To round out February break on a high note, Lindsey and I traveled over to the Adirondacks to grab her first two high peaks. As we got a fairly late start on the day, we decided to do Cascade and Porter, a short 6.2 mile hike that gains you to 4,000 peaks. We hit the trail at 1pm on a cloudless, sunny, and killer day over in the high country.
After about 2 miles, the trail gives way to a vista overlooking Mt. Marcy and Mt. Algonguin as well as Mt. Whiteface off in the distance. I couldn't resist snapping a few shots.
About a tenth of a mile after this vista we came upon the trail split. We opted to head left first, for the .3 mile push up to Cascade. About halfway into the final push the snow ends and gives way to pure rock so we ditched the snowshoes and got suited up head to toe in our warmest layers. The wind at the top was whipping and it was teeth-shatteringly cold. However, the views were absolutely worth it. I've never had a day this clear in the Adirondacks. We could see the entire Great Range leading up to Mt. Marcy, we could see Whiteface clear as day, and we could even see all the way across the lake to Camel's Hump and Mansfield in Vermont. It was unreal. We wanted to stay as long as possible to soak it all up, but it was ridiculously cold so we headed back down the trail split and took the .7 mile trail over to Mt. Porter.
It was a nice easy walk over to Porter without too many sustained climbs. The views from Porter weren't quite as good as they were from Cascade, but we were a bit more protected by the trees and it wasn't quite as windy. We snapped a few more pictures, soaked up the sunshine, and made our way back down.
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