Mount Dunham(Silver Lake Wilderness-Adirondacks)

With autumn in full gear, I decided to head up into the Silver Lake Wilderness near Wells today to hike 2602 foot Mount Dunham, a trail-less peak that looked like it may have some views to offer from open rock near its top.  I parked on the shoulder of West River Road just west of Jimmy Creek where state land meets the road(Elevation 1100 feet).  From the car I headed north through open woods, soon dropping down to Jimmy Creek, which was flowing nicely following this week's rainfall.

Continued north up to a small but pretty waterfall on Jimmy Creek, crossing just above there to the east side.

The slopes above the creek were quite steep and a bit rocky, making for a slow climb up.

Once atop the steep slopes, it was a nice and easy 'whack NE through mostly open woods.  There were a couple of small ups and downs along the way which were a bit tiring as I arrived at the foot of an unnamed 2546 foot peak, which unfortunately stood between Mount Dunham and I.  Instead of wasting a lot of energy climbing over the steep slopes, I opted to skirt the west side of the peak before ascending up towards Dunham.

The woods remained mostly open all the way to Dunham's summit, where I suddenly found some scratchy spruce mixed in as well as several large rock ledges. 

 

A steep scramble brought me up to open rock shelf just south below the summit.

There are a couple of real good open ledges with outstanding views stretching from the SE all the way to the west.  This is the SE view, with clearing skies above.  The foliage was okay here and there, but not quite as good as I thought it would be.

To the west, across the valley of Jimmy Creek sits (L-R) Dugway and Swart Mountains.

Looking southwest at the neighboring unnamed summit with many of the peaks in the Silver Lake Wilderness beyond.

From the open ledges, it was a nice and easy ascent less than 1/10 of a mile up to the wooded, conical 2602 foot summit.

After hitting the top, I decided to explore some of the steep south facing ledges in hopes of more views.  I was able to catch one nice framed view all the way down to the Great Sacanadaga Lake, with the West Branch seen snaking its way down below.

A fairly steep descent to the south brought me back down to the saddle between Dunham and it's unnamed southern neighbor, leaving me with the option of what to do.  Should I go around the unnamed summit again or over it? I decided to go right up and over it this time to see not only what was up there, but it was also the most direct route out.  A short but steep ascent brought me up to the open hardwood 2546 foot summit.

From the wooded summit of the unnamed peak, I descended down the steep southern slopes back to my original tracks.  I basically retraced my route back to the car from there, completing a long 7 mile bushwhack with over 2300 feet of combined ascent.

Map below.  Blue P=Parking    Black X=Unnamed Summit   Red X=Mount Dunham