For our day two hike after Colvin and Blake, we decided to try Whiteface and Esther, which seemed among the easiest of our remaining hikes. We were a bit sore from the previous day, but up for another day of hiking. We ate breakfast at our site and left the Loj around 9:30 for the drive to the Atmospheric Science Research Centre parking in Wilmington (about 30 mins).

It was foggy and drizzling when we arrived at the trailhead. We followed a sign to hiker parking and nabbed a spot along the road. A small path led downhill to the start of an unrelenting uphill trail (as warned from the alltrails reviews). We later learned that it was the path of the old Marble Mountain t-bar. The trail went straight up for 1 mi before flattening out for a few feet at what was probably a good lookout on a clearer day. This was also the junction down to the Wilmington reservoir – another possible trailhead for this hike.

The trail continued quite steeply for the next mile or so before levelling out a bit into some gradual ups and downs. It took longer than anticipated to arrive at the junction with Esther (we had to stop for a snack on the way). We arrived at the junction at noon, but decided to continue on with the hardest part first and headed toward Whiteface.

At the junction to Esther

The trail continued past the ski hill and chair lift and eventually led to a large stone wall that formed the side of the highway. After climbing above the highway, the trail turned into big rock scrambles and then open slabs like on Marcy, Algonquin, etc. Finally the observatory tower emerged from the fog ahead of us.

And then the trail rose above the road

There was zero visibility on the summit. We still enjoyed our hummus and veggie wraps, though, and took a picture with the summit sign almost 10 years after we drove up as part of our very first trip to the Adirondacks. Most of the others on the summit were hikers – not worth the drive up due to the cloud cover.

Summit #30

We left the summit at 2pm. We maneuvered down the slabs and some decent cliffs and retraced our steps to the cairn marking the trail to Esther. We’d heard the trail was relatively flat, but there was definitely some climbing. We found it took longer than expected and was one of the muddier trails we’ve hiked. We met a group along the way who said we were about 150 yards away, but that was definitely false advertising – it was much longer!

We arrived at the fully treed summit at 3:30. No views today. There was a plaque dedicated to Esther McComb who made the first recorded climb of the mountain in 1839 at age 15. It turns out she was aiming for Whiteface and missed. We are unclear if she was related to the namesake of the Macomb slide.

Esther – summit #31

We were back at the cairn around 4:20 and started the real descent. By the time we reached the t-bar run, our knees were screaming and our puppies were barking. The loose rick was particularly annoying to hike. It really slowed us down since we didn’t want to slip.

Back to the parking

We were back at the cloudy parking by 5:45. Dinner back at the campground was tuna mac and cheese (Velveeta brand).

We had a slow morning the next day. It was drizzling, so we hung out on the High Peaks Info Centre porch with WiFi. Someone asked where we were from and when we responded Ottawa, the only two people in ear shot, both separately identified as being Ottawans too. Guess we’re all happy to have the border back open!

We stopped at a very nice McDonalds in Lake Placid for lunch and then hit up Price Chopper for American groceries (mainly hummus and seltzer) before heading home.