Shingletree Pond Trail

Shingletree Pond.

Shingletree Pond trail is a two mile out and back trail that begins at Courtney Pond on Route 9 in North Hudson.

Kailee & I first tried this fun little hike last year and had another go at it on August 15. It's about a thousand feet away from Sharp Bridge Campground.

Courtney Pond itself is a lovely little body of water & it's worth checking it out a little before you do the trail. If you are into water snakes, then walk along the grass between Route 9

Courtney Pond.

Water Snake!

and the pond and there's a good chance you'll see one. I've seen a water snake there that's over three feet long on numerous occasions & during our most recent visit I saw three of them.

Anyhow, the Shingletree trailhead is just to the right of the Courtney Pond parking lot. You cross a few foot bridges over some swampy terrain. Then you come to the trail register. It's a low key trail... Our registry from last year was on the previous page to this year's entry.


You then work your way around half of Courtney Pond through the woods. The trail is next to the

Rock blown away when they built the Northway.

 Northway and the noise of traffic can be heard. Also, you'll see rocks with holes through them as a result of being blown up and falling to their current resting spot as a result of the Northway's construction.

Soon, you come to a runoff stream and a private well. Follow the runoff to the fence and climb up the trail to... The Northway underpass!!!

The underpass is cool in more ways than one! It's an egg shaped tunnel about a hundred feet below the highway and on a hot Summer day it's 10-20 degrees cooler than the outside air.

Underpass!

You may want to bring a flashlight to proceed. But, we've done fine without one in our two Shingletree treks.

Once you pop out, you're at the secluded Shingletree Pond in the Dix wilderness. This trail can be used as an access point to bushwhacking the mountains in the area. Obviously, we weren't there to do that, so we relaxed & took some pictures before heading back.

Shingletree Pond.

As a note: the Shingletree pond trail borders private land. Pay close attention to the trail on the way back... Last year Kailee & I ended up lost for about 20 minutes in a ravine before working our way back to the trail.

Shingletree Pond trail is pretty fun. It has some nice scenery and the underpass is really fun!
Give it a shot if you're ever in the area!

Clap Mountain

Kailee and I love to go camping at Sharp Bridge Campground in North Hudson each Summer.
It's an old, sleepy campground on the bank of the little Schroon River. I can't believe that I haven't done a review on Sharp Bridge yet! And, I promise that I will... Soon... It might be a long blog... We like the place!

Anyhow, there's a bunch of trails within an earshot of the campground and some in the campground itself. The main trail is the 5.2 mile Trout Pond-Ensign Pond Road Trail which has a number of destinations that one can hit up. We tried hiking to the East Mill Flow earlier in the Summer but our trek was cut short thanks to a downed tree taking out foot bridge #4. (We did make it to the East Mill Flow last year).

When we returned to Sharp Bridge on August 14, we planned to hike the Sharp Bridge cliffs instead of trying the main trail again.

Looking up at the Sharp Bridge Cliffs.

To get to the cliffs, you sign in at the main trailhead and walk a short distance over a foot bridge and then the trail splits. Take the left trail to get to the cliffs. It's an unmarked trail, but you can't miss it and it's only about a quarter mile to the top of the cliffs. We've actually seen people climbing the cliffs with ropes and belays in the past. But, you can get to the top of them by veering left and then climbing to the right up a steep pine needle covered hill.

The Sharp Bridge Cliffs are a part of Clap Mountain and they have some cute rock edifices which make it a great place to have lunch and gaze out over the the river valley cutting through the mountains to the Southeast. There's a lot of beautiful fauna on the
cliffs and I have run into garter snakes up there on numerous occasions. There is a smaller ledge on the backside of the cliffs that looks out towards the Dix range.

A Garter Snake friend!

The rocks at the top of the cliffs.
A great place to have lunch or relax!

From the main ledge at the cliffs, one can turn left and see the Summit of Clap Mountain and more ledges. Looking at the Summit, Kailee and I decided to try and get there.

There is no trail from the Sharp Bridge Cliffs to the Summit of Clap Mountain. We were aware of this from our previous adventures... So we had to bushwhack it. Which wasn't that bad. It was maybe another 600-800 meters to the Summit.

View of the Little Schroon Valley
from the top of Sharp Bridge Cliffs.

The ground was mostly covered with birch leaves and we walked on them doing our best to not disrupt the wildlife. In certain areas you descend before arriving to the final climb which is not difficult for an able-bodied adult or kid. After a short ascent, you reach the tree covered peak.

