Hurricane Mountain (Keene, NY) is one of the Lake Placid 9er hikes and is located in right in the heart of the High Peak Region. The great part about this hike is that if you are interested in visiting this area but aren't quite yet comfortable hiking a high peak, this is a great option for you!
If you use alltrails there are two routes you can take to hike Hurricane Mountain. We chose the Southern approach route because it was a bit longer mileage wise and climbed a couple hundred feet more elevation.
This route was 6.6 miles long and climbed just over 2,000 ft of elevation.
This hike starts out winding through a marshy section (I kept my eyes out for moose) and then begins it's main ascent through the woods.
The ascent is how I would qualify as 'gradual steep', don't get me wrong this climb of this mountain is no joke. 2,000 ft over 3.3 miles uphill is not a small amount at all, but the mountain offers lots of sections where the terrain levels off which is a nice break in the climb.
The trail is also very well-groomed, well marked and doesn't offer many technical sections at all. It is primarily flat ground and a few small rock scrambles.
There is one 'false summit' that you will reach during your climb which offers panoramic views of the high peaks - don't be fooled by this! You still have about a .5 mile climb left.
Below if a photo of your false summit, the key is that there is no fire tower. Keep on climbing!
Below, is a photo from the 'false summit' and is showing the true summit. Do you see that tiny dot which is the fire tower??? (*side note: this looks like a lot more to climb in a .5 mile, but the trail follows the ridge of the mountain and is honestly not bad at all! I was expecting it to be much more challenging than it was)
When following the ridge up to the summit, you'll approach a slide section of bald rock and this means you're almost there!
You made it! Hurricane Mountain summit has some of the best views of the ADKs I have seen to date. So many views of the high peaks, any idea which ones are behind me?
(Answer: to the right of my head in the photo is Gothics)
Definitely recommend this hike, and I will be back to check this out again! This hike also inspired me to complete the Lake Placid 9er - I love a good hiking challenge.
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