The Adirondacks Blog

Return to The Blue Ledges

Posted on by Harvey

The Blue Ledges is a wonderful spot on the Upper Hudson River. We often dream about a visit, but only occasionally follow through with plans. It’s not a tough hike by any measure, and the destination is really nice. The drive to the trailhead is several miles on a banged-up dirt road, so maybe that slows us down.

Huntley Pond
Huntley Pond

This past Saturday was one of those times that we went. At the trailhead on Northwoods Club Road at 11:30 am, on mid-summers day.  It’s a good start time, for reasons I’ll explain.

After a half sandwich and a chug of water, we headed into the relatively new (2014) Hudson Gorge Wilderness. Mileage estimates for this hike vary from 2.1 to 2.5 miles, depending on the source. The DEC sign at the trailhead calls it 2.3.

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Tagged: Adirondacks, Hiking7 Comments

Diary of a 46er

Posted on by lemmycaution

My becoming a “46’er” started innocently enough.

I have done a good bit of hiking over the years, mostly in the Catskills and downstate. A few years ago we were able to extend our range with a little place in the capital region opening new and more consistent opportunities for outdoor endeavors. While our place is not near any particular destination, it is almost equidistant between the Catskills, Southern VT, the Berkshires and the Adirondacks.

Avalanche Lake

Without a grand plan, in the Summer of 2017, after a little research, I got up early and day hiked over Mt Colden. I was curious to see if it felt too far to drive up and back and if it was as great as I remembered from prior trips.

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Tagged: Adirondacks, High Peaks, Hiking6 Comments

Last Call: Hero Snow at Mount Van Ho

Posted on by Peter Minde

When I saw the weather reports for the north country predicting a big snowfall in the last week of February, I made plans to go to Lake Placid on the night of Friday the 28th February.

It was the storm that kept on giving: on Saturday morning, I brushed an inch of fresh snow off my car, and drove to Mount van Ho. It was a frosty 8 degrees when I arrived.

I corked four layers of kick wax into my skis, put on all the warm clothes I owned, and set out for a tour. Since I had to head home Sunday afternoon, I decided to flip my workout routine: Saturday would be easy long distance, and Sunday would be intensity.

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Tagged: Adirondacks, Nordic Skiing3 Comments