Jay Mountain Wilderness

The Jay Mountain Range and the US Mountain Range in Essex County are about as much wilderness as you can achieve in the Adirondack Park.  The mountains are not among the highest 46 and therefore are not well traveled among the hikers who come up for a weekend.

This is a record of my second hike into these mountains.  June 28, 2000.

I hiked with my 12 year old daughter, Corrine and with friends Gary and Jerry.  The trail head begins at
1520 ft and goes to 3620 ft  on Jay Mountain.   (I just took my map out to double check on the heights and there's a squashed black fly on it.  The flies on this hike were the worst we've all experienced in years) Because of ice storm damage to the trees there are beautiful views shortly after gaining a little altitude.  On the right is Whiteface Mountain.

At about 3000 feet the first rock ledge is reached and there are wonderful views Wilmington Notch, the Cascade Notch, the High Peaks and over to Hurricane Mt.  The Glen of Jay is below with Highland Farms in the distance.....Corrine poses with Whiteface on a ledge a little higher up.

At 3300 feet there is this wonderful knob of rock that alone is a worthwhile destination.  The views afforded from here are 360°.  Corrine with Lake Champlain beyond and me with the High Peaks .  From here the trail to Jay Mountain follows a ridge line and the trail quite often is granite rock so the views along this trail are spectacular.  On the right you can see the higher knob where we came from with the town of Jay laid out below.

The trail to the first rocky knob at 3300 feet is about 2 miles with Jay Mountain being at about 3 miles.  So the ridge line is one mile of extraordinary beauty.

The trail does go up and down a lot, it took us 1 1/2 hours to do the ridge line.  Corrine and Gary are both pointing at something and on the right Corrine is sitting on a loose rock with our destination behind her.