In complete opposition to the very enjoyable and scenic bit along the top of Blueberry Mountain, the ascent up to Porter's ridgecrest was viewless and rather tedious. Although there was a decent track to follow, snowy branches and the steep grade made the ascent a tiring, wet affair. We were quite glad to reach the less brushy and fairly flat terrain at the ridgecrest.
Now that the trail was mostly on the level, with only short rises or dips, we moved along at a somewhat faster pace - slowed by the need to knock snow from the branches we had to occasionally push out of the way. The ridge gradually rose in elevation as we continued west, crossing over a few minor sub-summits and providing a couple of good lookouts and views as we approached the Porter Mountain highpoint, elevation 4059 feet.
Porter Mountain Sub-summit
As we expected, as soon as we arrived at the tiny postage-sized open patch on Porter's summit, we encountered our first [other] hiking party - a couple of guys who we later learned were named Todd and Jonathan. They graciously took a summit photo of us, and then departed towards Cascade. More on them later.
courtesy JInnes
The morning's perfect weather had persisted into early afternoon. There were clear and crisp views to the west, south and north; the summit of Cascade, nicely clad in snow, stood waiting for us a mile further along. The undulating outline of the Great Range of the Adirondacks formed the distant skyline to the south. Immediately to the west, a bit of a wish had been granted to us: earlier, we had looked at the distant undercast and wished for it to be nearer. Well, there it was: in the lowlands around South Meadows, not more than a mile or two from Porter's summit, a cluster of low cloud had started to form.
courtesy JInnes
Although scenic, our stay at Porter's summit was brief. The best summit scenery was yet to come, on the extensive open alpine of nearby Cascade Mountain.
Interesting mid-day undercast
The vast majority of hikers ascend Porter and Cascade from the west, via the Cascade Pass Trailhead along Route 73. As we started our descent from Porter, this was immediately apparent: the snowshoe track was suddenly much more beaten out, and the trail's cut through the forest was much wider.
We descended through some particularly fine winter forest scenery on the way to the shallow col between Porter and Cascade. A short rise thereafter brought us to the Porter-Cascade trail junction. A short spur trail off to the right (0.3 miles) led to the summit of Cascade Mountain.
Approaching Cascade's open terrrain
Cascade is an especially nice 'low' 4000-footer because it sports an extensive open alpine zone along its summit. There are many higher 4000-footer peaks in the Adirondacks that have a completely forested, no-view summit. Cascade has these summits beat, hands down - at least when it comes to scenery.
A scant few minutes of walking beyond the junction brought us to the alpine zone: the trees gave way abruptly to a steeply rising open slope, which was today covered in a few feet of consolidated snow. Often this summit zone is bare rock, even though it is winter time. Today that wasn't the case. It meant we didn't have to remove our snowshoes and it afforded a more aesthetic alpine experience.
courtesy JInnes
Cascade Summit View, West
