As the final mounds of snow turn to slush, the casual hiking season begins. To kick off 2017, I traveled to the Adirondack high peaks wilderness area to catch early spring views before the blackflies and mosquitoes reclaimed their mountains. Although it was quite tempting to jump straight to ascending the highest peaks on an 8+ mile loop, a shorter hike up Cascade Mountain on a 5 mile loop was a great mountain to start the season. Cascade Mountain offers great views without the tremendous effort to get above tree line. The elevation surely isn’t the dominant limiting factor in keeping vegetation off the summit of Cascade Mountain but rather rampant soil erosion from strong storms and stomping of hiking boots.
The Adirondacks are unlike the Green mountains of Vermont, Berkshires of Massachusetts, White mountains of New Hampshire, and the Appalachian mountains snaking down through southern New York and Pennsylvania. They are young, jagged mountains that are still growing. The Adirondacks are being pushed ever upwards by a dome of hot material from the mantle. The rocks I observed showed this history. The dominant rocks are ancient anorthosite, older than a billion years old! Pressures from below have exerted heating and melting, resulting in lots of pegmatites, quartz dikes, and garnet/amphibole rich metamorphic rocks.
The soils of the Adirondacks are primarily Spodosols, Entisols, and Inceptisols, the most common soils on mountains of the Northeastern US. The acid litter of the birch-hemlock-spruce areas had given rise to deep reds visible in exposed soil profiles. One of the unfortunate parts about hiking in early spring is seeing the rampant soil erosion on the trails. There were plenty of exposed Bhs horizons washing away due to straying traffic tromping on poorly managed slopes. It is serious-side effect of hikers and can snowball quite perilously. Fortunately NY State trail groups are installing drainage pathways and boarded walkways to keep hikers off the recovering soil.
While acid soils are bad for many vegetable crops, they made great homes for the ample trout lilies and trilliums on Cascade Mountain. These two spring flowers were eye-catchers! Their dazzling yellows and bright reds are a wonderful start to spring. A very interesting flower to blooming in mid-May in the Adirondacks were the Dutch man’s breeches. They look like popcorn and are related to the aptly-named squirrel corn. After doing a little research, I’m not quite sold on the name, as they look more like molar teeth than a pair of fancy dutch pants drying on a clothing line, but to each their own!
After relaxing in Lake Placid over some nice brew and food, I was extremely pleased with the hike. The Adirondacks are a fantastic set of mountains with unique and wonderful geological and ecological features. My heart will always be with the Green and White Mountains, but these peaks certainly have captured a place there too.