Shoulder Season and the LP9 Challenge

 Welcome back! Today we're going to talk about shoulder season. Now shoulder season falls, generally, spring and fall. So during shoulder season, you happen to get a whole mix of a lot of different weather. You never really know what the shoulder season is going to throw at you, which means you do have to be prepared for both. summer and winter conditions. You also have to be prepared for all of that in the same day. You could step out of your car and it be a beautiful spring like or fall like day, sort of warm and sun shining. And then by the time you get up to the top, you could have full whiteout conditions and needing snowshoes for, eight inches of snow. So you really do have to be prepared for both summer and winter. Think of starting, starting your hike off in warm, summer conditions. And then as you get higher and higher, you're going to experience more snow, especially in the spring season, because it takes a lot longer for the mountains to dry out and the snow to melt at higher elevations than it does down at base level.

  In our last post, up Phelps and tabletop, I discussed how I struggled quite a bit , on the first few of my high peaks. And we decided to check out the LP nine challenge. So today we're going to discuss the LP nine and you can find the info on that here.

We knew we didn't want to stop hiking just because we were heading into the winter months, but we also didn't have much experience hiking during the winter. So this was going to be new territory to check out. We thought that the LP9 challenge would be a good spot to start because they're comprised of smaller, lower elevation peaks that are still quite challenging. The peaks are listed in a way that hiking them in order prepare you for the challenge cardiovascularly (is that a word?) for handling the high peaks better, which is why we decided that since this was going to prepare us to move on to more challenging hikes, it would be a good start for me to get into better shape since I struggled quite a bit on those first few.

Also, since we were new to winter hiking, we thought it would be a good place to start on smaller peaks so that we could get the feel for what we would be experiencing in the high peaks in the winter. And with all that in mind, it did just that. It really did prepare us for more confidence in the high peaks during winter, and I felt like they did build me up to being better conditioned to hiking further and tougher terrain.

Entering Whiteface Ski area

The peaks on the challenge are Cobble Hill, Mount Jo. Baxter, Mount Vinhovenburg, Big Crow, Bear Den, that's Bear Den in Wilmington, over by Whiteface, not Bear Den that you'll find just off of Dial Mountain when you hike from the AMR. Then they finish off with Pitchoff, Catamount, So, those are in order, and I do suggest if you can do them in order, you probably should.

They do build you up to the point where you're getting more experience and more challenged as you go. We did not do them in order, but that was only due to scheduling, and we had to pair them. With the time we had available to us. But if you can do them in order, by the time you get to the last three, those three are doozies, and you really get a feel for what you'll be experiencing in the higher peaks during winter. Now, like I said, we didn't do them in order, but that's basically just due to timing and how often we were able to get there, the length of the day, and we had to squeeze them in just to piece them together. So we started with Bear Den, even though it's listed as number six out of the nine.

After doing a few of the high peaks, the three and a half mile round trip and 2, 600 feet of elevation didn't seem so bad, and in fact it wasn't. The bottom part of Bear Den starts at the Whiteface Mountain Ski Center. And once you pull in, you pull in to the right and Bear den starts in the back part of the parking lot there. The beginning portion is a lot of switchbacks and a gentle climb. It's a mountain biking trail too, so we were there in the winter, we didn't see any mountain bikers. In fact, I don't remember seeing anyone else on the trail that day, but as you climb, it gets pretty steep and it just kind of stays that way. It's not too challenging, but it's definitely just a continuous elevation gain. Really pretty switchbacks through the trees.

As we climbed, I remember hearing this really loud noise, this loud humming, and we realized that once we finally got to the top, you come out onto the summit and there is just this Glorious view of Whiteface Mountain, just looking really majestic in front of you.

Enough of a view that I got out there first and yelled back to Dave, I said, Wow, you've gotta see this! And when he approached the summit where I was standing, he let out a, Oh, wow, that's beautiful. And then, we realized that the humming that we heard was them blowing snow on the ski trails.

Since this was November, they were blowing snow and they were getting prepared for the start of ski season. While it was snowing the day we were there was just a gentle dusting on everything at the beginning of the hike, but by the time we got done, there was maybe about an inch of accumulation up top.