Clap Mountain offers limited views to the East and West. There's a thin ledge facing the West but I wasn't going to bring Kailee down to it. Aside from the fun little peeks outward, we saw a number of cool things on top of the mountain including rocks, mushrooms, and an incredible root system of a downed tree.

Our path to the Summit of Clap.

At 1,610' above sea level, Clap Mountain isn't very remarkable by any measure. It's basically a big hill that happens to have some pretty cool ledges and views of the Adirondacks. Because of this, there is very little information available on the internet about Clap... (Go ahead & Google it... I'll be here waiting...).

Looking West from the Summit area of Clap.

It took us a minute or five to find some familiar landmarks before we bushwhacked our way back down to the cliffs and eventually the campground.

Kailee and I weren't trying to set any records by climbing Clap. We just did it for the fun of it. And, she seemed to really enjoy the whole experience of it. That being said, in our personal record books - it put Kailee at 3 Summits for the year and me at 7.

Kailee descending Clap Mountain.

As I stated, Clap Mountain isn't remarkable in it's level of incline or difficulty. But, it wasn't a worthless climb for us either. It was something fun to try... And now, there might be one more Google entry out there when someone happens to type in Clap Mountain!

Clap Mountain is located off the trailhead in Sharp Bridge Campground in North Hudson
on Route 9.

Really cool roots of a downed tree near Clap Mt Summit.

Berkeley Green - 6er Bell

After hiking Baker & Haystack Mountains on August 8 with my daughter Kailee, I had completed the Saranac Lake 6er Challenge. So, we had one more stop to make before driving home.

We pulled up to Berkeley Green in Downtown Saranac Lake. It's a cute little park with a stage. On the stage is a Sixer register book where I entered my name and summits. Then in 6er tradition, I turned around and rang the 6er bell while Kailee took some pictures.

A man passing by shouted out "Congratulations!"
I yelled back "Thanks!"


It was a fun little moment that I'm glad Kailee was there for.

One.

The 6er challenge was a lot of fun. When I started it, I was in the worst shape of my life thanks to diverticulitis and some other health issues that I dealt with this year. Two weeks later, when I finished the challenge I was back into alright shape. My legs felt great & I wish I had a scale to document my weight loss.




I would like to extend some thank you's.

Two.

-Thank you Noelle for letting me tag along for the Ampersand hike! It's such an awesome mountain and I had an equally awesome time with you and Beth and Emmie! My body needed this climb! Never-ending thanks!  

-Thank you everyone who asked me if I was trying to be a 6er after the Ampersand Hike. It really got the idea in my head and put the motivation in place to do it.

Three.

-Thank you Sean for tagging with me for St. Regis & Scarface mountains on back-to-back days. It was great catching up and sharing a bunch of laughs! #PartyTube!

Four.

 -Thanks Ryen for accepting my last minute offer to climb the beast that is McKenzie! It was my third mountain (and biggest) in as many days! I felt such a high level of accomplishment after we KO'd that sucker! Boom. Bam!

Five.

 -Of course, Thank you Kailee for being an all around amazing kid and for helping me finish up the 6er challenge by doing Baker & Haystack with me in one day. I'm always proud of you! You really kicked some butt on the hills & that was so cool!

Six!

Haystack

I had absolutely no plans of completing the Saranac Lake 6ers by hiking Haystack when I woke up on August 8. The plan was to climb Baker with my daughter Kailee.

Sometimes, plans change...

We completed Baker in the morning and decided that we were going to try for two mountains in one day. We would take a shot at Haystack.

We arrived at the Haystack trailhead on Route 86 in Lake Placid around 1PM. Kailee quickly noticed that the sign also said McKenzie on it. She had asked me about all of the Sixer's earlier in the day and taken particular interest in both Scarface (intriguing name) & McKenzie (The Big Girl).

"Why does the sign say McKenzie?" she asked.

"Because, you can take this trail to both McKenzie and Haystack," I replied, "We're only doing Haystack."

And with that, we signed the register and hit the trail.

One word can sum up Haystack's trail this Summer:

Mud.

Mud.

It was everywhere. The trail itself wasn't too difficult for me and there were certainly a few spots that were tricky for Kailee... But, the amount of mud was outta control!


Aside from the mud, the trail provides peaceful and pleasant scenery. Crystal clear runoff with little waterfalls line most of the first 2/3rd's of the trail and it's a treat for both the eyes and ears.


I also noticed some different types of colorful fungi and interesting fauna that I hadn't seen on the previous five Saranac Lake 6ers trails.
There were a number of bright orange ice cream cone-shaped mushrooms with water collected inside their "cup" and I thought they were really freaking cool.

