Adirondack High Peaks

9-15 July 2017

[Banded Admiral] 

I spent a number of boyhood summers hiking and canoeing in the Adirondacks. I have many wonderful memories of those summers in the woods. But after 1975 my travels took me regularly to New Guinea for my research work, and I rarely got back to the Adirondacks. This year, I decided to spend a week camped at the Adirondak Loj at Heart Lake--hiking, mountain climbing, and birding. I wanted to immerse myself in the best of the Adirondacks, and this was a great place to do that.

[Myrtle Warbler]

I set up my tent camp in the Adirondack Mountain Club’s campground adjacent to the High Peaks Information Center on the evening of the 9^th. Before dinner I hiked to the summit of Mount Jo to get a glimpse of the High Peaks and to start thinking about where to walk over the next week. While I was on the summit I was visited by a curious Myrtle Warbler, a Dark-eyed Junco, and an Eastern Chipmunk.

[Eastern Chipmunk]

On my first morning I biked up to the South Meadows Road and, dropping the bike in the woods, I walked the trail to Mount Van Hoevenberg, a northern outlier that offers a nice warm-up hike. The trail took me through some flat woodlands, then some flooded beaver swamp, and finally, a gradual climb to the rocky overlooks of the mountain’s summit. Here I was serenaded by a Winter Wren and Nashville Warbler. I looked down across the boreal wetlands of the South Meadows to the rugged ranges on either side of Mount Marcy. Over the next few days I would be climbing several of the summits I gazed at from Mount Van Hoevenberg. On the hike back, I heard the songs of Black-throated Blue Warbler and Mountain Warbler.

[vista from Mt Van Hoevenberg]

In the afternoon I hiked several miles up the trail to Indian Pass, where the high rocky vertical cliff of Wallface dominated the scenery. This hike took me through some very fine old growth forest with grand Yellow Beech, Sugar Maple, and Red Spruce. One of the surprises of this week in the High Peaks was my discovery of just how much old growth forest remains—readily accessible by the various hiking trails that radiate out from Heart Lake.

[Nashville Warbler] 

The next morning I climbed one of the Adirondack 46—Phelps Peak. It is one of the subsidiary summits not so far from mighty Mount Marcy. Its a four-mile hike up, with a nice stiff climb to the summit. Phelps provides great close-up vistas of Marcy and Colden. The upper balsam forests of Phelps were home to Bicknell’s Thrush, but this elusive species only called a few times for me, and never sang. One of the highlights of the climb was passing through a gentle rain of tiny white snowflake-like petals of the abundant American Mountain-Ash trees that were just dropping their flowers. The trail was covered in these little white flakes.

[Algonquin summit vista]

On Wednesday I climbed Algonquin Peak, perhaps the finest of the Adirondack 46, and, at 5,114 feet, second only to Marcy in height. It is a great climb and the summit views are breath-taking. It is also a nice elevational transect through the vegetation zones. After quite a long walk through old growth hardwood forests, one transitions first to White Birch mixed with Balsam Fir, then to almost pure Balsam First, then a dwarf forest of Balsam Fir and Red Spruce, and finally a low alpine bed of recumbent firs and spruces. I was lucky to have sunshine with minimal wind at the top. The summit birdlife included juncos, whitethroats, Myrtle Warblers, and ravens.

[Bicknell’s Thrush]

On Thursday I climbed Nye Peak, a nondescript summit that is best climbed in the rain and cloud. I arrived on the summit at a bit after 10 AM and the mountain was enveloped in Scottish mist. At the very summit, I was treated to the songs of Bicknell’s and Swainson’s Thrushes. The singing birds were no more than fifty feet apart. The summit forest of small firs and spruces was quite birdy. I noted Magnolia Warbler, Nashville Warber, White-throated Sparrow, Winter Wren, both kinglets, Boreal Chickadee, Yellow-bellied Flycatcher, and Blackpoll Warbler.

[Blackpoll Warbler]

On Friday I birded the South Meadows in the morning and then climbed Ampersand Mountain in the afternoon. South Meadows is a boggy wetland with beaver swamp mixed with stands of spruce, fir, and tamarack, as well as some planted Red Pine. The Klondike Notch Trail took me to the Mister Van Ski Trail that passed through more nice old growth mixed forest. Here I found Ruffed Grouse, Brown Creeper, Hermit Thrush, Red-breasted Nuthatch, and Purple Finch.

[Ruffed Grouse]

The hike up Ampersand Mountain had a major surprise. The first mile of the trail passed through a large tract of old growth Eastern Hemlock mixed with spruce and hardwoods. I passed by scores of giant softwoods and hardwoods—trees two or three hundred years old. The rocky summit of Ampersand offered views of the High Peaks to the southeast and the lake country to the north, including a big flat basin of boreal conifers that looked like prime lowland birding country. I would like to explore that area on a future visit to the Adirondacks.

[view south from Mount Elba to Algonquin and the High Peaks]