Cheney & Belfry Mountains 11-5-2017

Cheney Mountain

Cheney Mountain (Center)
Viewed from Belfry.

Kailee and I set out for the town of Moriah to tackle two smaller mountains on a fairly overcast first day of Standard Time.

Our initial target was Cheney Mountain, a once neglected area in the Champlain Valley that has had new life breathed into it thanks to a series of changes and also in large part courtesy of the care and maintenance given to it from Champlain Area Trails (CATs).

Cheney Mountain sitting
behind a capped landfill.

At the trailhead, we got a good view of the backside of Cheney facing us from across a big field.



However, this was no ordinary meadow... It's actually a capped dump with vent pipes releasing captured methane gas. The pipes let off a faint smell as we walked across the field, signed the register and began our climb.

Within a few minutes, we couldn't smell it anymore.



In it's past, Cheney was used for logging and it's current forest is comprised of mostly young trees. Evidence of old logging roads can still be seen. But, nature is making a comeback.

Fall is in full swing and the ground was covered with dead leaves. This offered us peeps through the trees in almost every direction at any point on the hill.

Champlain Bridge.

Soon, we were at a trail split. We opted to turn right and head for the #7 Mill/High Peaks overlook. We passed a mini pond which actually had cat tails and lake grass growing in and around it.


The #7 Mill/High Peaks overlook gave us a view of nearby mountains to the Southwest, the Lake Champlain Bridge to the Southeast, and the old #7 Mill which sat directly in front of us.

The #7 Mill.

"I wanna hike down there to that!" shouted Kailee as she pointed to the large pile of crushed and ground up rock.

"Well, we're not gonna do that," I replied.

"I know but I wanna go there sometime," she said, "it looks so cool!"

The overlook had a nice bench which makes it a pleasant place to relax and enjoy the view!

Kailee and the Memorial
Painting.

Kailee also discovered a memorial painting attached to a tree branch. We later found out from CATs that the painting was placed there by the mountain's owner in memory of a young girl who passed.

Looking East.

We walked back up the trail and checked out an overlook facing to the East which gave us a view of the lake and the Green Mountains.

I was a little ahead of Kailee as we made our way back to scope out the North Lake Overlook when three doe deer dashed right by me! We've spent a lot of time in the woods this year and hadn't seen any deer until our hike on Cheney (Kailee was just enough steps behind me to miss them).

The last thing deer want to see is people. Tis' the season... Hunting season... We had already heard some gun shots in the far distance... So, I don't blame the white tails for high tailing it.

Looking North.

The North Overlook gave us another nice perspective of Champlain and the Greens before we descended to the car.




We picked up a discarded Stewart's cup on the trail and some garbage near the parking area and threw it in a trash bag in the car.

CATs does an admirable job of maintaining and marking trails which makes Cheney is a great place to hike with the family or for beginners.

At 1353', Cheney lacks the elevation stats of nearby, bigger mountains. However, it's impressive for having three overlooks and even more outstanding considering it's wonderful recovery from logging and the dump that used to sit at it's base. Nature is happily reclaiming Cheney and that is most excellent!

Belfry Mountain

After our Cheney hike, we drove to nearby Belfry Mountain which is possibly the smallest "DEC maintained" trail in New York. It's not really a hike, but rather a short walk 4/10th of a mile up an access road which is lined with radio and cell towers... And, that's it. However, it does have one neat feature.

"Oh there's a fire tower," Kailee said. 

We checked out the tower which offers good views of the Champlain Valley, Vermont and Cheney Mountain.

We were startled a number of times by hunter's gun shots rattling and booming through the valley.

The tower was the highlight of this walk.

Unfortunately, because Belfry's Summit is so easily accessible it is abused by people. There's quite a bit of litter and graffiti. We picked up some trash by the parking area and threw it in our garbage bag in the trunk.

Belfry isn't a really a mountain for hikers but it is an easy one to check off for the Fire Tower Challenge. I'd definitely suggest pairing Belfry up with another hike like Cheney. If you don't live in Moriah, it's not worth driving to just walk Belfry alone. You'll spend more time in your car than at the Summit.

Cheney Mountain is located on Pelfershire Road in Moriah. For more information check out CATs at http://www.champlainareatrails.com.

Belfry Mountain is located on County Route 70 in Witherbee.