We passed the remains of an old cabin which still had an old bucket and some pipes on display.

Cabin Remains.

Supposedly, the trail to McKenzie breaks somewhere near here... But, I didn't notice it and was somewhat surprised by that... It didn't matter either... We continued following the blue markers towards Haystack.

We soon came to a dam where you have to navigate over a handful of rocks. The water is moving quick and there's a lot of it this year. I held out downed branches to act as a railing for Kailee to use both times we crossed the dam.

The trail continues on a very gentle incline until you near the Summit. At that point the incline picks up and I had to do a little climbing and Kailee had to do quite a bit of climbing due to her size. We took it easy and she did a great job on the rocks. Right after that, we hit a ledge which offered a charming view of Saranac Lake.

DAMMMMM...

After taking some pictures, we continued on the trail and hit the peak shortly thereafter. It took us about 2.5 hours to get there and we were awarded with striking views of Lake Placid and the High Peaks on a beautiful afternoon. Kailee initiated a game of "I Spy with my little eye," which is actually a really great game to play on a cleared Summit. We spotted birds, lakes, boats among other things during the game.

Ledge overlooking Saranac Lake.

After hanging out and checking some of the side trails we began our descent. Kailee once again did a great job of handling all of Haystack's obstacles.

 There were times where Kailee would stop to check something out and I'd end up a hundred feet in front of her and then wait for her to catch up. On our way down we didn't try as hard to avoid the mud so she was covered from head to toe when we reached the car.

At the Peak of Haystack. 6 out of 6.

With two Saranac Lake 6er's down in one day Kailee was off to a great start to someday completing the challenge on her own. For me, hiking both Baker & Haystack in one day meant my Sixer challenge was unexpectedly completed. And, I was ecstatic that Kailee was with me for that.

Kailee switched out of her muddy shoes and we hopped in the car and drove to Berkeley Green in Saranac Lake...
Haystack Mountain is Located on Rt 86 in Lake Placid.

Back at the car... Caked in mud.

Baker

I enjoyed climbing four of the Saranac Lake 6ers while my daughter Kailee was vacationing in Maine. During that time, I decided that I would do Baker Mountain (or Mount Baker as the locals call it) with her since it is the smallest of the bunch.

We drove to Saranac Lake on August 8. It was one day after her seventh birthday and I figured the hike would be a nice way to continue the celebration.

Baker's trailhead is right in town next to the lovely Moody Pond. I could tell by the number of cars in the lot that it was a popular hike. The trail register confirmed that... There was no spaces left in the book to sign in. So, I crammed our names and the date in on the top edge of one of the pages. We spoke to an older couple at the register for a minute and then began our way up the hill.

There's two paths that you can take to the Summit of Baker. The marked trail leads to the right and an unmarked trail heads left. I had read online that the left trail is easier & since this was the first full mountain Kailee was attempting we took that route.

My simple summary of the left trail is... Don't take the left trail.

The Bug Zone.

It was by far the buggiest trail I had been on all Summer. A constant swarm of mosquitoes followed us up the hill despite being doused in bug spray. Additionally, the left trail is rather unremarkable aside from some ledges near the Summit. Those ledges can be reached from the Summit anyways... So, I suggest taking the marked trail and checking them out after you reach the peak.


The peak of Baker is very nice and it only took a mere thirty minutes over 0.9 of a mile for us to get there. One can take in views of McKenzie, Haystack,

Village of Saranac Lake viewed from Baker.

Scarface, Ampersand, the High Peaks, lakes and the village of Saranac Lake from Baker's ledges.

About twenty minutes after we arrived there we bumped into the couple we saw at the register.

"Oh, you finally made it up here," said the man.

"What are you talking about? We've been up here for 20 minutes," I replied with a hint of sarcasm.

We chit-chatted with them for a few minutes before they decided to make their descent.

At the Summit of Mount Baker.

Kailee & I then enjoyed lunch on a ledge overlooking the village. It was still pretty early in the day. The weather was nice and we began discussing what we should do for the rest of the afternoon.

Then, out of the blue, I had an idea. I asked Kailee if she would want to try hiking Haystack. She thought it was a good idea. So, now we had a newly improvised plan in place.

We finished our lunch and took a few pictures before descending on the marked trail. It was much nicer than the first trail and I regretted not taking it up... But, what can ya do? Live and learn.

McKenzie viewed from Baker.

We passed a lot of people as we made our way to the trail register.

Mount Baker is by far the easiest of the 6ers. Kailee had zero problems with it. It is a family friendly hike and it's a good starter mountain.

