Ragged Mountain-Unnamed Northern Hills(Vanderwhacker Mountain Wild Forest-Adirondacks)

Headed up into the Adirondacks today to do a little exploring to an unnamed peak just north of Ragged Mountain from Blue Ridge Road.  To get started I parked in the lower lot for The Branch and a now gated off dirt road that heads north, closely paralleling the creek(Elevation 1225 feet).  

The Branch is your constant companion along the road and there are many nice spots to check out the water.

Heading north on the dirt road, with the creek just a few feet away.

At just about one mile into the road walk, a gorgeous pond and clearing provides a great shot towards Ragged Mountain to the west.

After nearly 1.5 miles of easy road walking, I turned left(west) on a lesser road.  This road climbs steadily and begins to peter out after less than half a mile, where it then becomes consumed with annoying prickers .

I decided to leave the rough logging road to escape the wrath of the prickers and continued in a NW direction, bushwhacking through open hardwoods until about 2400 feet.  From 2400 feet and up, the woods changed drastically to steep, rugged and nearly 100% conifer. 

Pushing through a couple of thicker, scratchy spots I soon arrived at the wooded 2570 foot summit of the unnamed peak.  Not much to see there....

....but a short distance east of the summit is a very steep area of ledges with terrific views!

Ragged in the foreground and Blue Ridge Mountain impressively rising in the distance.

West views with a south sub-peak of Wolf Pond Mountain in the foreground.

SE views from a different ledge!

After enjoying the views, I fought my way back through the scratchy spruce and quickly found myself back in more comfortable hardwoods for the descent.

A slightly different route down kept me in the woods and away from the prickers, making it back to the road in good shape.  From there, a pleasant 1.7 mile road walk along the Branch brought me back to my car.

A beautiful late spring day, with fairly low humidity and comfy temps in the 70s.  The bugs were a bit annoying but nothing too bad.  A touch under 6 miles RT, with 1400 feet of ascent for the day.

Map below.   Blue Line=Road Hiking   Red Line=Bushwhack    Black X=Ledges