Burnt Mountain(Blue Mountain Wild Forest-Adirondacks)

Sitting just east of Long Lake Village is 2556 foot Burnt Mountain, a peak that goes unnoticed by most people, rising unassumingly above the Northville-Placid Trail.  A while back I had noticed a large area of open rock near the summit while looking at satellite imagery and been itching to check it out.  Although it was cloudy and cool, I thought the fall foliage would make today a good day to give it a shot.  I parked in the designated lot for the Northville-Placid Trail, south off of Route 28N(about 1/4 mile east of Shaw Pond) and was the only car there when I arrived.  Elevation to start was 1775 feet, with a temperature hovering at 50 degrees.

Leaving the parking lot, the trail heads south, passing through wet woods on large sections of wooden planks that are extremely slick.  Use caution in this section, especially in the early morning or following a rainfall.

The blue marked trail crosses over wide and slow moving Shaw Brook before continuing on to a footbridge over Sandy Creek.

After about 1.5 miles, I left the marked trail, picking up an unmarked but good woods road heading left(southeast) more directly towards the mountain.  I stayed on this woods road for about 4/10 of a mile, including an easy crossing over Sandy Creek once again, this time without a bridge.

 

The woods road ends at Long Lake Reservoir, a small, dammed up body of water along Sandy Creek.

From the Reservoir I began my bushwhack east up the mountain, passing through wide open hardwoods. The ascent was not steep until about 2300 feet, where the terrain turned much steeper and the woods changed to scratchy spruce, slowing me down just a bit.

Just NW below the summit, I noticed a large swath of open rock, which was exactly what I was looking for.

I first pushed my way up to the wooded 2556 foot summit, which was marked by a small rock cairn.

 

After tagging the summit, I decided to explore the many views that were available from the open rock slab.  The first(and best) view I enjoyed was the expansive northeast facing look towards the High Peaks, which were unfortunately shrouded in clouds.  The far reaching vista gave my first glimpse at the fall foliage, which was close to peak in spots from here.

 

Zoom view towards the High Peaks.

 

From a similar vantage point looking more east.

 

I wandered around the open rock, enjoying the nearly 180 degree views to the north, including this look towards Long Lake.

North views towards Long Lake, with Blueberry and Kempshall Mountains to the right.

I eventually made my way over to the open, south facing views towards nearby Salmon Pond East and West Peaks.  To the left, SE, sits Fishing Brook Mountain.   Even with the overcast conditions, the colors were really popping in the hardwoods.

Circling around the southwest facing open rock, with great up close views towards the colorful ridge between Salmon Pond West and Mount Sabbatis.

From the west facing slopes, the views aren't quite as open, but still nice towards neighboring Mount Sabbatis.

I dropped back down the west slopes of the mountain, meandering my way back to the NPT near the Reservoir.  From there it was an easy trailed hike back to the car.  About 5.5 miles RT for the day, with 1100 feet of total ascent.

Map below.  Blue P=Parking   Red X=Long Lake Reservoir   Blue X=Burnt Mountain summit