The Flume

Have I mentioned that it has been raining in New York? It has rained everyday since we moved to Wilmington. Apparently, it is very unusual to have this much rain. We are noticing the weathermen saying “sorry” at the end of their forecast. We really didn’t mind. After all, we are from Tennessee where drought conditions have been a major concern for a couple years. So we always welcome rain. Well, I finally got tired of it yesterday.

A stone wall

One of the luxuries of being in an area for an extended amount of time is that you can wait for the “perfect” day to do some particular activity that is high on your priority list. There is only one thing we really want to do while we are here which weather can make or break—climb Mt. Marcy. It is going to be a hard hike and since we haven’t done anything that difficult in a long time, we wanted to “practice” first. Our practice mountain—Whiteface. We have been waiting and waiting for the skies to clear. All last week the weatherman kept saying that Monday looked like it would be a dry day. We made our plans to climb the mountain.

A wet, boggy Wilmington Trail

The campground boasted of a trail at the back of our section which connects with the Wilmington Trail, the favored trail to the summit. Careful scrutiny of all the maps we have gave no indication of such a trail. Not wanting to find ourselves in a bind on Monday, we decided to scout the campground trail on Sunday afternoon (in the rain). Sure enough, the trail exists and goes right to Wilmington Trail. However, we estimated it to be about a mile one way and it hit the Wilmington Trail just a stones throw from the trail head. No thanks, I’ll drive around.

An old toboggon shelter

Well, our attempt to hike up Whiteface Mountain yesterday was unsuccessful. By Monday morning the weatherman had changed the forecast and was saying that there was a 30% chance of rain. We decided to go anyway because Gene couldn't go on Tuesday because of his work and the rest of the week is supposed to be raining. So we struck out bright and early. It got cloudier and cloudier with every step we took. It would drizzle a little bit then stop. About the first mile and a half was pretty good--almost level and pretty dry, not many rocks. After that it got really steep. We climbed 3000 feet in the next 2 miles. For you non-hikers, that’s very steep. The drizzle kept up so the rocks, and there were plenty of them, were wet and slippery. About the time we got to where the trail leveled off some it came a downpour. Since the trail was more flat, it held all the water. We much have walked for half a mile with water over our boots. With the rain, and the rocks, and the mud puddles we had only gone about 3 and a half miles in 3 and a half hours. It was about that time that I looked up and as far as I could see down the trial was a puddle who knows how deep. We still had almost 2 miles to go so we decided to turn around. We got another downpour on our way back to the truck. We were soaked with mud by the time it was all said and done.

Flume with Whiteface Mtn in background

So, since the weatherman said that now Tuesday was going to be dry day this week, I decided I would just drive to the top of Whiteface Mountain. I got up and got my stuff done so I could get an early start. I went down the road about a half mile from our campground to take a couple pictures of the river. I happened to look up at the mountain and saw it was in the cloud. I didn’t want to pay the fee for the drive up and then not have any views once I got there. So I did laundry instead; and it rained this afternoon.

Flume

The photos were taken at fleeting moments of sunshine on our hike up Sunday. We were surprised to find a stone wall along the trail. This type of stonewall is common in the South. Farmers cleared the stones from their fields (themselves or their slaves). The stones were simply piled along the edge of the field or property boundary. Here, however, a trench of sorts must be dug to create a foundation layer of stone to prevent the frost heaves from pushing the wall over.

The photos of “the flume” were taken this morning. Over time the Ausable River and geological changes of the area has gouged out a gorge. With the heavy rains the river is full forcing its way downstream. Pretty spectacular.