Returning back to the start of the Esther herdpath, we turned right, heading south along the Wilmington trail towards Whiteface Mountain. The terrain between here and the base of Whiteface's summit is quite flat and the trail in reasonably good shape, allowing for fairly rapid passage. We passed by the new Lookout Mountain lift top-station and related ski runs, then started on the ascent towards the Whiteface Auto Road and summit.
A short ascent brought us to the castle-like walls that shore up the Wilmington hairpin of the Whiteface Auto Road, the base of which we briefly followed before topping out at the road itself. Here we joined the land of the summer road-going mountain enthusiasts, with all sorts of cars and motorcycles wizzing by on the way up to the parking area at the upper end of the Auto Road. This of course meant that the summit was going to be teeming with people - a known drawback of a hiking trip to the top of Whiteface.
Starting ascent to Whiteface
Before the summit, however, was the beautiful bit of trail that led from the hairpin along Whiteface's northern ridgeline to its summit. It's a wonderful section [of trail], staying close to the reasonably sharp crest and affording great views down into the steep bowl just east of the summit. Much of the trail is in the open.
I figured Whiteface's north ridge trail would be a prime place to attempt to take scenic mountain-dog shots of Mike, so I went up ahead and set up with my zoom lens, looking downhill to capture shots of Mike and Julie ascending the ridge.
Whiteface summit observatory
Whiteface summit on a summer day
We topped out at Whiteface's summit at about 1:20pm, joining the fifty-odd other folks milling about on top. Although perfectly scenic and very nice weather-wise, we decided to head a short way down the south-ridge trail in order to get a little bit of solitude, then stopped for a short bit of lunch.
courtesy JMoran
Julie and Ann atop Whiteface
Summit rocks and Lake Placid
The southern trail to Whiteface is the mountain's least-used [trail-based] access route, and the upper part of it - the part above treeline - is quite scenic. There are excellent views south to the distant central High Peaks, and, of course, to Lake Placid itself.
The southern approach to Whiteface is quite long, though, and that was why we did not dally long for lunch. As you may remember from the start of this trip report, one of the reasons I had travelled to New York state on this day was to visit an AT&T phone store to fix a problem with my on-the-go AT&T sim card - a problem I couldn't fix from Canada. The store that I was planning to visit closed at 7pm, and I calculated that I needed to be back at the Connery Pond trailhead no later than 5pm in order to make it to the store's location by 7pm. Since it was now nearly 2pm and we still had nearly 6 miles (10km) to cover, it was time, shall we say, to "boot it".
