So I went on a small vacation over the weekend and rented a “cabin” on the side of a mountain with my girl. I thought it was such an amazing experience this time. I have gone up there as a kid almost every year, but this time was different than any other trip up there.
I’ll let the pictures do the explaining:
This was my “cabin”:
View from the side deck:
View from my back deck:
So after I wandered around my place getting familiar with it and talking with the owners, they told me I should walk up the driveway further to where their house was.
I then discovered this view:
It looks out over Jay, NY and you can see Whiteface Mountain straight ahead, to the right.
Since we had gotten there later in the day and were tired from driving, we decided it would be good night to have a fire and watch the sunset.
The next day we got up and started driving around and exploring. We stopped by a covered bridge in Jay.
Stopped on the road to grab this picture:
We then decided to head towards Whiteface mountain to take the gondola ride up top.
This was crossing over the bridge to head up the the lodge. One of my favorite pictures to take up there and this one turned out great:
Taking the ride up:
Awesome views:
Overlooking Lake Placid:
Took a walk down the service road to grab these pictures:
After that we stopped by Cascade lake to check out the rock wall. I usually see people climbing on this wall, but with all the rain they got lately, there were so many fresh slides and rocks falling, a lot of people ere staying away.
The next day we decided to start out our day by taking our bikes across the Ferry to Burlington, VT for lunch and to hit the bike path.
Leaving Port Kent:
So we get to Burlington and see the Port there is flooded out.
So we grabbed lunch on Church St. and then hit the bike path for a couple hours.
Caught this on the way back…appears to be some flying monkeys haha
Took a break before heading back to the Ferry to head back to NY.
Waiting to get back on the Ferry, I spotted this guy(It’s champ for those who don’t know from Lake Champlain):
Ferry arrived:
On our way!
Once we got back, we headed back to the cabin, but not before stopping to snag some pictures at Ausable chasm.
After there we got back to the cabin in time to grab a snack and head out for a hike.
Now this hike was sort of mentioned to us by the owners, but they never really went in to detail about what exactly it was. They mentioned to grab the screen hats and head for the woods, so that’s what we did.
Heading up the road past our cabin.
Sign tells you that you are now entering the “Gulf Forest”. I guess it is 500 acres used for a mill factory and they take out trees to keep new ones growing and preserve for area.
Massive boulder with some awesome character:
So we come up on some open fields and I start seeing buildings in the middle of no where. Sheds, lean-to’s, and other buildings. I later found out that it is an “off the grid” camp that rarely gets used and nobody really knows who owns it.
I would imagine this building was used to house the generator since it was a good amount from the actual camp.
We kept pushing forward only after seeing various birds, snakes, etc…animals you could only imagine seeing in the middle of 500 acres of unmanned property. We eventually came upon the “village” of the camp.
This cluster of buildings consisted of a garbage storage, an outhouse and a shed of some sort.
Not sure what this building was, but ti was the biggest of all there. Notice the damage to it. Someone mentioned it could have been a porcupine, but no idea really.
A small work shed:
This was a pretty cool tower.It is used to house rain water while the camp is in use. It is opened up when needed and the water can collect inside and there ere hoses on the bottom to get your water.
So at this point there is only one more structure to inspect so I kept moving forward not really knowing what to expect.
When I got to the top, I was blown away at what I was seeing. Never have I ever been so in shock and amazed at what I had discovered.
This observation deck was built on top of a giant rock on the edge of the mountain. Complete with a picnic table, a grill, an enclosed shelter, chairs, and even a “raised relief map” posted inside a wooden built frame.
The view, the peace and quiet, the sound of the birds and flowing water was all just too much to take in. I stayed here for almost an hour before reluctantly heading back to the cabin, but not before taking a ton of pictures. Some are good and some not so good, but I did my best to try and capture it all to share with everyone.
On to the pictures:
Someone invested some time in this:
This was the upper viewing area, you can see my gf down below enjoying the view and sounds.
This is the covered shelter with the map and table.
Looking down at the observation deck and also Bald mtn in the background
Looking back the the camp
Panorama of the gorge. It was carved out by the last major glacier runoff.
Shot of camp from the lower deck
Simply amazing work
So after taking all of that in, we started to head back to our cottage, but I decided that one of the trails just looked to inviting so we made a detour and went exploring even more.
what we came upon again was pretty cool. It was a fairly newer cabin, vacant at the moment, but you could tell someone had just been there. The view was again, amazing.
So after we stayed on this empty cabin’s deck for a little bit, we decided to head back to our cottage, clean up and head up top to our owners place for the sunset.
This was our last night there and the view could have been any better.
So after that we headed home and I decided to grab some more pictures of the whiteface area.
If you reached it this far, I hope you enjoyed seeing these/reading through. I was truly amazing to be able to experience the ADKS in all their glory. If you have never been there, I hope this read makes you want to pack the car and head up.
