were gaining elevation but when we turned around we couldn't see anything through the trees.


On the tree note: I'd have to say that Baxter is one of the "healthiest and hardiest" mountain forests that I've seen this year. The entire mountain, including the Summit area has big, healthy red pines... Which is impressive on a lot of levels.

It was a very easy summit and the weather was absolutely perfect. It took us under 40 minutes to get to the peak.

Marcy.

We explored the ledges and views. We could see Giant and many High Peaks. Kailee befriended some kids who had made their way up the hill with their families.

After lunch, we decided to follow the yellow trail markers leading past the Summit which led us to some ledges with much more wide open views than the Summit affords.



I then walked back to the Summit and informed the other family of our discovery since they were questioning where the yellow discs led a little earlier.

Trail to the bumps.

We went back on the yellow trail and went further down it than the first time and found one more lookout spot which gave us a view towards the North.

The tip and castle
of Whiteface peeping
over a mountain in the
distance.

From here, we were able to spot just the castle and peak of Whiteface peeping over another mountain. We've seen a lot of Whiteface this year... But, this was certainly the least of it that we've seen!

Realizing the yellow trail made a quick descent from this point, we turned around to make our way back to the car.

We bumped into an older man on our way back towards the Summit.

"Oh, I almost never see anyone on this part of the trail!" He exclaimed.

"Yeah, we were just checking out the different views," I replied.

The man proceeded to tell us that we had just gone over"Bump One" and "Bump Two" and back. He confirmed that one could make a loop out of using the yellow trail down and crossing a meadow "that's usually full of ticks."

He told us the area where we had turned around at is where he usually turns around and that makes it a 3.8 mile round trip. Considering we backtacked to the other family earlier, we probably hiked 4 miles total.

I definitely suggest adding the bumps on to your hike or you're selling yourself short.

It was a really quick romp down from Baxter's Summit. We were back to the car in just over 20 minutes.




This ended up being a perfect mountain for an afternoon Fall hike. It has a nice canopy that follows you up and plenty of trees to get some shade on top on hotter days. And, the views are very pleasant.

One of the rare patches
of mushrooms we spotted
on Baxter.

One thing I noticed was that I didn't see as many mushrooms and fungi on Baxter in comparison to the other trails this year... It is possible many of them were hidden under leaves.

 We both recommend Baxter for families with small kids. Its a nice little hike that everyone can enjoy.






Baxter Mountain's trailhead is located on Route 9N across from Hurricane Road just outside of Elizabethtown.