We got in the car. Five of the Sixers down for me. One down for Kailee.

That was about to change... Very soon.

Mount Baker is located next to Moody Pond on Forest Hill Ave in the Village of Saranac Lake.

McKenzie

McKenzie... Oh, McKenzie...

After hiking Ampersand two weeks ago, I decided that I wanted to be a Saranac Lake Sixer. I initially wanted to KO McKenzie Mountain next. It's the biggest of the Sixer's and I wanted to take it on... But, after some thought, I decided to put it on hold for a minute.

That was about to change...

I woke up on August 1 after climbing St. Regis Mountain and Scarface Mountain on consecutive days feeling fresh.The Sixer bug had gotten a hold of me and I was loving every minute it. As I went through my morning routine, I began to have an internal conversation and it went something like this:

That was it.

At 11:30 on a Tuesday morning, I decided I was going to knock out McKenzie. I once again reached out to Sean to see if he would join me on the trails for a third day in a row. He respectfully declined and I understood that. So, I then contacted my buddy Ryen who is a good guy to call on for crazy last minute ideas. He said "Sure."

It was ON.

I quickly packed my things and picked up Ryen and we headed for Lake Placid. It was a hot and beautiful day and we had a nice ride to the trailhead.

However, we hit the trail at 2:30pm which is an awfully late time to start the hike. That didn't matter. I had determination on my side.

The Jack Rabbit Trail can save you
a mile or two on your hike to the
summit of McKenzie.

There's two trails that can get you to the base of both McKenzie and Haystack Mountain. I opted for the slightly shorter entrance-way at the Whiteface Jack Rabbit Cross Country Trail.

The Jack Rabbit trail is about a two-mile walk to base and it is mostly flat (albeit rocky) and it borders quite a bit of private property. So, if you take this route, take caution and do not trespass.

Stay on the trail. Plain and simple.

In my opinion, the Jack Rabbit trail isn't very exciting. There isn't a lot to take in. However, if one is interested in bringing a tent and camping before climbing McKenzie (or McKenzie and Haystack) there is a lean-to where you can set up camp just over a mile and a half in.

Eventually, you hit the fork in the road. Left takes you to Haystack. Straight take you to... well.. I

Take a right at the fork in the road.
There isn't a silver fork in the road...

 don't know... Right takes you to McKenzie.

Obviously, we turned right.

Immediately, the mountain hits you. You begin ascending quickly on a rocky trail caked in mud.

McKenzie is a big girl and she doesn't joke around. It's all uphill from here. She hits and she hits hard. At 3861' feet, McKenzie is just shy of being a 46er. But also take note, thanks to modern surveying, she is actually bigger than at least one of the 46er's (Couchsachraga).

Ryen and I worked McKenzie at a fast pace.  We realized we were racing the sun. We took very little time on our breaks and kept pushing forward. There were few points of relief at the pace we were moving. We dealt with a lot of mud and a lot of physical climbing under the sun's hot rays. There were a few brief moments where we turned around and quickly enjoyed the peeks of views through the trees before trucking onward. I hardly touched my camera on the way up.

Finally, we met a moment of relief. We hit an area that evened off and offered some side trails with amazing views. It felt like the summit was within our reach...

You can't see it in this pic... But, the real
summit is over a half mile to the Right.

And... we were wrong... we were dead wrong...

The trail and ledge to our left gave us a great view of the Saranac Lake region... But, when we looked to the right from that spot we could see another peak.

"I think that's the Summit," said Ryen.

"No. No... That has to be another mountain," I replied.

I was wrong.

From that point, we had to cross three or four more False Summits which included a lot of climbing up-and-down over a half-mile until we reached the actual summit which we previously viewed from the ledge. En route, there were a number of side paths which gave us more great views of the Saranac Lake-Lake Placid regions.

Finally... exhausted...we reached the real tree-enclosed Summit of McKenzie. It was the biggest

feeling of relief and accomplishment that I had felt in years. From there, some side trails gave us more breathtaking views. But, time and the sun were working against us. We took everything in pretty quickly before deciding we needed to take on the arduous task of beating the sun down the mountain.

We took a few final pictures and quickly began our descent.

It took us just under an hour to reach the McKenzie-Haystack fork in the trail. It took an additional 20-30 minutes to get back to the car. I was beat as we walked along to the trailhead. At 7PM, we reached my car. I changed my shirt and socks, and threw on a light sweatshirt and we made our way back to a footbridge near the trailhead to relax for about 20 minutes.

