TR: North Fork Mountain (lots of pictures)

This trip report is a little late because I was out of town last week. A friend, my husband, and I hiked the full length of North Fork Mountain the first weekend in May. We had a great time. The weather was spectacularly good. At the south end, the high points on the trail were still in late winter/early spring: all of the grass was dormant; no leaves on the trees; only Serviceberries blooming; etc. We would descend just a few feet and the grass was green, flowers were blooming, etc. We didn't encounter any trees with full leaves on them until the last three miles. We camped at the junction of the trail and FS 79. We did manage to find a campsite that was out of view of the road. The spring was easy to find and had water in it, so no problems there.  The second day, the weather was even nicer and it seemed like there were more views. We actually made it to the summit of Chimney Top. Even though it is only three miles to the trailhead from Chimney Top, I was pretty glad to be done walking downhill by the time we got to the car! That descent gets old after walking 25 miles.

For a beautiful weekend in May, we didn't really encounter many people at all. We saw a few mountain bikers, a couple of guys exercising their bear dogs, and one solitary hiker our first day and one group of high school students the second day.

There are more pictures on my blog.


Looking west from the overlook with the hang-gliding launch.


The hang-gliding launch (at least that is what I'm assuming it is).


The back side of Seneca Rocks. We just didn't hit this at the right time. It would be better in the morning when this side of the rocks would be lit by the sun.


This is the little pond that is below the spring at FS 79. I suspect the pond dries up pretty early in the summer. 


Sunset at our campsite


Looking west from the campsite at Redman Run Trail on day 2.


The view from beside Chimney Top.  


Benchmark on Chimney Top


Eastern Shooting Star near the trailhead.