Hiking My First High Peaks – Cascade and Porter Mountains

Friday night after work I drove up to the Lake Placid area to meet Chris and his cousins. They had been backpacking in the Adirondacks since Monday and were done—they were already settled into a KOA Campground in Wilmington, and I was meeting them up there for some camping!

First, I met them at Lake Placid Pub and Brewery for dinner, after driving 2+ hours a beer was much needed!

For dinner I ordered the maple and pear flatbread.

The flavors were great but this flatbread was way overdone. Should have been taken out of the oven way earlier, I think I cut my mouth on the crispy edges about 10 times.

When we arrived to the campground it was dark, so thankfully Chris had already set up the tent, all we needed to do was make a fire. We all went to bed pretty early, we had some hiking on the agenda for the next day!

The next morning I could finally see the campground, and it was really nice! I’d never been to a KOA before. They have a store where you can buy ice and firewood for pretty cheap, and the showers and bathroom facilities are really clean.

They even have breakfast in the mornings!

Anyway, we decided to hike one of the high peaks since we were in the area. Chris and his cousins had done Mount Marcy a few days before (The highest peak in the Adirondacks!), but were feeling recharged enough to do one of the easy ones, Cascade.

We drove to the trail head, and most of the lots on the side of the highway were full, it was a great day for hiking, and everyone else had the same idea! We found a spot across from the trailhead and looked up to where we were going.

The register is just down below the road after taking a set of stairs down into the woods.

And we were off.

The hike up was pretty uneventful, passed a lot of other hikers and everyone was so very friendly! After about 2 hours of climbing we made it to the first clearing of bald rock that had a preview of what was to come.

Then we hit the split for Cascade summit and Porter, another Peak. We weren’t sure yet if we were going to do Porter.

Almost there!

This was the first hike I’ve ever done that had such a rocky summit, some of it was kind of tricky to get up!

MADE IT!

We snacked for a bit, rested, and enjoyed the view. Then we decided to do Porter! Why not get a two for one while we were up here?

The trail to Porter was .7 miles but felt a lot further, the trail was very muddy in some spots. Still worth it, though!

Here’s the top of Cascade, where we were about an hour before!

My first two high peaks, done.

We made it down safely (I only fell once), and were very thankful to sit in the car and drive back to the site and where showers awaited us.

After cleaning up, we went to dinner at a place Chris had eaten at before, a local BBQ joint in Ray Brook called Tail ‘O the Pup, not far from Lake Placid.

It was all outdoor seating and they even had a live band, it was fun!

They actually had an Octoberfest on tap here already!

I got a fish sandwich for dinner, it was excellent!

And we ordered some fried pickles with horseradish for an appetizer.

And delicious cornbread drenched in honey on the side.

Chris got the BBQ Lovers Platter, so much BBQ.

I tried some of the brisket and pulled pork for kicks (I had never had either before in my life) and it was really good! I’ve been eating meat on and off a little bit for the past few months.

Overall it was a great weekend. I’m already dreading Monday!