Adirondack ladies conquer another mountain
Joanne Kennedy descends the fast way
By Jean T. Ryan
On Friday, February 6th, Joanne Kennedy, Colleen Kaulfuss and I left Peru at 4:30 a.m. and traveled to the Allen Mountain trailhead, located in a remote area 28 miles from exit 29 of the Northway. There we met Nancy LaBaff, an avid High Peaks hiker from Canton, NY who had accepted our invitation to accompany us on our hike of Allen, which at 4340 feet elevation is #26 of the High Peaks. After donning our snowshoes and hiking attire, we began our hike at 6:30 a.m.
To ascend Allen Mountain, hikers must hike 8.2 miles over gently rolling terrain to reach the base of the mountain. Throughout the 8.2 miles, the gain in elevation is only about 600 feet. From the base of the mountain, hikers then proceed 0.6 mile along and in a slide and gain 1740 feet to reach the summit. We were fortunate to follow a trail broken out through deep snow from the trailhead to the summit just the weekend before by a group of hikers from Quebec. Many times throughout the hike we uttered our thanks to those who had arduously broken out the trail.
We reached the summit at 12:35 p.m. and were greeted with applause and cheers by a second group of four hikers. We were amazed to learn that all four of these hikers had traveled some distance to enjoy the Adirondacks. Cindy had traveled from Pennsylvania, Clay had traveled from the Buffalo area, Bob had traveled from Geneseo and Keith had come from Corning. After our brief celebration and several summit photographs, we began our descent with our four new acquaintances and enjoyed one of the most enjoyable experiences of winter hiking—glissading, or “butt-sliding.” Steeper mountains offer the opportunity to “butt-slide” and we were able to enjoy this experience throughout most of the 0.6 mile as we descended Allen’s slide. While we were celebrating on the summit, the skies had opened up to an almost cloudless blue and we were able to enjoy wonderful Adirondack winter vistas throughout the descent and our return to the trailhead.
The trek back to the trailhead was long but the merriment of our group of eight enlightened our spirits and we walked out with an almost full moon lighting our way during the last few minutes of our hike. We reached the trailhead at 6:00 p.m. and bid our new friends farewell. We, indeed, were happy to complete this round trip hike of 17.6 miles in 11 ½ hours!
Posted: February 9th, 2009 under Things to do in & near Peru.