I caught my breath and reflected upon the past three days as the mountain runoff played soundtrack to my thoughts. Every part of my body was tired. I ached. I was scraped up and bitten up...

Rock Men watched over Ryen & I as
we relaxed near the McKenzie trailhead.

 But, it felt great. I had KO'd McKenzie. I was looking forward to rest... But, I was also looking forward to the rest... of the Saranac Lake Sixer's!

Four were down.

Two more to go.





If you are out of shape or a small child... You probably shouldn't climb McKenzie. She's a big girl at 3861' and throws a lot of wrenches at you. The shortest route (Jack Rabbit) is well over 7 miles and there's quite a bit of physical climbing involved. Also, Don't start this mountain as late in the afternoon as we did (2:30PM). Start much earlier. Go at a relaxed pace (Unless you're Crossfit Jesus) and enjoy the hike.


McKenzie Mountain has two entrances. The first on Rt86 in Ray Brook and the one we took off Whiteface Inn Lodge Lane, a left off Rt86 on the Jack Rabbit Trail (which shaves off a mile-or-so).

Ryen Climbing McKenzie,

Scarface

Of course, a mountain with a name like Scarface would be located next to two prisons.
Much like the famous Al Pacino character which shares it's name with, Scarface is a bad boy.

...Alright, maybe not a bad boy... But, for a 3054' mountain, it is pesky.

I had another day free of responsibilities and decided to knock out another Sixer in back-to-back days. Once again, I teamed up with my buddy Sean.

We were both feeling good after the previous day's adventure at St. Regis Mountain and were looking forward to another good time.

Our hike got off to a later start then planned thanks to Sean's GPS giving him poor directions. He met me at the trailhead and we began our trek around 12:30 PM.

The trail begins by crossing train tracks and then a foot bridge built by prisoners in the 1980s over Ray Brook. Just before the bridge there is a bench with a plaque dedicated to Captain Paul John McKay of the Australian army who passed away on the mountain in 2014.

The trail continues for about two miles to base and it's pretty even ground until you get there. On the left was what looked to be the remains of an old caretaker cabin and there was an older man with his dog sitting there waiting for his wife to descend the mountain.

When you get to the mountain there is a beautiful runoff that parallels the trail. The water was incredibly clear and cold and we used it to cool down on both our ascent and descent. The incline picks up pretty quickly and the trail is very rocky which makes it rough on the legs. That being said, it was probably the least muddy trail that I've been on this year.

We ran into a lot of hikers on their way down and chatted with most of them. We even bumped in the the wife of the man we chatted with by the cabin remains. It seemed that many people we ran into were hiking Scarface for the same reason that I was (to become a Saranac Sixer) and we exchanged info on the mountains that we had climbed with quite a few hikers.

The trail continues upwards for another mile with nice forest scenery surrounding you. Eventually, you hit Scarface's sole ledge which offers the only view of the landscape. It's a nice little ledge to relax and have lunch on (which we did after making our way to the Summit).

At this point, the trail becomes much easier. You continue forward for another half mile and pass a few false summits. Then you zig-zag your ways along the trail through the trees until you come upon a small circle in the middle of the woods. There's a small round white marker on a tree that says "Scarface Mtn." And, that's the Summit. We got there around 2PM.

Shortly after we got to the Summit, the man we ran into earlier showed up. He boogied his way up Scarface! He asked us "So, this is the Summit?"

Summit.

"Yes," we replied.
"Good. I can tell my wife that she didn't make it to the real Summit," he said.
We continued chatting and he imparted us with some good words of wisdom:

"If you ever want to do the 46ers, mountains like this are good practice and they prepare you for a lot of them. Many of them don't have any views at the top."
Sean and I were well aware before we departed that morning that Scarface didn't offer many views. That didn't mean we didn't have a good time. We had great conversations, jokes, and lots of nature to keep us entertained.

If you're looking for views of the landscape or are an inexperienced hiker... Then, Scarface may not be for you. I also wouldn't recommend this trail for little kids. However, if that doesn't apply to you,

View from the ledge.

 then give Scarface a shot!

Also, my personal opinion: If you are attempting to do the Saranac Lake Six, then you may want to consider doing Scarface somewhere in the middle so that you sandwich it between mountains with better views.

How to Get There: Take Rt 86 from Saranac Lake towards Lake Placid. Turn Right on Ray Brook road and continue past the prisons. The trailhead will be on your right.

Enjoying dinner in the shadow of the Sixer
bell in Saranac Lake after hiking
Scarface Mountain.

 

Sean Cools off in the crystal clear runoff during our descent.