Pitchoff traverse

Bryan and I went for the first Adirondack hike of the season. We were looking for something with great views but not too long to regain our hiking legs. Pitchoff fit the bill. We chose to traverse from the west trailhead to the east trailhead and then hope to hitchike back to the car. This was the obvious choice as the east trailhead is at a much lower elevation.

This is a great hike as it has many open ledges with great views of many of the high peaks and they are spaced far enough apart to qualify for occasional breaks from the trail. Most of the viewpoints are south facing but there is at least one that looks north at Whiteface and Lake Placid.

There are some fun little steep rocky sections of trail to scramble. They are fun whether you are going up or down. Neither of us got hurt on these sections but Bryan has his first encounter with a staple of Adirondack trails, blowdown. He added a bloody stain to his ball cap after going head on with a fallen tree. At this point one could have said "How could you not see that huge tree across the middle of the trail" but instead I volunteered some of my water to clean up the headwound.

The descent to the eastern trailhead is much steeper but not too long. We encountered 5 dogs (with hikers) who were ascending and at least one decided to hike down with us against the orders of his owner (You tell him, Bailey!). Our initial attempts at hitchhiking back to the car were not successful and Bailey's owner was not forthcoming at offering a ride but after about 15 minutes a kind couple from New Jersey took me to my car.

A great day to start the hiking season.