The Adirondack High Peaks Region and Andrew's 46er Page -

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Oct. 13, 2019 (Sun.)

Poke-O-Moonshine Mountain

Elevation: 2162 feet; Order of Height: 520

Participants: Andrew Lavigne, Ruth Goitom

A visit to something new for me, as well as an attempt to nail 2019's peak fall color weekend -- on Poke-O-Moonshine Mountain.

Time: mid-October. Weather: perfect. Colors: brilliant. We hit this just at the right time. Having never done Poke-O before, I decided to head up the longer/gentler trail on the way up, and the shorter/steeper trail on the way down.

Found the longer trail to be really quite easy; no obstacles of any sort all the way up to the flats of the old Observer cabin ruins, which is where the shorter north trail joins. A couple of open beaver dam/pond areas were especially nice with the fall colors.

The south and north trails both meet at the location of the current lean-to and the old ruins of the Observer cabin. From here, a short bit of uphill got us to the top, with a superb west/southwest-facing ledge on the way up. Firetower on the top was locked at the top deck, so had to settle for view just below that. eastern-facing summit ledge was packed with people, did not approach.

Took steeper trail on way down. Trailwork in recent years has transformed this into a model of how to handle terrain in the Adirondacks: excellent rock-step work in almost all required areas, and very nice routing through various terrain features and lookouts. This is a great 'small' Adirondack peak, especially so in the fall given the density and covering of deciduous trees.

Trip Reports, Image Galleries or Other References:
Image Gallery: October 2019 Poke-O-Moonshine Hike

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