The Kayak Chronicles
©
by Darren Caffery
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
EXPLORING
THE ADIRONDACKS:
Hiking Goodnow Mountain
August 11, 2008
|
HIKING GOODNOW MOUNTAIN |
|
Goodnow Mountain
is a relatively small Adirondack peak, only 2,685 feet tall. But at its
summit is a 60-foot fire tower that provides some of the best views in the
Adirondacks for the least amount of effort. The well-marked two-mile trail
is not for the frail or lazy, but a reasonably fit person can go up and down
in about two hours. Goodnow is part of the 15,000-acre
Huntington Wildlife
Forest maintained by SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry.
College and town maintain the trail and tower, and both may be the best-kept
in the Adirondacks. The trail has solid boardwalks and bridges across
streams and boggy areas, and there are halved-log benches above steeper
climbs.
The trail starts from a large parking lot
off of route 28N a couple of miles west of Newcomb, NY. You can combine a
hike to the summit with a trip to the NY State Visitors Interpretive Center
just 1.5 miles east. The start of the trail, up some steps, is one of
the steepest portions of the trail. It can also serve as a self-guided
nature trail. The distance to the summit is about 2 miles with an ascent of
a little over 1000 feet. The most prominent mountain seen from the summit
tower is Santanoni, but many of the other High Peaks are also visible. Views
of the great forest preserve stretching out to the south are also available
without climbing the tower.
For more complete descriptions of the trail, please see
Adirondack Trails: High Peaks Region or
Day
Hikes For All Seasons: An Adirondack Sampler, by Bruce Wadsworth.
|
On our 4th day of camping in the Adirondacks, we
awoke to another rainy day. The rain was a good excuse to sleep in so we
didn't emerge from our tents until about 10 am. After the rain stopped,
the fog on Harris Lake was quite thick and lasted well into late morning. The
fog on the lake slowly lifted as we ate a late breakfast and prepared for our
day. Instead of padding, we decided that we would take a ride over to
nearby Goodnow Mountain
for a short, relatively easy hike.
JSSKA
members, Doug, Tom, Val, Jean and I arrived at the trailhead for Goodnow
Mountain on 28N in Newcomb at around 1 pm. At the trailhead kiosk, we
obtained a copy of the Goodnow Mountain Summer Trail Guide called "Forces
Shaping the Forest" which was produced by
SUNY College of
Environmental Science and Forestry. The sky was cloudy but the
rain had finally stopped and the air temperature was in the low 70's which
made it comfortable for a hike. We started our ascent up the muddy, but well
marked trail. Val was concerned about bears so she wore her bear bell. We sang
jingle bells on our way up and it really started to feel like Christmas in the
mountains, until we all started to break a sweat. In about an hour and forty
minutes we reached the summit of Goodnow Mountain at about 2:40 pm. At the
summit was a 60 foot fire tower with an enclosed area at the top. A few
of us climbed it to the top to enjoy the scenery.
The stairs were wood and as I climbed the tower,
the wood slats of the stairs bent a bit. I was bit nervous that they
would not support my weight. 60 ft doesn't sound like much but it seemed
like it would be a long fall if one of the stairs collapsed. Back to my
deep breathing, and stepping lightly while holding on to the railing, I
finally made it to the top of the tower. The top of the tower provided a
beautiful panoramic view of the high peaks region and an excellent bird's eye
view of nearby Rich Lake. The sky was still a bit gray with some periods
of sun poking through some white puffy clouds. It was a bit windy at the top
of the tower and I could feel the tower swaying a bit. After snapping a few
pictures and enjoying the view for a bit, I made my way back down.
We had lunch on the mountain and just enjoyed
the fresh Adirondack air from atop Goodnow Mountain. After lunch and
some rehydrating, we started our descent at about 3:15 pm. The hike back
down was relatively easy, other than a few close calls of slipping in mud.
The hiking pole prevented me from taking a mud bath a few times! We
didn't see much wildlife on the trail and after Val was convinced we would
have no bear encounters, she put her jingle bear bell in her backpack.
At one point on the trail, we did encounter a rather bold chipmunk. As we got
closer to where it was scurrying about, it approached us on the trail, as if
to be soliciting food donations. I was very surprised at how close it go
to us. We all thought it was very cute. I made little chirping chipmunk noises
as I bent down near it and it almost came up to my hand. Jean got her
camera out and I got out of the way so she could take a picture of little
Alvin. As she bent down to snap a picture, it quickly leaped towards
her, nearly over her shoulder, startling her and almost knocking her down the
mountain! Her flash went off
as she fell backward, and instead of an "up close and personal" picture of the
chipmunk, she got a blurry snapshot of the sky through some trees! Good thing
she didn't get hurt, because at that point, we were all hysterical. It's also
a shame we didn't have a video of this incident because it would have surely
been a contender on America's Funniest Videos! We continued to laugh as we
made our way down the mountain, thinking of the small chipmunk lunging at
Jean. I guess it didn't want to be photographed. A classic moment on Goodnow
Mountain and kinda bizarre!
We reached the bottom of the mountain at about
4:30. Most of us had mud all over our shoes. I had mud on my legs, and
although I'm not sure how it got there, I even had some mud on my face and
arms. Interestingly, when we got down to the bottom of the mountain,
Tom's white sneakers were rather clean. If I didn't see him hiking the trail,
I'd think he didn't hike the same trail we did. He certainly didn't change his
sneakers or clean them. Twilight zone music played in the background and
even he didn't seem to have an answer for this phenomenon.
Although the weather wasn't the greatest, we had a
nice hike up Goodnow Mountain. We returned to our nearby campsite at Lake
Harris and enjoyed dinner and a relaxing evening around the campfire.
___________________________________________________________________________________
[Kayak
Chronicles Home]
[Tao of
Paddling Home]
[NJ
PaddleZone]
[Email
Darren]
©
Copyright 2008 The Kayak Chronicles ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
