Savich Trek: HIKING MOUNT COLVIN

Mount Colvin is the 40th peak in the ADK high peaks. Its part of the Colvin Range and stands at 4057 ft above sea level.

We have been focusing our hiking attention to Keene Valley over the past few years because we found relatively inexpensive losing at Ausable Inn and it's very close location to several different peaks that we haven't hiked yet. After this most recent hiking trip I realized that there is only one more left, Sawteeth.

As we get older and our families become larger with kids, at times its more challenging in finding a sitter for the kids for more than one day at a time. Also this time we had a weather factor that cut our trip a bit shorter. But nevertheless we still decided to go hiking even if its for one long day.

We were also very excited to introduce our friends, Ruslan and Vika to the ADK's. It was a mutual agreement that it would be better to start early, hike, and come home later that night. So we left Syracuse at 4 am made it into St. Huberts at 7:30 am. After some Ninxia/Nitro shots and photos we made it to the sign in at 8 am sharp.

On the Lake Rd the same thoughts always reoccur, "why can't there be a shuttle service to cut this unnecessary 6-8 miles out of the hike?" We made it to the Gillbrook Cutoff trail by 9:08 am. From there it was a gradual elevation increase for 0.5 miles.

9:25 am

9:28 am

9:49 am

Lesya, my wife, was leading the group. She always sets a good pace. In fact it was so good that there were several hikers that liked our pace so much that they hiked with us for about a mile until they needed to stop and take a smoke break. The 0.7 miles from the above intersection had some steeper sections but nothing impressive.

10:34 am

Once we hit the 1.1 mile marker before the summit, things heated up really quick. There were at least half a dozen large rock boulders that require some creative stepping but it was fun and challenging.

11:31 am

At about 15 minutes before the summit the trail become really steep and challenging and therefor called for several breaks and photo's.

We reached the summit at 11:42 am to some amazing views. The Great Range always have a glorious appearance so being able to appreciate the magnitude of the these peaks once again is always spectacular.

These are the moments when its so awesome to soak in God's creation, that testifies of its Maker. Its funny how quickly one forgets the difficulty of the trail just walked when the eyes meet such a view.

Blake from Colvin

Fish Hawk Cliffs & Indian Head from Colvin

Slides on Basin

Sawteeth cliffs

At the summit there is an official marker indicating the elevation and name of the peak. Shortly thereafter we all sat down and had a nice lunch with great views. Lesya and I have never packed a sandwich during our past hiking trips. So this time we decided to give it a try and a PB & J worked out really well.