Hurricane Mountain was the first hike I ever did in the Adirondacks, and it was love at first sting of the quads. It was Columbus Day Weekend of 2010. I had started dating my bride-to-be earlier that year and for Columbus Day, my then-future-in-laws had me up at their family house at an undisclosed location in the general High Peaks area for the long weekend.
Hurricane is a family favorite on my wife’s side of the line. Their house, itself a 110+ year old structure, has a picture on the living room wall of my wife’s grandfather on the summit of Hurricane with his sister when he was about 10 or so.
Historically, my in-laws’ preferred route up is from the east, at the end of Hurricane Mountain Lane. My father-in-law says that the way the fire rangers went up and that is good enough for him.
So the morning of Saturday, July 19, 2025, I extended the tradition to one more generation and hiked up Hurricane with my eight year old daughter. Her first time hiking it; my third having done it Columbus Day 2010 from Hurricane Mountain Lane and then again from 9N with our late mountain dog Kodi in May 2012, but not again since.
NJGirl and I decided to go up from 9N. I was worried about finding a spot at the end of Hurricane Mountain Lane on a Saturday in July, but probably needn’t have. We stocked up on some hiking snacks at the Etown Stewart’s and pulled up to the Route 9N trailhead right around 8:00 am on the dot and got the last open marked spot. Four (or five?) other cars. That was it.
It was a solid hike up. We took it really slow to accommodate my daughter’s fragile interest in hiking. We also ate a pound of Mike and Ikes probably. Saw three tadpoles in the marshy flat portion, whom we named Fred, Fred Jr, and Frederick the Third.
The summit was great, if pretty busy. The view is every bit as spectacular as I remembered. We hung out for 45 minutes, went up to the top of the tower twice, and I had a lot of fun talking with Summit Steward Ezra. No one better. He was telling me that all this past week, he had been on Algonquin every single day. Hurricane today; off tomorrow. Then stewarding on Marcy every day Monday through Friday next week. Really crazy, actually.
The hike down was slow again, but we had fun. The Freds were sadly nowhere to be found on the descent.
This is my only hike this trip up. But we’ll be back in August. The mountains will wait for us.
Best,
Tom