Cascade and Porter Mountains - Adirondacks

Day 2 of my Adirondack weekend, a few of us decided to hike Cascade and Porter Mtn.  It is about 6 miles round trip for both peaks.  For us this was an out and back hike.  We arrived at the trailhead on route 73 around 9:30am with sunny sky's and temps in the low 60's.  The trail was wet and muddy as it had rained heavy the night before.  We met a member of the ADK 46ers group at the trail head and chatted with him for a few minutes.  Then it was time to hike and after signing the register we were off.  We made good time on a fairly steady climb.  Once we got toward the top we had a nice view from a large rock.

The trail continues on to a junction heading toward Mt. Porter.  We decided to head that way first, completing Mt Porter before Cascade.  The trail descends into the col between peaks and was wet, often with running water, and lots of mud.  It is about .7 miles to the peak from the junction and we were soon at a large boulder with great views.  We stopped here for a snack before continuing on to the summit.

We stayed a short time on the summit of Mt. Porter and had some water, then we hiked back through the mud and water to head up Cascade Mt.  There were a lot of people on the summit so we took some pictures and enjoyed the view but did not stay long.  It was windy up top and some clouds had moved in. There was a mountain steward posted on top and he answered questions for us, pointing out the prominent peaks of Mt. Marcy, Algonquin, and Whiteface.  The views were spectacular.

We made our way down in good time.  There were a lot more people on the trail then when we went up, but we were able to get around the slower hikers and soon we were back at the trail register.  I was surprised to have to turn back three and a half pages before finding our names to sign out.  This is a popular trail! I really enjoyed this hike and my first 2 peaks of the ADK 46ers.