"Hill 864" - Dix Mountain Wilderness - 8/15/13

The Boquet River Valley in the Dix Mountain Wilderness of the Adirondack Park can provide almost limitless places for exploration.  For my wife and I, It's a convenient place to get to and it's a whole lot of fun.  On this trip, Leesa and I wanted to head for an unmamed hill, labeled on our map with an elevation of 864 meters. 

To head there, we parked on Route 73 and followed a herd path on the south side of the North Branch Boquet River.  Once we got to LilyPad Pond, we crossed a tributary and hooked back to the N. Branch (it had turned NW a little earlier). 

The herd path grew faint on the west side of the North Branch as we made our way NW.  Right at that point, we found a little knoll with a fire ring.

A fire ring near the N. Branch Boquet River

 

There was also a couple great swimming holes at that point.  Most of the water pictures below were taken at that point.  Shortly afterwards we came to a wetland area and it was time to veer more to the NW and start climbing the hill.

 

 

It was a hot day and the deer flies found us.  It helped a little having the leaves on the trees.  Bushwhacking through the trees made it hard for the deer flies to stay with us.

After a hour or so on the bushwhack portion of the hike we came to the first false summit at elevation 774 meters.  It was an area of open rock that afforded nice views of Elizabethtown #4, Spotted Mountain and Grace.

 



View from hill 774.  Spotted Ridge on left.  Beckhorn Slide on right

 

We stopped here to have lunch.  Afterwards we contemplated going further, but Leesa had had enough of the bugs for one day.  We looped around to descend on the other flank of the ridge before returning our route near the swimming holes.

A good view of the Beckhorn slide.

Fun water holes for swimming.

 

Large glacier erratics at the water's edge

Snack time

Back at the swimming hole we took off our boots and soaked our feet.  The water was still a bit cold for swimming.  We also had a few snacks and explored around the area.  The location of the swimming holes is identified with a dot on the route map at the end of this post.

 



Once back across the tributary and over to Lilypad Pond, we went back along the south side of the N. Branch Boquet River.  There isn't much of a herd path there until you get to the designated campsite on the knoll.  From there, you can follow the herd path back, or the other one to Rhododendren Pond.

  

We just went back at that point.  Can't wait to swim in the swimming holes though!

 

Map of our route (Click image to enlarge)

  

 

...and a closer look

 

Hike Stats:

Hike Distance:  7.75 miles

Hike Time:  6 hours (including stops)

Total Vertical Gain:  ~ 1500'