Sunday I headed down to the Adrirondacks to get in an early season hike. Saturday was spent marking ‘k’ markers for the upcoming Race Weekend so I wanted to take advantage of the predicted rain free weather and get in a hike on Sunday. As it turns out Pete had finally cleared his schedule and wanted to get in a winter hike! I know, I know... Pete’s schedule is sometimes a little... umm, shifted. I recommended he start work on freeing his schedule for a hike next weekend and maybe he’d be ready to go in January. While this would be a “winter hike” for Pete I recommended that he leave the snowshoes at home… you know, take a chance on bare booting. I was looking to do a relaxing hike and – opposed to my long day hike in March – a shorter one to ease into the hiking season rather than do a trial by fire marathon type hike. Fortunately the Adirondacks have lots of great options for some excellent short hikes. Pitchoff, Hurricane, Hopkins, Jay, Ampersand... – all great climbs. On the drive down we discussed some of the options, weighed the pros and cons and settled on the idea of Catamount. It’s definetely a shorter hike but it purportedly has some really nice scrambly bits and a nice open summit - and it didn't dissapoint.

Unfortunately overnight rains left the morning sky overcast and gray. But it was no longer raining so we loaded up and hit the trail. Temperature was a brisk +12C - perfect weather for a winter hike. Tricky trailhead to find as it doesn’t have a sign but rather just a couple of red painted trees by the side of the road. We were the first to arrive so no parked cars tipped us off but we found it none the less. The first kilometer is dead flat but soon enough it started up in a pretty steep manner. Nearing the top of a nice little sub summit the trail goes pretty vertical with a cool little chimney to claw up and then some nice little crags to clamber through. At this point the views opened up as well with a nice look over to nearby Whiteface and Esther. Once on the sub summit we took a break. Had to find a sheltered spot as a cold wind was blowing(to be expected on a winter hike) but behind some scrubby trees we were quite comfortable.

The climb up to the summit was equally nice with lots of rocky little chutes to negotiate through and in short order we were on top. Had a little stroll around and took some photos before sitting down for an early lunch. At this point there was no sign that the clouds were going to break up – so after a good rest on the summit we started down. Equally fun descending the crags and boulders. Back at the chimney we met up with our first group of hikers coming up. It was certainly nice having the peak to ourselves but we would discover that Catamount in springtime is no secret with local hikers as we met some 30 folks in different groups working their way up. We even came across some guys clearing the blowdown. They had some little hand saws with them and while there were only a few trees across the trail they were pretty big ones so it must have been hard work – many thanks. Roundtrip was only 11 or 12km so we were back at the car by 1:30. This left us plenty of time to hit the patio for a post hike beverage and watch some of the Wings/Ducks games… wrapping it up like any good “winter hike” with a little hockey on the big screen. Excellent day out. Sadly the sun broke out as we drove home but the morning hike was a good one in spite of the cloudy cool weather. We’ll get you out in your snowshoes yet Pete!

Catamount - definetely worth the trip