On Sunday, I tagged along with fellow hiker Brandon as he came within one of his completion of the ADK Hundred Highest (ADK100).
This hike was a full day and was quite a workout. We started at the trailhead for Allen Mountain at 7:40 AM. We crossed the new suspension bridge over the Hudson River and an hour and 15 minutes later, we were at the Opalescent River crossing. I had forgotten my water shoes, but the water wasn't hardly more than ankle deep and I crossed slowly so I wouldn't slip.
Once across, we turned right and left the Allen herd path for a short 5 minute bushwhack to a woods road that lead towards the NW flank of Cheney Cobble. At the 2 hour mark, we were at the end of the woods road and it was time to begin the bushwhack. We had traveled 6 miles to this point.
Once in the woods, our progress slowed drastically. The bushwhac portion of the hike was only 5.3 miles, but it took us 8.5 hours! We chose to ascend Cheney Cobble via the NW ridge. As we got up higher, we stayed a little right of the crest of the ridge. Views were scarce but we did get a glimse of the summit of Cheney as the ridge wrapped around. We arrived at the summit at exactly 12 noon. We found a ziplock bag attached to a tree limb and some metal strapping (the remains of a summit cannister holder).
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| Our 1st destination in sight - Cheney Cobble |
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| A zoom look |
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| Nice view looking NW |
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| The summit of Cheney Cobble |
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| Metal Strapping that once held a summit canister |
There were not views at the summit, but just after we left the summit, we found a nice viewpoint.
As we had heard, travel between Cheney Cobble and North River Mountain was thick. We avoided the SW sub-summit of Cheney Cobble since that was reported to be extremely difficult. When we got to the col between the two mountains, we stopped to fill up our water supply.
We began to sideslip up the slope towards North River, but we climbed too high on the slope too soon and got trapped when our sideslope turned into a cliff. We retreated and dropped down a bit and continued on.
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| The SW sub-summit of Cheney Cobble in the foreground. North River Mountain in the background. |
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| A zoom view of Mount Adams and the firetower on top. |
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| A large glacial erratic concealed in the thick forest |
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| Cheney Cobble |
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| A zoom view of Cheney Cobble |
It took us about 3 hours and 10 minutes to go the 1.5 miles to North River. When we left North River it was almost 4 PM and we were still had a long ways to go to get back.
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| North River |
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| The North River cannister straps |
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| Marcy, Haystack and Allen |
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| The view from North River |
Fortunately, when we retreated, we didn't encounter any obstacles requiring us to alter our course. We got back to the woods road around 6:30 and back to the car just before 8:30. It was getting dark just as we were pulling out.
Thanks Brandon for the great hike. Difficult and long, but it is done.
Hike Stats:
Hike Distance: 17.3 miles
Hike Time: 12 hours, 45 minutes
Total Vertical Gain: ~3500'
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| The route |
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| The route on the Nat Geo map |
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