The name Vanderwhacker first came onto my radar when I realized that the state land crossed by the Raymond Brook Ski Trail was part of the Vanderwhacker Wild Forest.
The Vanderwhacker Wild Forest is a diverse and discontinuous DEC construct, the center piece of which is Vanderwhacker Mountain and the Fire Tower.
With 1700 feet of elevation gain in two and a half miles I figured my wife, our daughter and I could handle it, even with a late start.
I first heard of Kettle Mountain years ago when it was the only legal way for the public to see OK Slip Falls. Views of the falls from Kettle are distant, but still very good.
At that time it wasn’t exactly a no-brainer to hike it. Access required a long bushwack through swampland to the south of the Northwoods Club road.
If you wanted to access the peak by rafting, you’d have to plan an overnight or a very aggressive day trip itinerary, minding river levels as determined by the Lake Abanakee dam release.
I recently moved to Brooklyn from Connecticut. It was a big life change and in the process, I missed the chance to do something special with my mom on Mothers Day. This past weekend, I rectified that, telling her we were going to see a secret wonder upstate.
We headed up together on Saturday to the central Adirondacks. After a beautiful drive up the Taconic Parkway we made our way to North Creek, NY. We pulled in to the center of town at around 6pm and headed down past the oversized blue Adirondack chair to check in with our rafting company.
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