Mount van Hoevenberg

Today would be my long drive back to the big city. It had rained all night and I was surprised to see that right at the time I was leaving the hotel the sky started opening up. It tempted me to do a last mountain activity in the Adirondacks. When I was investigating the trailhead for the failed Mount Marcy hike I spotted a short (3.5-km / 2.2-mile) trail to Mount van Hoevenberg.

Mount van Hoevenberg is a very remarkable mountain. It is "just" 895 meters (2936 ft) high, about half the elevation of Whiteface Mountain's summit, but it has some very special features, like the mountain has two faces! The south face looks like it is in the middle of nowhere; pure nature, no human influence or whatsoever. The north face, however, has cabins, roads, a cross country ski center, and a huge bobsled run.

The latter was used in the 1932 and 1980 Lake Placid Olympic Winter Games. Another feature of Mt. van Hoevenberg is the views it has on the high peaks.

It was a strange co-incidence that I had had a visit earlier this week of my vacationing NL colleague Auke Hoevenberg. This all together made me decide to make the short hike my farewell hike for this mini vacation.

The trail started relaxed with hardly any ascend. At some point I had to walk around a beaver pond. A tree in the pond was still bearing one of the markers for the trail that once must have been here. That is nature at work!

Midway the ascent I had the strange feeling that someone was watching me. When I looked up in one of the trees next to the trail I indeed saw a set of penetrating eyes looking in my direction.

There was a huge impressive owl sitting in the trail following every move I made. Fantastic!

At the summit (or really close to the summit, since the real summit is located in the woods) I indeed had a very impressive view on the trailhead valley and in the distance on the two highest mountains in the state, Mount Marcy (1629 m / 5,344 ft) and Algonquin Peak (1559 m / 5115 ft). And also on the iconic Olympic Ski Jumps of Lake Placid. While having lunch I, of course, had to send Auke an email sitting on the top of "his" mountain. He will have to come back here and do some "mission work". The name is apparently too difficult for the local authorities. Some signs list the mountains as "Mount van Hovenberg" and the register book at the trail head even calls it "Mt. van Hoevenburg", an error I took the liberty to correct.

More pictures below!