The First Two

After making a few stops along the way to visit friends and family we arrived in the Adirondacks. We had booked a room in a typical Adirondack guest house: pine cone themed bed spread, dark walls, and two electrical outlets. We felt right at home.

The first peaks on our list were Colvin and Blake. To get to the trail, first you need to make parking reservations. Not because so many people want to park in that specific lot, but because the number of people in the area is controlled. The two mountains are accessed through the Adirondack Mountain Reserve (AMR), a privately-owned parcel of land. The AMR has provided an easement to the New York Department of Environmental Conservation to allow hikers through. (Wonder how long it took those guys to settle that little legal matter.)

We made our reservation and set out. After the attendant checked our booking we parked, then headed down Lake Road, which leads to a number of trails. On the way we passed through the Ausable Club, a community founded in the late 1800s. Coming here feels like stepping back in time. There is a large sprawling hotel built in 1890. I have no idea how you reserve a room there. Dinner is served at the hotel, and you have to dress for it. No hiking boots in the dining room for sure. There are magnificent bungalows tucked into the woods all over the place. A huge golf course. Tennis courts. Also lots of “No Trespassing” signs. Hey, they don’t let just any ol’ body in. At any rate, it sure it lovely to walk through.

And rambling along the road is great. It is relatively flat (by Adirondack standards), wide enough for a single car, and covered with smooth gravel. No rocks or mud. You get to have more than three miles each way count towards your hike even though the pacing is easy. Part of the way down Lake Road you come to another sign in kiosk where your reservation is checked. No metal detectors, though.

So, we were taking a pleasant walk and eventually arrived at the Gill Brook trail head. Now the real climbing began. It was fairly gentle in the beginning and became steeper as we strode on. Lots of giant rocks, of course, but someone had kindly built a ladder on one of the larger faces to help with the ascent. Thank you, trail crew!

Climbing Colvin and Blake is an out-and-back excursion. You go up to the top of Colvin and down the other side toward Blake. Then you trudge up to the summit of Blake, where there is a big rock with the word “Blake” amateurly sketched into it.* That’s how you know you are in the right place. Then you turn around and go back down toward Colvin, then again up to the top of Colvin, then down toward Lake Road, then the three plus miles on Lake Road back to your car. 

Doing Colvin and Blake was a walk in the park. The Adirondack Park, that is. We slogged through lots of mud and over rocks, we slipped and slid and pulled ourselves up holding on to tree branches and dealt with all the usual Adirondack mess. The hike turned out to be 15.4 miles with over 4700 feet of climbing.

It was getting pretty late and our stomachs were starting to catch up with our legs. On the way back to our guest house we moseyed on over to the Ausable Inn – a place where they do let just any ol’ body in. There we devoured most of the food on the menu.

Next we headed back to the room for a hot shower and a good read before sleep.

It was a good day. 

*It must be said here that scratching stuff into rocks is a clear violation of Leave No Trace principles.

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