Dial Mountain 06-18-2012

A week of vacation and I'm off to the hills!

The forecast is pretty good though there is a slight chance of showers on the day I'm headed to Lake Placid. The big concern though is the high temperatures forecast for mid-week. In Syracuse Wednesday and Thursday it is supposed to be in the mid 90's! Placid area, slightly cooler at 90.

My hope is that by getting an early start I can beat some of the heat and be at altitude and into slightly cooler air before the hottest part of the day.

Before leaving home I found the parking area on Google Earth and put that in my car's GPS. I always worry I will be driving around loosing precious time trying to find the parking lot as it fills with hikers' cars. On my hike of Big Slide last year I got the last parking spot in the Garden even though I arrived before the sun came up.

Parking for Dial on Ausable Club Rd was easy to find and the lot had only one other car at sunrise. Grabbing my backpack I found that the built in hydration system's top wasn't on tight enough and some water had leaked out. The long sleeve shirt I was going to wear to keep the black flies off me was soaked. I tucked it through the pack straps figuring it would dry eventually.

Leaving the car at 6:40 under mostly clear skies with a few scattered cirrus clouds and 60 degrees, up I walked up Ausable Club Rd until I arrived the golf course.

As I approached the club house I was concerned that I had missed the start of the trail but just before the Club road began a turn to the right there was a sign pointing down a gravel road directing hikers to the trailhead.

At the Adirondack Mountain Reserve gate.

After signing in I headed down Lake Rd for about a mile until coming across a sign for the trail to Dial and Nippletop. It was 7:31 as I left the road and turned up the trail and began my ascent.

I found the trail to be not only easy to follow, but easy to walk with no particularly steep or difficult areas. Heading uphill there was a small brook below and to the left. Eventually this falls far below and is left behind.

Along the trail backlit with the morning sun was this cool spider web

About 9:00 I got a brief view of Noonmark Mountain. Every once in a while there is a slight breeze, but it still feels quite warm. Remember the shirt that was soaked? It came in very handy as a cooling wipe for most of the day. As it did finally dry I added more water. I didn't have any problems with black flies since coming under attack back at the car.

About 20 minutes later the trail levels a bit and I walk through a beautiful and very green area of ferns and some large boulders.

Within a short distance trail signs show Bear Den still 0.9 miles; Dial 2.1; Nippletop 4.2. Behind this sign is an overlook that gives a nice view of Bear Den, Dial and a larger mountain Dix? covered in a cap cloud, as well the Great Range.

It seems clouds are moving in and the humidity feels high. The sky is 8/10 covered with Altocumulus with some lower cumulus cap clouds along the Great Range with a foggy look below. Clouds look beautiful on other mountains, but I don't want to be hiking in the middle of one...

Another sign at the summit of Bear Den: Dial 1.3 miles. Hot going up hill in the wind shadow on north side of the hill. Today 10 degrees cooler than tomorrow going up Esther. (Note to myself; Climb windward side mountains from now on.) Not much view from summit of Bear Den. Dial looked like it had a steep final climb when got a quick view of it before.

Around 11:00 I left the col between Bear Den and Dial and the trail is climbing at a pretty good angle now. I can see sky for 270 degrees so I'm sure this is the final climb. (Another note to myself; Stop leading with same foot)

I reached the summit of Dial about 11:25 and climbed onto a house sized boulder to sit in the wind and enjoy the view. The temperature was 64 degrees and above me, a broken layer of cirrus.

The hills along the great range were partially capped with clouds. It seemed each time I looked upwind the clouds were getting closer. There was a 20% chance of showers in the forecast. Fortunately, they never developed. Finally just before heading back down the trail a cap cloud formed a few hundred feet over the top of dial.

Me atop Dial!

The hike down was easy and uneventful. On my next hike I'm going to try mounting my Spot Satellite Messenger higher on my pack, maybe on a shoulder strap. When looking at my webpage with my track I found many missing data points during the hike. These were most likely when in the woods. Trees plus being low on the back of my pack probably prevented it from receiving a good signal.

Waking Wednesday morning it was already warm with record highs forecast. My arthritic feet were sore so I packed up and drove to the Ocean for a couple days...