And there was certainly much more snow up on Whiteface. So we started Bear Den around 930 in the morning and looking at the picture of us on the summit, it was about a quarter to 11. So it took us just over an hour and then probably about a half hour to get down. It's very gentle on the way back down because that steep incline that you're facing going up isn't as bad coming down. It's not as harsh of a descent. Our second trip up Bear Den was in January of 24 to get our winter credit and it was about the same time of around a two hour trip.

So on that first trip, we wound up finishing only around 11. 30 a. m. And being close to Lake Placid, we grabbed something quick to eat And we drove over our next choice of the LP9, that is also in Lake Placid Cobble Hill. Now Cobble Hill is a short one, but it's fun. There are two options. There's a short 8 trip, which is basically just straight up the steep side of Cobble Hill. And There's a 1. 6 mile long trail, which is much more casual and a little more roundabouT. It starts at the Northwood School, which you're not allowed to park there.

But if you go to the Lake Placid Niner Challenge webpage, it says you can park on Main Street and walk around Mirror Lake and pick up the trailhead there at the school. We actually did park right there on the road, and we saw a couple other cars park there, so we were pretty confident that we wouldn't get ticketed.

I'm not sure I advise doing this, but we did seem to be okay.

Now there's a long wood bridge that marks the start of the trail. And once you get through that, you can either choose the 8 trail up or the 1. 6 mile longer trail. I mean you can go up the 8 and back down the 8 and do this very quickly. Or what we decided to do that day was the 8 trip up, and then the longer 1. 6 miles. We actually did Cobble Hill twice.

The first trip was in November, and the next time we did it was in February for our winter credit. That time we used our spikes for the entire trip up and down, so we did the 8 up and the 8 down. So the first half mile is just a very casual walk in the woods. Pretty flat approach, and then you start to climb.

You'll see the intersection sign for the, for the steep section to go up, and that will be straight ahead. So if you want to take the loop in a more casual way, you make a left at the junction there. So we decided to go straight up. And this is really fun because it does go straight up a big rock slab.

Summit of Cobble Hill

So it's just over a quarter of a mile of just going up some pretty steep rocks. There's a section where there's a rope that'll help you get up the steep slab. But because it was, because it was icy, we definitely should have put on our spikes the first time. But we didn't. So we had a little bit of a difficult time going up the slab section, and I actually couldn't get to the rope.

However, we did wear them for our second time around and it did in fact make the climb much more fun and easier.

Now once you get up to the top, if you go slightly past the summit to the other side where the trail starts to head back down for the loop, there's a really spectacular lookout. So that's where we stopped and took a couple pictures and decided that We really didn't want to tackle the ice that first trip on the steep section that we had just come up.

So we decided to take the long route back down. The longer route is only about two tenths of a mile where you're going down little sections of rocks. It's nothing too difficult. And then you loop around the back side of Cobble Hill.

Echo Lake

The walk out along Echo Lake

You come walking through the trees, and you walk down along Echo Lake, which is really pretty, especially in the freshly falling snow. When you get down towards the end of Echo Lake, you are approaching private property to the right, so the trail bends to the left a little bit, and just keep that in mind.

Know that you're nearing private property, so respect that. So we started Cobble Hill at about 1245, and there's a picture of us at the summit at 128. So it took us about 45 minutes, and I think a lot of that had to do with the fact that it was icy, and we didn't have our spikes on, so that gave us a bit of a challenge.

The trip stats on our winter round were 55 minutes start to finish. So, as you can see, with a bit more conditioning and being properly prepared, it was a much quicker hike. You have a beautiful view of Lake Placid and Whiteface on your way up. And We took a beautiful picture of the McIntyre Range from the lookout.

After that, since we were about only halfway through the day, and we were feeling pretty good, we decided to head over to Mt. Van Hovenburg, which is also in Lake Placid. That one you have two options. There is the trail that starts over on, over on South Meadows, and that's what we did this first time.

It's 4. 4 miles round trip. Mt. Van Hoevanberg is just under 3, 000 feet, and the view from the summit is one of most people's favorite. We took a great shot of Marcy and Colton at the summit. Mt. Van Hovenberg is home to the Olympic bobsled and luge run. And if you take the new East Trail, which is at the Mt.

Van Hovenberg Olympic Sports Complex, it's slightly shorter. It's a 3. 2 mile round trip, which we did with my son. And after exploring the summit with him a little bit, it wound up being closer to a 4 mile trip for us. But it's designed to be a much more sustainable trail and has a lot of stairs and a much more direct route up the mountain, then the longer roundabout way past the pond and the trail we did that first day.

