Hurricane Mountain

Date: April 20, 2024

Distance: 10.8km

Elevation gain: 615m

GPS: Alltrails Link

Hurricane Mountain is a peak in the High Peaks Wilderness of the Adirondacks. It’s not a High Peak, but it offers views equal to or better than most of them, and it has a fire tower with an even better vantage point. There are three main approaches; we took the southern route. This hike is much shorter than almost all High Peaks and offers a detour past salamander-inhabited beaver ponds.

The four of us drove to the southern trailhead. Interestingly, all the cars had Canadian plates (four Quebec, one Ontario). After a quick ascent, the trail winds through a plateau past several beaver ponds, with sketchy one-log bridges crossing them. The blackflies weren’t out yet so we were able to fully appreciate the scenery. There was also a minor creek crossing. 

About halfway along the trail, climbing resumed, and we soon found ourselves at a lookout with views of Giant Mountain. From there we continued north along the ridge, dealing with some snow patches. The trail weaves in and out of the trees. Just before the summit, there was one extremely icy patch where we were forced to put spikes on.

The summit was completely bald and snow-free. We had 360 degree views of most of the High Peaks. The firetower was slightly shaky, but still accessible, and the views up there were superb. 

Eventually the windchill took its toll and we returned to the first viewpoint along the ridge to eat lunch. On the way back, we took a break to look for salamders in the beaver pond, some of us almost falling off the logs in the process. As we arrived at the car, it started raining - perfect timing. We stopped at the interestingly-named town of New Russia (not directly named after the country, apparently) before heading home.