The autumn season can be a tricky one with the changing seasons and weather fronts coming through, but when its good...its real good! Headed north today to avoid the potential rain south and east coming from a coastal storm, and lucked out with a pretty nice, comfortable day in the southern Adirondacks. My intention was to hike Bearpen Peak and Long Tom Ridge(an unnamed western summit of Bearpen) from West Stony Creek Road, a rough, gravel road that heads high into the hills north of Stony Creek. Traveling along rough West Stony Creek Road, I passed by several seasonal camps and this picturesque wetland, with peak fall foliage as the backdrop.
I parked at a height of land, where state land comes down to meet the road, although there are no DEC signs in sight. From there, at a high elevation over 2200 feet, I entered an open, hardwood forest heading north.
Dropped down to a small creek crossing and followed it a short distance NW up to a pretty, large beaver pond.
From the beaver pond, a nice and easy ascent brought me up towards Bearpen's summit. From the SE slopes of the summit ridge, I hit some open rock with views back to the south.
The fall colors are really coming along nicely in the north country. If its not peak, then its very close!
Just beyond the lower ledges is the 2555 foot summit, where a small, open rock slab allows for good south/ southeast facing views back down towards the Stony Creek valley.
A fire pit with a view at Berpen's summit, barely 1/3 of a mile from the road.
After enjoying the summit view, I continued NW, dropping into the saddle between Bearpen and the neighboring ridge, known locally as Long Tom Ridge. In the saddle between the peaks, I found the high end of the lower beaver pond I had passed earlier, which is actually the headwaters of the drainage.
The ascent of Long Tom Ridge was mostly pleasant, passing through open hardwoods mixed with just a little spruce. I hit the wooded summit first, which sits at 2765 feet, but there was a lot of deadfall so I quickly moved on, dropping down a short distance to an impressive viewpoint to the SW. The views here are quite sweeping, stretching as far as the Indian Lake area to the NW.
The incredible view point on the SW end of Long Tom Ridge's summit. Much of the East Branch Sacandaga Valley can be seen from here, with the views extending well beyond.
Found this small meadow just off the summit ridge, which seemed out of place at over 2700 feet.
Instead of dropping right back off the summit, I decided to stay on the ridge NE for a bit, in hopes of finding more views. I did manage to squeeze one small view north down towards Garnet Lake, with Mount Blue and Ross Mountain above.
After leaving the ridge, I basically followed my footsteps back to the car, enjoying the solitude of this remote area. As I arrived back at the car, I was actually surprised to spot two more cars parked near mine. Bow hunters possibly? 3 miles RT, with 1100 feet of ascent.
Today's route. Red=Ascent Blue=Descent
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