Alpenglow reflected off the fire tower, trees and plants behind us, and the High Peaks glowed beneath a dark, cloudy sky. The clouds above Vermont’s mountains lit up with an orange hue, while fog drifted through the rolling hills on the west side of the lake. It’s good to remind yourself of that and get out and see them.” - Shane Kenyon
“Sunrises and sunsets are some of the most beautiful things you can experience in life. Kenyon had done many mountain sunrises and sunsets. But on the first hike, on Cascade, she showed up a little after the sun rose. Guli said this was her second attempt at catching the sunrise on a peak. The friends had hatched a plan while sitting on the couch the night before: They were going to summit this mountain for sunrise and then catch the sunset on Jay Mountain. When I approached, they were pointing at each other with knees bent in a pose, waiting for the shutter to let light into Kenyon’s camera and capture their moment in front of the colorful sky. The two other people on the trail and summit that day turned out to be Erika Guli, who traveled from the Finger Lakes, and Shane Kenyon, an avid climber and photographer who lives nearby. To the east were rolling hills below, Lake Champlain, and the Vermont mountains. The fire tower was closed, but even from the ground I could see the High Peaks to the west. It had been a few years since I had been to the summit, but I was happily reminded of its incredible view. The sun was coming up.įinally, I reached the fire tower, and the open slab area beyond it. From them, I could see an orange blaze on the horizon east of Lake Champlain. With that memory in mind, I continued past the shelter, soon walking through a pair of open areas that offered vistas. Inside we hunkered down and waited out the storm as hail pinged off the roof and accumulated on the forest floor. We descended three-tenths of a mile from the summit to the lean-to. As we were standing in the fire tower, we spotted an approaching lightning storm moving over the High Peaks. That day, David Thomas-Train, from Friends of Poke-O-Moonshine, and I had hiked the mountain. On one of my prior trips to Poke-O-Moonshine, I had sought shelter in it during a nasty summer hailstorm. I had been looking forward to seeing this lean-to again. I came to a lean-to, site of a trail junction for the Observers’ Trail, a newer and slightly longer trail that meanders through the forest before getting to the lean-to. A man, woman and dog had started just a few minutes prior to me at 5:30 a.m., passing me at the trailhead.Īs I moved through the forest, the light began to gradually spread between the trees. Photo by Mike Lynch Lights on the trailĪt times, while looking upward, I could see the circular illumination of two ascending hikers’ headlamps ahead of me. The Poke-O-Moonshine Ranger trail sign lit up by a headlamp. This trail had been rerouted and one of the improvements included the installation of countless stone steps. There were large glacial erratic boulders alongside the trail, and at least one trailside cliff. On Cobble Lookout in Wilmington, the hike was mainly silent except when I heard the flapping wings of a large bird-perhaps an owl-fly overhead twice, as if it were checking me out.īut, as I climbed Poke-O-Moonshine, the experience remained visual because of the interesting rock formations that appeared in my headlamp’s beam. As I hiked through the dark on Baker Mountain in Saranac Lake, I could hear machinery grinding away across town, and the more subtle nearby sound of rustling beech leaves still clinging to branches. This was notable because on other sunrise hikes I had done during the fall, sounds seemed to stand out before the light emerged. The hike was quiet except for the occasional sound of a passing vehicle on the nearby Northway. It was late November, and I was hiking the relatively steep 1.8-mile Ranger Trail to the 2,162-foot summit of Poke-O-Moonshine Mountain to catch a sunrise. I was only a few feet off the path, so I got back on it and continued climbing. I raised my headlamp and lit up the trees around me.
Hiking through the pitch-black forest, I noticed the dirt trail had disappeared and leaves covered the forest floor beneath me. photo by Mike Lynch Hikers seek ‘some of the most beautiful experiences in life’
Shane Kenyon and Erika Guli enjoy a sunrise from Poke-O-Moonshine Mountain in the eastern Adirondacks.
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