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10/31/2020
Chimney Mountain
Siamese Ponds Wilderness
link to Chimney Mountain picture folder (25 pix)
Our view from the rock outcropping on a beautiful fall cool afternoon. This mountain is within the north end of the Siamese Ponds Wilderness area near Indian Lake, NY just a 2 hour drive north from home. I was reluctant to go thinking it would be a too easy and boring hike. Wrong. Did it for Colleen anyway being on her bucket list and it was sensational and certainly a unique hiking experience.
The hike is an arduous 3 mile round trip up quite steep slopes. Three hours up slowed by photography and a short one hour down to avoid darkness. We were exhausted with sore muscles for days but I feel like it was a tremendous benefit to my hip - back - leg physicality, not to mention our mental, spiritual, emotional benefit. Risk / Reward.
After the "normal" hiking trail you have the opportunity to explore further into the rock outcroppings. It's just a short scramble over a few boulders to get within the chimney structures.
It's majestic and spiritual up there among the rock formations. Hard to describe the feeling but you feel like you are within something special.
We saw a path leading out the back side of the chimney but didn't realize it goes further to another rock outcropping (seen in background of this pic). We have to go back, maybe on snow shoes, and over to the Eagle Cave (Bat Cave) home of one of the largest populations of endangered Little Brown Bats in the Northeast. Cave is closed and you need ropes to get back out of the 30 foot drop off. Not to go in, but it's a great vantage point to photograph the chimney we are in.
Did I mention the rock formations are beautiful, a geologists dream. The White Birches growing right out of the rock are a nice touch. Adaptation, determination.
After the Chimney rock formations we went a little further to the actual Chimney summit at 2710 feet elevation and had a cookie, water and a Halloween treat. Believe that's Mount Marcy over my shoulder. Deer season with rifle lasts over a month here so I invested in a safety vest for the first time in my life. Rewarded ourselves at the Adirondack Pub in Lake George on the way home.
Parking for the hike is allowed for $5 from private property. You can also rent these cabins. Or we could buy the whole 280 acres with 8 houses for a paultry $3.5 million. Does anyone want to go in on it with us. I feel like it should really be worth ten times as much for this unbelievably beautiful and rare site .
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