Gelina Basin and the Jay Mountain Ridge - 5/17/15

Leesa and I spent Thusday night through Saturday doing trail work in the Hoffman Notch Wilderness.  We accomplished a lot but it was tiring work.  Today we took to hiking.

Leesa missed my trip last weekend to Arnold Mountain and Gelina Basin in the Jay Mountain Wilderness and she wanted to see the waterfalls I had found in the Gelina Basin, so I planned a different route to the same destination.

I got permission from Ward Lumber Company to access the Jay Mountain Wilderness from their property, starting at the end of Nugent Road in the Town of Jay.  We drove to the gate at the eastern end of the road and parked the car there.

The woods road we followed on the Ward Lumber Company property was in great shape.  After 0.7 miles, we reached the State Land boundary.  We continued to follow the woods road, and at 1.0 miles, we came to a private in-holding with a small seasonal camp.  We skirted around the camp and soon reached the bottom of the Gelina Basin drainage.    

Leesa making her way up the lower end of the Gelina Basin drainage

Rev had no problem rock hopping in the basin

Looking back down the lower portion of the drainage

At 1.6 miles, we reached the lower of the 2 waterfalls.  We paused here for Leesa to admire the falls, then continued the short 0.2 miles to the 2nd falls.  Another stop and then we continued to climb the drainage.  It had seen some of this terrain last week, but soon we climbed into new territory.

   

A tempting viewpoint which we bypassed 

We followed the Gelina Basin drainage almost all the way to the the high point, then branched off to climb the wall of the basin to the open rock viewpoint that is the short spur off of the Jay Mountain Trail. 

The open rock just left of center is Arnold Mountain    

Leesa climbed slow and steady and we reached western viewpoint of the Jay Mountain Trail.  There were a half dozen people milling about.   

Another good look at Arnold Mountain (large exposed rock summit)

Rather than work our way down the ridge, we backtracked a little, then side-sloped to reach the lower tier of open rock.  We looked back up at the western Jay ridge viewpoint and could see a crowd of people watching us... probably wondering how we got where we were... and where we were going.

Lower rock ledge

Rev looking NE towards Arnold Mountain

Looking west, Whiteface Mountain in the distance

 We decided to head NW to drop down into Kelly Basin and take a look at that drainage.  The Kelly Basin drainage turned out to be nothing more that a small creek with no features of interest to us.  We cut back over to the waterfalls to soak our feet and enjoy some afternoon sun (Rev even took a nap).   There was even a his and hers lounge rock where we each stretched out for some sun.

Rev taking a well earned drink...

  

The mist on our faces from the waterfall was wonderful! 

5 minutes after we got to the falls, Rev was asleep

Let sleeping dogs lie...

 

Look in the lower left...!

An August watering hole? 

Leesa reluctantly putting her boots back on

I guess you can tell we liked this spot.  Eventually though, it was time to leave.  We spent so long at the waterfall, we almost forgot that we had hiked.  After an easy 1.6 miles back down the woods road we were back at the car. 

Hike Stats:

Hike Distance:  6 miles

Hike Time:  5 hours

Total Vertical Gain:  ~2100' 

The route (click image to enlarge)