Ascent of Blue Mountain on June 14, 2007

January 14th began a little early. At 3:56 A.M., Tom began rustling a backpack and a wind breaker to break the silence in our borrowed pink room. A flip of the lights, a rub on Cory’s back and we are off to the kitchen for a fast coffee. At 4:15 A.M. we are in the Town & Country rolling down highway 28 a half mile to head north on highway 30 to the Blue Mountain trailhead. After turning twice in the darkness, we find the gravel parking lot awaiting our anxious bodies. Flashlights working, trail log signed, and we are off on an Adirondack adventure.

The Adirondacks showcase many lessons in ecology, earth science, and a legacy of the human impact. Some 18,000 years B.P. glaciers had moved across this wilderness we recognize as Adirondack Park. One glacier excavated bowl-shaped cuts in the side of Whiteface Mountain. Another glacier from the north shoveled sand and gravel from an area now know as Potsdam, trucked it 30 miles south and deposited at a higher elevation on the north slope of Whiteface. Another glacier is responsible for the boulders thrown in front of my walk up Blue Mountain at 4:30 A.M. These boulders have seen life from somewhere in Canada, survived the migration of entire ecosystems over their surface, and now they serve as a refuge for insects, the beginning of life for mosses, rock ferns, and a yellow birch or two.

Fifteen minutes into the walk, the morning chorus begins with a Swainson’s thrush, and then a second, and a third. Their bubbly crescendo introduces our ears to a new day. It is still dark and our flashlights are illuminating the rock strewn trail. Shortly after the Swainson’s started, the smooth clear notes of the white-throated sparrow introduce themselves to the new day. It has been reported that the larger birds with big eyes begin the morning chorus followed by the singing of successively smaller bird species. This trend continued with the Blackpoll warbler, Tenneessee warbler, and the winter wren on our ascent.

The change in eleveation along the trail shows another interaction between earth science and biological ecology. Trees typical of a temperature deciduous forest (American beech, eastern hemlock, yellow birch, and sugar maple) throughout New York are observed at 2000 ft where the trailhead begins. Somewhere around 2800 feet balsam fir and paper birch become more common. The forest is shorter here and the trees are sculptured by the wind, long winters, and drier conditions. In terms of appearance, the higher elevation fir-birch forest looks like the impoverished neighborhood on the mountain. Thin soil, dry conditions, and severe winters keeps these trees from reaching their full potential.

At 5:15 we reach the peak of Blue Mountain at 3200 ft. are greeted to a brisk breeze and temperatures that most certainly are no higher than 40°F. The sun breaks about the ridges and mountains to the east and casts an orange glow over the balsam fir near the top of Blue. The steps on the fire tower have small puddles of water. Tom believes the steps were frost covered just moments earlier.

Aside from the breeze, the top of Blue is silent except for a dark-eyed junco singing somewhere on the tree line. We skirt around the rock escarpment carefully listening for another, much rarer thrush called Bicknell’s. This bird is the sole reason I encouraged my son, Cory, and my friend Tom to the top of Blue so early in the morning.