Hiking up Gore Mountain

 

My original plan for today was to hike three short-distance fire towers in the Northwest corner of the ADK. When it came down to it, though, I really just didn't feel like spending six hours in the car. I may have a go at them later in the season, but I really wasn't feeling it. In fact, at the time of writing this, I would have still been in the car on the Northway. Also, Quinn asked me real cute to take him for a walk or bike ride after school, so that settled it.

I hunted for a closer hike that would be worth my time and landed on Gore Mountain. The hike had a dubious distance of 10-12 miles depending on who you asked, but I was game either way. I was just excited to get North again -- also, the weather was shaping up to be quite nice.

Although I had to literally drag Sunny out of bed at 5am, he was his usual chipper self.

We arrived at the trailhead at 6:45 with air temp at 36F.  started hiking by 7:00. The sun was already going strong when we started and it didn't let up all day.

Ski Bowl Park Trail Area

There are many crisscrossing trails available at the feet of Gore, loads of them for biking.

The Schaefer Trail starts following near a ski trail, then bends South into the woods.

Sunny, once again pretending to read.

The Schaefer Trail shares paths with several other trails down here.

There's a lot of lovely signage to help you along.

Pirate.

The first mile or so is a leisurely walk in the woods.

There is plenty of water on this trail. No worries there.

After a bit of gradual elevation gain, the trail bends sharply right and begins its climb up Gore Mountain along Roaring Brook (one of the 8 to 10 in the state with that name anyways).

Waterfalls

I like a stroll through the woods as much as anyone, but I was excited when the trail started getting more interesting. I think Sunny was as well; he was in full frolick mode. The grade wasn't too strenuous, but my heart rate did roll into 145 as it usually does. According to Doctor Google, this is a good aerobic rhythm for my age.

The terrain got more and more rocky and rooty as we climbed along the rushing waters.

The Roaring Brook really was living up to its name.

Sunny was in heaven playing in the water.

I spent lots of time taking pictures of my dog in front of waterfalls today.

Really. My total time in AllTrails was 7 hours and 9 minutes while my moving time was only 5 hours 48 minutes.

Can you blame me? He's so photogenic! So were the waterfalls!

The countless stacks of unyielding, billion-year-old Mangerite, Charnockite, and Granite that make up Gore force the water to bend to their will as it cascades down the mountain.

The trail crosses ski trails several times. It was interesting to see how this operation works since I've never seen it personally.

As we approached the first bridge, Sunny started heading towards the stacked wall of boudlers, but I directed him under the bridge where I saw the trail markers leading. I'd read in trail reports that this part was a bit confusing and folks were unclear as to whether or not they should go under the bridge or around it.

Sunny was dubious.

There was quite a step for me to get across and then an old, weathered board against the far wall.

Sunny chose to simply swim. Fair.

Later, on the way back down, I saw trail markers leading up to the road and I hunted for a way down. I found one. It turns out you can either go under the bridge or follow the road to the right and ascend that way. Apparently, durignt the ascent, Sunny had smelled the trail out initially and I'd just missed the trail marker. Again, it's often best to simply trust the dog's nose than your own eyes.

Sunny was rewarded on the other side with a glorious snowbank.

The second bridge crossing was more obvious.  Although there were no other hikers today, there were crews working on the road and they drove past several times as we were hiking. There are signs warning hikers to take care as they cross while the work is being done.

After another bit of woods-walking, the trail leads to the North Creek Resivoir spillway.

Ascending Through the Woods

The trail kind of annoyingly bends away from the resivoir for some distance to a junction, then bends back.

This flat area is actually a fairly nice respite from the ascent, though it was a bit muddy today. With the hikes I'd done in the Catskills, I'd almost forgotten what it was like to trudge through mud. Although I kind of missed the flat, dry trails "paved" with natural cobbles in the Catskills, it was also nice to be back among the familiar.

Here, we also came across a place where a little stream had worn down to the granite. I was a little surprised how thin the soil was here. This stream was downhill of the Mountain's "Burnt Ridge" area, so I wonder if it suffered a forest fire in the past. Lots of the trees in the next part of the ascent were young and densely-packed, so perhaps that's not a bad assumption.

Yes, Sunny. We're definitely back in the Adirondacks. Most of the trail was dry, rocky, and rooty, but there were a few wet spots like this on and off.

After a while, the trail begins to climb up along-side the Roaring Brook once more. It still flowed strongly, even up at 2500'. It was getting warmer and warmer as we climbed, so I decided we should stop and refill some water.

I sat on a cool rock and shared some Toast Chee with Sunny.

Shortly after our snack, we came to a marsh. The trail bends sharply left and there's a bit of a muddled path across the brook's headwaters. We crossed some thick, flattened grasses, though in later months hikers may need to cross some logs or jump across.

I thought I saw some other trails leading off here and I wasn't wrong; AllTrails does show one or two leading off from here to private land and Raymond Brook Ski Trail.

The next half mile past the marsh is a fun section with some lovely woods and some very steep sections.

Sunny found more snow. It was in this area where I managed to drop my phone on the way down the mountain. I wasted a good 15 minutes on the task. I thought I'd be clever and ask "Hello Google" to set a 5 second timer. Sadly, Google Assistant doesn't work without internet which is obnoxious.

Ski Area

We eventually came to this ski lift car which marks the place where the trail enters the ski area.

Again, it was interesting to see the equipment and how the slopes look without snow.

Well, some of them.

A more modern (but less cozy) gondola peeks around the tree line.

The entire rest of the hike is a bit of a boring road walk. Fortunately the clear views and ski infrastructure was enough to keep me interested.  

There are a ton of trails at Gore.

The privy near the fire tower is terrifying.

We made it to the summit by the fire tower at 11am. I missed it in other photos, but this is actually the old fire tower. It's just been repurposed as a comms tower. It was a bummer not to be able to climb it; I bet the view is unreal. Interestingly, I didn't have service right under it, but I did a few yards away.  

Sunny and I loitered around the warming hut for a bit to pique our curiosity.

The view from the mountain is incredible even without the assistance of the fire tower.

There is a spot called Windy Hill Lookout which has an expansive view of the High Peaks. I strongly recommend this spot to sit and eat your lunch. Well, unless it's winter because this is a black diamond trail for the skiiers.

I am curious how hikers get on snowshoeing up all these trails. I wonder if its difficult to dodge skiiers.

Whew!

We started our descent from Windy Hill Lookout at 11:55am. By now, my pack thermometer was reading 70F, so I was very grateful to get back under the trees after being exposed on the ski trails and roads. Even with my hat on, the Sun sapped my energy. 

We moved quickly despite having to double back several times in one spot to find my phone. It was a beautiful day and I really enjoyed the descent immensely. Sunny ran back and forth chasing birds and squirrels. We heard a turkey flap away once and another small ground bird later. We didn't come across much more, though I did hear some insects and saw one fat black fly. Nothing was really biting, though.

A few early flowers were blooming...

...and other plants were shooting up. A Facebook user warned (and I confirmed) that this is False Hellbore (or American Hellbore) and it is deadly poisonous.

A bunch of this pink quartz could be found throughout the hike. I thought it was quite pretty.

We clocked 12 miles on GPS and it felt good. I was glad to get out with Sunny today and I did enjoy hiking Gore. I was expecting a lot more of the manmade stuff and not so much in the way of wild ares. Fortunately, I was pleasantly surprised that much of the hike is comprised of proper Adirondack trails. 

We also made it home in time to walk and throw rocks.

I believe we'll be heading back to the High Peaks region next week, but we'll see how the weather shakes out.