Rocky Peak Ridge, Keene NY
05/04/05

 

This hike was directly after the hike up Giant Mountain. I have no pictures of the summit or the trail from Giant to Rocky (Cursed Duracell). However since I'm so good with words I'll do my best.

After ascending Giant, there's a 0.2 mile walk back to the junction. The view there was pretty nice and I decided to eat my dinner while overlooking the high peaks. After finishing up, I took a left and followed an outcrop for a few hundred feet. The view completely changes from that of the high peaks to that of Lake Champlain, and even Lake George far down south. The trail rises up about 15-20 feet then starts the steep and fast descent into the Col of Giant and RPR. The snow and ice made it rather interesting finding a good place to put my feet (even in May there's ice sheets and snow pack).

Now the distance between RPR and Giant is 1.1 miles, and I blew through the first half in what felt like 10 minutes. Down, Down Down... the only thing that would have made it better would have been an escalator, but for the wilderness I'll take what I get. Now the worst part about going down that fast is the fact that you're going to have to climb back up it (that wasn't on my mind until the return of the hike). I had a feeling I'd be hurting after Giant, and once I got to the top of the tree line in the Col and saw how steep the trail was going up to RPR.

Although not as steep as it looked from half a mile away, you'll defiantly want to save energy for this peak. It's similar to Algonquin's "straight up the side" kind of climb. Yeah I'd get to go back down, but then I had to climb BACK UP GIANT and then the hike down to my car. So after the massive climb up I had a much better look at the Plattsburg area, and a good distance into Vermont territory (which I'll have to get a map out to identify what exactly I saw).

Overall the view on Rocky was better then that of Giants because of the open summit. Giants summit was pretty much a rock sticking out to the south. It's great that it's that high up, but for a mountain called "Giant" you'd think the view would be worthy of the name.