Lake placid 9er challenge
What up Road Trip Warriors!? This is the final part of the three part series on the Lake Placid 9er challenge up in the Adirondacks. The three mountains included in this post are a little more difficult than the others. Catamount Mountain, Mount Van Hoevenberg, and Bear Den Mountain all have great views and are worth the trek. The best views come from the summit of Catamount mountain as it is a stand alone peak (not part of a range). Check out summaries of these three hikes below!
Catamount mountain
This is arguably the most difficult of the Lake Placid 9er mountains. This is not due to distance, but because of how steep it is. The trailhead for Catamount Mountain is located about 2 miles down Plank Road in Wilmington, NY. The trailhead parking lot will be on the left. There is a wooden sign for the parking lot visible from the road. The mountain is hard to miss since it is a standalone peak.
- Difficulty: Moderate
- Distance: 5-6 miles round trip (other websites say 3.6 miles round trip but the Apple Watch said 6 miles).
- Elevation: 3,169′
- Hiking Time: It can take between 1.5 to 2.5 hours to reach the summit depending on your pace. It also could take less time than that.
- Photo Opportunities: There is a false summit that has some great views and the summit of Catamount Mountain has commanding views of the surrounding area. It is a bald summit with a lot of area to walk around to capture different scenes of the Adirondacks.
The trail for Catamount Mountain is an out-and-back so just hike out the way you hiked in. A couple places to be careful on this hike are the chimney and some of the rock faces you’ll climb up to reach the summit. The chimney is a narrow path in between the face of the mountain and a large rock spire. You have to climb in-between that and up it. The rock faces can just be steep so watch your feet, especially if you plan on doing this trek in the winter.
Mount van hoevenberg
This hike is not too strenuous and it offers a good view of the Macintyre Range and other surrounding High Peaks such as Mount Marcy. The trailhead can be found a few miles down the Adirondack Loj Road at the South Meadows parking lot.
- Difficulty: Easy – Moderate
- Distance: 4.4 miles round trip
- Elevation: 2,940′
- Hiking Time: It can take anywhere from 2 – 4 hours depending on fitness or how long you spend taking in the scenery.
- Photo Opportunities: The summit of Mount Van Hoevenberg has the best views. You’ll be able to take in many of the High Peaks. On this particular day the clouds were resting at the base of the mountains making for some great pictures.
I know there are two ways up to the summit of Mount Van HoevenBerg, but we took it as an out-and-back trail so we hiked out the way we hiked in, from South Meadows Trailhead.
Bear den mountain
This hike is provides a different perspective of Whiteface Mountain once you reach its summit. The trailhead can be found at Whiteface Mountain itself in the dirt parking lot. It is listed as 4.5 miles round trip online, but it definitely feels longer than that.
- Difficulty: Easy – Moderate
- Distance: 4.5 miles round trip
- Elevation: 2,650′
- Hiking Time: It can take anywhere between 2 – 4 hours depending on your pace.
- Photo Opportunities: Your best photo opportunities come from the summit of Bear Den Mountain itself. You get a vantage point of Whiteface Mountain. You can also see some other mountains in the area. We didn’t see any skiers coming down the mountain, but I’m sure you can witness that as well.
This hike can be done in conjunction with hiking up Whiteface Mountain or as an out-and-back. The summit has a a large rock cairn and is open with a 180 degree view.
RTW Note
That concludes the three-part series on the Lake Placid 9er challenge. The three mountains mentioned above are all worth checking out, Catamount Mountain having the best views out of all of them. If you found this post helpful or enjoyed the pictures, SMASH the subscribe button, toss on a like, and leave a comment! Thank you for checking out the site and below is a link to the Lake Placid 9er website where you can register once this challenge is completed!
-Ant
