Northeastern Adirondacks
August 9th and 10th, 2006
Whiteface Mountain from the Firetower on Lyon Mountain
Left, Chazy Lake, and right, Lake
Champlain and the Green Mountains of Vermont, from the fire tower.
| Lyon Mountain is an isolated 3,830 foot peak in the
Northeast Adirondacks, with great views, and a fire tower, from which
hikers can look south to the High Peaks, east to Lake Champlain, and
north to the skyline of Montreal. Named for an early settler, Lyon Mountain towers over the hamlet of the same name, where
extensive mining of the "finest" iron ore in the world was carried out
from the 1870s until 1967, its iron finding its way into structures
like the Golden Gate Bridge. Dirk Bryant, a friend and neighbor, who
works for the Adirondack Nature Conservancy, had suggested we hike
Lyon. Dirk's sister, Lisa Bryant, was again visiting from Paris,
and she and I picked a gorgeous day to
hike up the moderate 2.5 mile trail to the summit. The Adirondack Nature Conservancy purchased 20,000 acres of timberland south of Lyon Mountain, encompassing much of the Sable Highlands, from Domtar, a Canadian lumber company, with the view of selling it to the state for preservation, public recreation and low impact logging. The area is known for black bear and moose, and will be open to the public in about two years. Dirk escorted Wendy, Lisa and I on the short hike to Barnes Pond, and up to the ridge facing Lyon's southern flank, overlooking the Sable Highlands with a sweeping 180 degree view. It was a drizzly cloudy afternoon, so my photos fail to do the scenery justice, so use your imagination to lift the clouds, bring the peaks into relief and breathe deeply! |
Click on Thumbnails to
Enlarge.
Left, the trail's end at the summit,
and right, the High Peaks, from the fire tower.
Steve, Lisa and Roscoe and the fire tower.
