Date: August 2011
Weather: partly cloudy in 70's
Duration: 4 hrs
Elevation: 4098 ft
Trailhead: off Rt 73 (6 miles east of Lake Placid)
Difficulty: Easy to Moderate
While camping up by Saranac Lake we decided that one of the days we will try and conquer another high peak and check it off our 46er list. It was a perfect day for hiking. It's always nice to sweat a little less while hiking. Our primary goal was to hike Cascade and then see how we felt, potentially doing Porter as well.
It was a very easy traveling distance to the trailhead, through Lake Placid and down Route 73. All along the way the scenery is rewarding. The parking is along the road, with some areas having a wider right shoulder of the road designated for hiker parking. The sign below indicates that the trail is marked with a DEC RED trail marker. Very easy to follow from there.
We had a good hiking crew which consisted of my wife, brother, brother-in-law and sister-in-law. From previous hiking experiences, my wife leads the hike and sets a pretty steady pace. It always works well for me. After about 2 hrs we reached the summit with very rewarding views. This hike quickly jumped to the top of the list of the most favorite hikes so far. The 3 distant mountain ranges in the high peaks were all clearly visible and it was simply a beautiful picture. After a 20 min rest we felt like we could climb Porter.
Climbing Cascade we did see the junction where the trail went to the right heading up to Porter and it was very near the summit so it made sense to do Porter as well. It was a 20 min hike from the intersection through a trail that had thick brush along most of the way. The summit was not as rewarding but offered a nice shot of Cascade Mt. Nevertheless, when you have climbed that far, why not do Porter.
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