Blue Mountain, Lake Durant, Chimney Mountain & Eagle Cave – Trip Report

What an awesome Columbus Day weekend I had up in the Adirondacks! I could not have asked for better weather for an overnight trip hiking two mountains, camping out, and exploring a cave.

I am taking a Hiking & Orienteering course at SUNY Adirondack to fill a Physical Education requirement, and we headed north for an overnight trip this past weekend, and had a great time. The weather was beautiful – a little chilly at night, but with proper planning and packing, I was able to stay comfortable.
We started our trip by driving to Lake Durant State Campground and dropping our things off at the campsite. The campground is located on the east shore of Lake Durant in the town of Blue Mountain Lake. We set up tents (three of them) on two different campsites, unrolled our sleeping bags, and took off towards the trail head for Blue Mountain at about 2:00pm.

The trail head was only a few minutes away from the campground, so we were in the woods heading up the mountain by 2:30pm. This trail is pretty easy for the first miles or so, then gets pretty steep for the last mile. At the summit, there are remains of an old hotel, a rangers cabin, a few (radio/cell?) towers and a fire tower. The views from the summit of Big Blue are mediocre at best if you don’t climb up into the fire tower.

Once in the fire tower, you are surrounded by an absolutely beautiful 360° view. To the northeast you can see Tirrel Pond, with an awesome background of several high peaks in the distance. To the south and southwest sit Lake Durant and Blue Mountain Lake. Minnow pond is located to west, and Rock Lake is located to the east. There are easily 20 more bodies of water that are visible from the summit.

We spent a little time at the top, ate a late lunch and made our way back down the mountain. From the parking lot, we headed back to our campsites to finish setting up and start cooking dinner.

We had a feast for dinner, and it was one of the best meals I’ve ever had while camping. We had cheese and crackers for hors d’oeuvres while our cheeseburgers and chicken were cooking on the fire. Burgers are tough to cook on a fire because the heat ranges quite a bit, but you can’t be too picky with temperatures when cooking over a campfire. After a day of hiking, a cheeseburger over the fire is almost always going to taste great, and these ones definitely did. We had s’mores and brownies for dessert before settling around the campfire for a short lecture on wilderness first-aid.

FIRST AID LECTURE:

The lecture didn’t last too long, but I got some pretty important information out of it that I would like to share with you. We learned about hypothermia and frostbite, and what you should do if you, or someone you’re with, starts to show any symptoms.

Hypothermia is a condition in which the body is losing heat faster than it can produce it. You should realize that the temperature does not need to be freezing for hypothermia to become a problem. If you are wet, and on top of a mountain in the wind, it is possible to develop hypothermia even if the temperature is around 50°F. It is important to remember that the symptoms of hypothermia are progressive, as the condition gets worse, the symptoms change.

Symptoms of hypothermia in the order that they will appear:

• Shivering
• Clumsiness or lack of coordination
• Slurred Speech/Mumbling
• Stumbling
• Confusion
• Poor decision making, ie: removing warm clothes
• Stupor

The best treatment for hypothermia is warming up, however possible. Drinking warm liquids is one of the best ways to warm your body up. You should remove any wet clothes and huddle up with others to share body heat. DO NOT continue vigorous activity thinking the extra movement will warm you up. IT WON’T, this will only further fatigue your body, making the situation much worse. Sit down, rest, and get warm.

The second condition we learned about was frostbite. Frostbite is a much more localized cold condition, and usually affects the digits (fingers & toes) as well as points on the face (nose, ears & chin). Frostbite is a condition in which the flesh literally freezes, and the blood/tissue begins to crystallize.

Symptoms of Frostbite:

• Pins & Needles sensation, Itching
• Red, White, Pale or Grayish Skin color
• Firm, waxy looking skin
• Pain, burning sensation
• Numbness
• Blistering (severe cases)

Because of numbness, you may not realize you have frostbite until someone else points it out to you. If you are out in the wilderness and need to treat frostbite, start by warming the affected area with other, warmer body parts. If your fingers are frostbitten, stick you hands in your armpits or groin where the most body heat is available. If your face or toes are frostbitten, you might have to get creative with a buddy. The easiest way to thaw out ones fingers/toes is to submerge them in water that is roughly 105°F, being careful not to use water that is too hot. Once affected area starts to thaw, numbness will be replaced with pain as circulation returns.

This is very useful information to know, and before our lecture I wasn’t sure about many of these things. Now that I am informed, I feel better about any adventures I may be going on this fall/winter.

After lecture I brushed my teeth and went to sleep.

I woke up at 7:00am, to the sound of someone trying to start a fire, and hopped out of my tent to help. It was pretty cool overnight, so I was just as anxious to get the fire roaring for some heat as I was for breakfast. We drank hot tea, toasted bagels over the campfire and made our lunches before breaking down the tents and cleaning up the campsites.

From here we headed down to Indian Lake to climb Chimney Mountain. Chimney is a shorter hike than Blue Mountain, however most of the trail is pretty steep. We got to the top at about 1:00pm and sat and had lunch in the sunlight. There were quite a few people at the top of Chimney, as well as a couple of fearless dogs. One of the dogs was jumping from rock to rock at the edge of what had to be at least an 80 foot cliff.

Blue Mountain from the top of Chimney Mountain.

The top of Chimney Mountain holds a unique column of rock, that reaches somewhere from 40 to 50 feet above the summit. It looks as though this used to be the summit, but after years and years of erosion of the softer material, a chimney shaped form of solid rock is all that is left. It is a very cool feature to check out, and if we had ropes and harnesses, would have been awesome to climb.

After lunch we climbed around the back side of the chimney, and walked over to the entrance to Eagle Cave. This was by-far the best part of my trip, as I had never been in a cave before. Those of us who decided to try our hand at spelunking inched our way into the cave through a small crevasse in the rock.

This is a photo of the cave opening, from the inside of the cave looking out. The photos that I took inside the cave didn’t come out very well, with headlamps and flashlights shining around everywhere.

This cave is awesome. Without proper gear (ropes & harnesses) we were only able to explore the first of six or seven chambers that the cave has to offer. It was amazing, to crawl through this little crack in the rock, and have it open up into several rooms inside. There must be an entire system of rooms and passages, walls to rappel and climb, and holes to avoid inside! I also had a face-to-face encounter with a bat! I look forward to returning to Eagle Cave with the proper gear next time, for what could easily turn into an entire day of caving.

After leaving the cave we headed back down to the trail head, signed out, and went home. The weather was beautiful all weekend, the fall foliage colors were in full effect, and I got a chance to explore areas where I have never set foot in my entire life. Blue Mountain was a great hike with some great views, and is pretty close to the Adirondack Museum. But, if you’ve never been up Chimney Mountain, you definitely need to check this place out. Bring somebody that has climbing gear and experience in caves and you’ll be in for a real treat!