Last weekend, gorgeous Sunday, BK, FB and I went to hike the Gothics Mountain. Overall this was the best hike I ever did in US. It had everything you want except maybe snow. There were flat sections, steady climb sections, and almost vertical sections. The weather was perfect and I cannot imagine anything being better that day, but let start at beginning.

I woke up at 6 AM and prepared my stuff for the hike. Since it was pretty cold morning, I thought I will need lots of clothes, but it turned out to be so warm that I was carrying way too much stuff. But hey, better safe than sorry. At around 6:45 BK came over and not so long after, FB. Once I finished my breakfast, we drove towards the High Peaks area.

High Peaks area is located in Adirondacks Mountains Region near Lake Placid. The best access is via interstate I87 at exit 30 follow 73 and the signs for the Keene Valley. Once you pass Noon Mark Diner, there will be Adirondacks street on your left and there should be sign for the “Trail To The High Peaks”. You can also use the following Google Map. Once you get there, you have two options. First one is to take a chance and drive to the parking lot called “the Garden”. This means drive straight until there is a sharp right over the bridge and then some more up hill until you come to the parking lot. It may be full, so, there is option two, which is to park next to the Marcy Airfield (about 2 more miles along 73 on the left side). There is a fairly cheap shuttle that drives from Marcy Airfield to the Garden.

The hike begins from the Garden. First there is about a three miles hike to the “Johns Brook Lodge”. This is a pretty relaxing hike and there are no surprises. Once we reached the lodge, we had to change, because the morning clothes were way to hot. But, as I said before, the weather was perfect and this includes the temperature. From the lodge, there are signs, but soon there is an intersection without signs. We chose straight, which turned out to be the right direction.

Following the trail, there were river crossings, mud, rocks, and similar obstacles. Anything to make trail more interesting. After couple of miles we came to the section where trail turns into almost vertical rock. Here it was kind of hard to climb. Several places had leaders to help you climb. The interesting thing was that when we reached the bottom of the climb, the elevation was 3500′. Half way into the climb, the elevation was about 4000′. It took us about 20 minutes to do 500′.

Once we reached the point between Saddleback Mountain and Gothics Mountain, we meet a couple that was hiking these mountains and camping. They were concerned about going up, because of the hike so far. That said the way down was just as hard. This next section, to the Gothics Mountain, was actually harder, because it was even steeper rock, but at least it was dry. It didn’t took us too long before we reached a fake summit. We were all happy that we are at the top, but then we so Gothics Mountain in the distance. The way down from the fake summit and back to the actual mountain was not that hard and it took us no time to do it.

After four hours and some change, we reached the top of Gothics Mountain. It was totally worth it. The view was spectacular and there was a lot of nice people there. BK even helped some girl with her foot blister. After lunch we continued our hike down the mountain.

On the way down, we also visited “Armstrong Mountain” and “Upper Wolf Jaw Mountain”. We would visit “Lower Wolf Jaw”, but it was getting late and we were pretty tired. The hike down was actually much longer than the hike up. First of all we visited some more peaks, but also we took much more leisure path back. At some point the markings ended and the path looked totally hopeless. But after a while the marking started again and soon we were on the known path.

We ended at the Garden at a little bit after 6 PM. At this point we were hiking for about eight hours and half. We were all exhausted and the view of the shuttle felt really good. The shuttle drove us back to the parking lot where we finally took off all the socks and other uncomfortable items. Once changed, we drove to the Noon Mark Diner, where we had a strange, but desperately needed dinner. After that we drove back home.

As I said at the beginning, this was a great hike. It was the best hike I ever did. It had all possible challenges that Gothick Precipice provided, but it was still pleasant enough to make it enjoyable.

Tags: Hiking
Categories: Outdorsy, Travel