Nun-da-gotta-go-go

The weekend is looking to be rainy with Hurricane Ernesto moving in. So, I decided to take a day off from work and go up north and do some hiking.
I wanted to do an easier hike than last weekend, so Howie and I did a loop over Weston mountain, Nun-da-ga-o Ridge (Soda Range) and Big Crow mountain. It sounds like a lot, but it's a relatively mild hike. A lot of the climbing is done in the car on a narrow gravel road up to the trailhead. The ridge is relatively low (around 3000 feet), but has a lot of open rock with views of the high peaks to the south. We saw a handful of people in morning, but had the ridge to ourselves for the rest of the afternoon.

Round-trip Distance: 6.0 mi
Elevation Change: 1500 ft












Lost pond











Howie has no fear












Hiking buddies

Ho, ho, ho ... green Giant

Howie and I did a hike in the Adirondack high peaks today.
It must have been opposite day as the weather up north was better than in Albany. And it's usually the other way around.

We climbed Giant mountain from the north (Rte 9N) which is a long route that not many people take since there are much shorter approaches. The trail was pretty nice though - probably from the little traffic that it sees. In some places, just a narrow foot path passing through open deciduous forests.

While coming back down we met a Canadian couple (Bonjour!) who liked Howie. Except the guy kept calling him Howlee.

Summit Elevation: Giant 4627 ft
Round-trip Distance: 15.2 mi
Elevation Change: 3600 ft












Howie on Owls Head Lookout











Howie near the summit












It's the wind messing up my hair

Huyck Preserve

Howie and I joined a friend from work and his dog Cora to do a hike in the Huyck Preserve. The preserve is located 30 miles south of Albany in Rensselaerville. The first stop on the trail was at a pretty waterfall on Ten Mile Creek. We then took the trail that looped around Lake Myosotis. We also did a short loop around Lincoln pond. The entire walk took around 2 hours.












Waterfall











Dogs enjoying the water

Colden

We have been having some amazing weather lately. So I just had to go do some hiking. I drove up to the ADK Loj this morning with Howie. Our destination this time was Mount Colden, but I thought I would mix it up by doing a loop - through Avalanche Pass, up the back side of Colden and then down the other side and out. We had a picture perfect day and there was a nice cool breeze ... almost felt like autumn was near. We spent around 7 1/2 hours on our Sunday stroll.

Summit Elevation: Mount Colden 4715 ft
Round-trip Distance: 13.3 mi
Elevation Change: 2800 ft













Avalanche Lake











Howie enjoying the breeze











Obligatory summit pic