So on the longer trip that starts on South Meadows, it's about a half a mile of a long, straight, flat walk into the woods. And then you come to the pond. You're gonna follow the pond around to the left, just follow the trail markers, and you'll be able to get around the pond. And this is where, once you get around the pond, the trail really starts to climb.

Follow around the pond to the left

And the rest of the trail gets, gets a little moderate in its terrain. Once you begin the climb, it gets pretty steep, and the rest of the hike is pretty steep. You're climbing about 800 feet and about a mile. There is a part where you feel like you're kind of getting close to the summit, only to realize that you do go back down a little bit before getting to the final true summit. Since we had started just before three o'clock for this one, we were trying to get to the summit for sunset, which we did miss by about four or five minutes. It was still beautiful watching the sunset from in between the trees, but we did miss the actual sunset. That was just after 415.

Still a beautiful sight once we got there. But at this point, since the sun was setting, we had a little snack and pulled out our headlamps because now it would be getting dark for our trip out, which took us around 45 minutes to get down.

Getting ready to head out in the dark

Now, since we're talking shoulder season, we'll stop there. . During these first few hikes in the fall, we made sure to have an extra layer of gloves, hats, extra batteries for our headlamps, because, it’s much more likely to hike more hours in the dark than in the long summer days. And also spikes for anything that got too dicey for our boots alone. The remainder of our LP nine was finished after the holidays. And those were done in true winter conditions. So before we talk about the remaining peaks in this challenge, I want to make sure that you are ready for that. During summer or any good weather hikes really? The most you need to prepare for is making sure you have enough food and water to get through your hike or getting stuck for the night. When it's warm out, you'll most likely make it with those things covered. As long as you have your ten essentials!

Now it certainly isn't going to be a comfortable night, but if you're actually stuck on the mountain for the night, your focus isn't doing it comfortably. You're doing it simply to survive. The key difference in shoulder season is that those conditions can change drastically within the same day. During the fall, it can be very deceiving when you park your car at the trail head and you start your hike and a short sleeve shirt, sunglasses and feeling really good. As you head up, you quickly start to get chilled and realize you need another layer. The ground goes from muddy to crunchy under your feet. The cloud start to shift and that bright sun is now behind thick clouds. You're in dense trees and the wet clouds are leaving everything brushing up against you have a light layer of frost you're approaching the summit and winds are really starting to pick up. The forecast the past few days said that there had been an early inter two of snow. Well that snow melted yesterday and now froze everything overnight and everything is covered in a layer of ice. . You're now slipping on every step and cautiously, considering the placement of every step that you take. You come to a big slab that you need to get up and you begin to accept. There is no safe way to continue. That is a typical fall season hike. But you've been warned about these early off season hikes. You're a prepared hiker. So you layered up when you needed to grab your waterproof shell or rain jacket to keep the frost off. You had gloves to keep your hands warm and spikes declare those sketchy sections.

Get yourself a good pair of spikes!!

In the spring, the differences, actual soft smushy, snow that instead of slipping with every step. You're dropping into deep snow, sometimes up to your knees. And we'll discuss that more when we head into mud season . These are the surprises that await you up in the high peaks during shoulder season. Even when the conditions look like picnic, whether at the base or back home before you started your few hour drive up. So for those of you who are just now looking to start hiking the Adirondacks, these lower elevation mountains, offer a great option to give you a taste of that during this off season. Especially if you're not quite ready to take on the high peaks just yet. As long as you're prepared with layers and traction, you can still hike or even just extend your season if you have no interest in true winter hiking. Now a good pair of spikes aren't that expensive. They'll run you about $80 and you can get there at sites like Rei

I would not. And I'll go into this in further detail. In the winter post, I would not suggest skimping out on gear. That's going to save your life. I'm not saying you have to wear top of the line. Very expensive. Clothing most layers will do exactly what they're designed to do.

Without completely breaking the bank, but gear, however gear is where you need to spend your money. And if you're not quite ready for that expense, you can rent them for the day. You can rent them at the Mountaineer (call ahead to see if they have them available) in Keene valley, or the High Peaks Information Center right at the Loj.

Our next post will be a what you need to know winter edition, because there are big differences between shoulder, season and winter hiking. We'll go over all of what you need to know to head out into the winter and discuss our few first hikes in the true winter weather.