Pitchoff North Peak, June 20, 2019, Eastern High Peaks, Adirondack Park

Rocco admiring the view of Cascade Mountain from North Pitchoff

I'm taking my sweet old time hiking the 46ers of the Adirondacks. The reason? There are so many other trails and peaks not on the list that I want to hike. More importantly, the ones NOT on the 46er list are the peaks that you can actually hike and not see a single person, even on a beautiful day in the busy season. Such is the attraction of Pitchoff Mountain.

There are two trailheads for Pitchoff. Both are on busy Route 73 from I87 to Lake Placid and the High Peaks. One trailhead shares a parking area with the trail to Cascade - the most accessible of the 46ers - and is therefore always jammed with cars. The other, however, is just a small, two-car pull off and is almost always empty. I chose the latter.

The hike to the north summit of Pitchoff is short. Only 1.4 miles. But in 1.4 miles you have to cover 1,400 feet of elevation. The trail goes right up a steeply-pitched, rocky steam bed pretty much the whole way to the summit.

Fortunately, the Rock is part dog and part mountain goat. He negotiated the trail with ease and adventurous aplomb. At the top, he even took his time to sit back, relax, scan the horizon, and admire the view.

Good boy.

Peak: Pitchoff Mountain
Elevation: 3,323 (Gain: 1,400 feet)
Distance: 2.8 miles, up and back
Route: Up and Back, Pitchoff Trail from Northeast Trailhead
Conditions: Partly sunny, 70 degrees F

Iroquois (and Algonquin), June 18, 2019, MacIntyre Range, Eastern High Peaks, Adirondack Park

Iroquois summit cairn, view back to Algonquin

You don't get cell coverage in much of the 'dacks... below 3,500 feet that is. When I head out on a solo jaunt, I usually send a text back to K when a trail is starting to reach elevation just to let her know that all is well. This time, I got the phone out after just negotiating several nasty hand over hand scrambles on the rocky shoulder of Algonquin - the second highest of the 46ers - only to find multiple texts and calls. The message: "Locked out of the cabin!" Fortunately, we were able to work out a solution on the phone without the need for me to ditch the hike. So I pressed onward and upward to the top of the Big A.

Algonquin Trail

I'd been there before, but that hike led to a summit totally encased in the clouds. This time, the weather was such that I had the amazing 360 degree views for which the peak is known. I probably would have come back just to experience the great vista, but this trip to Algonquin had a purpose -- you have to go up and over Algonquin to get to Iroquois.

View from Algonquin Summit

It's not far - only 1.1 miles - but you have to go down and up to a little knob called Boundary Peak and then down and up again to get to Iroquois. Normally, that wouldn't be too bad, but the initial climb to Algonquin is so tough that this last leg can seem hopelessly grueling. I pressed on, missed the herd path that I needed to take, and started down towards Lake Colden on the wrong trail. Fortunately, I realized it fairly quickly and reversed course.

At the summit of Boundary, I encountered my first hiker of the day. He was relaxing with his little dog after having already made it to Wright Peak, Algonquin and Iroquois (he left before dawn and was on Wright Peak at sunrise). He was clearly an experienced hiker, but was just starting the 46er list and didn't know the geography very well. I pointed out Marcy and Colden and some other peaks and told him about the names Algonquin, Iroquois and Boundary being chosen because of the two main Native American nations that converged in this area (hence a "boundary" line between the two). I also told him that some historians dispute this.

After a fifteen minute break, I pressed down and up (yet again) and had time to enjoy the summit of Iroquois all to myself. As usual, I hit tons of hikers going up when I was going back down to the Loj.

Early bird gets the worm.

Peak: Iroquois Peak
Elevation: 4,840 feet (and 5,114 feet) (Gain: 4,360)
Distance: 10 miles round trip, trail time: 6 hours.
Route: Up and back, Algonquin Trail to Boundary and Iroquois herd path
Condition: Partly sunny, 70 degrees F