Hiking Coney Mountain / Tupper Lake
Hiking to Coney Mountain | Finishing the Tupper Lake Triad | Tupper Lake, NY | August 2024
Today, we shook things up a bit by letting me (Jess) go for a hike while Curtis waited at the trailhead with Charlotte. Last year when we visited the Adirondacks, we started hiking the Tupper Lake Triad Hiking Challenge, first by hiking up Goodman Mountain on our first afternoon there, then to Mount Arab Fire tower the next morning. But that evening was when Charlotte went blind and we found out she had glaucoma, and after that I had no interest in leaving her behind to go hiking and finish the challenge. I let Curtis go and finish it by hiking to Coney Mountain on our last day in New York, and honestly never regretted not finishing it myself. But now, we were back in the Adirondacks with our blind but healthy puppy, and I was ready to finish what I started!
It was already shaping up to be another hot and humid day, so we arrived at the trailhead by 9 and I began my trek up. If you’ve been following along for a while, you’ll know it is not common for me to hike by myself, and since Charlotte went blind I have found myself hiking less and less so that Curtis can pursue his goals. But thankfully, Coney Mountain is just over a mile to the peak and not particularly steep, so it was an easier way to usher me in to solo hiking. There were a few cars in the lot when we arrived, but I didn’t come across anyone during my hike — so instead, I talked loudly to myself in case of bears, and drank a lot of water to stay hydrated while sweating most of it off.
The peak proved to be worth it though — I’m pretty sure it has the best view out of the peaks that make up the Tupper Lake Triad. The summit provides a 360 degree view, with a large rock face to wander around and take in the view from all directions. It was a little hazy, but there was still good visibility and the bugs weren’t bad at all. The summit was also large enough that the other 2 groups at the top were spread out. After enjoying the view, I made my way back down, not wanting to make Curtis and Charlie wait too long.
On my way down, I ran into way more groups hiking up. Curtis didn’t even notice how busy it was because the trailhead was so small, most people were parking along the highway. When I returned, I was greeted by Curtis and Charlie, and we piled into the van to drive up to Tupper Lake for a few hours. Curtis had a meeting and some work to do, so we drove to the Waterfront Park to hang out for a few hours. While it had been hot and buggy in the woods, it was actually quite pleasant in the shade, and we enjoyed loitering here, having a picnic, and letting Charlotte nap on the lawn. That evening, we returned to our campsite in Lake Eaton for one more night.
The next morning was a Friday, our reservation at Lake Eaton was up, and we were a bit concerned about having to find another campsite for the weekend, so we packed up and got an early start. Curtis had some interest in hiking a shorter peak, but when we arrived we found the trailhead already completely full. Instead we headed towards plan B, which was a trail at the end of a long forest road with dispersed campsites along the way. Much to our surprise, we found most of these campsites were unoccupied, so we stopped to try out a couple of them, thinking this could work for the weekend. However, immediately after getting out of the van, we were swarmed by mosquitoes — no wonder no one else was out here! We kept trying different spots, but the bugs were bad everywhere, and we only had reception at a few of the sites. It was starting to get later in the morning, and we had to face the facts: there was no way Charlotte and I could be comfortable outside, and it was already getting too hot and humid for Curtis to do his hike — which was actually going to be close to 14 miles long. It started to feel like this day was a bust.
As a backup, Curtis tried driving toward another peak near Tupper Lake that was on his prominence list, located behind a golf course and up an old ski area that had been closed, but we eventually came to a gate and found the area to be on contested property (it’s actually a really big deal for Tupper Lake as the owners of the old Ski Resort went bankrupt and the slopes have been closed ever since pending legal action. Locals are hopeful that the arbitration will finish up soon so the County or Municipality can buy back the slopes). Three strikes, he was ready to be done for the day. Luckily, I knew exactly what could turn the day around: ice cream! We drove back to Tupper Lake and stopped at an ice cream stand where all our problems were solved.
We saw on iOverlander that the town of Tupper Lake actually allows people to camp overnight at the Waterfront park, and knowing how much we had enjoyed it yesterday, we decided to try it out. When we arrived, we found that because of the lake, the area felt much cooler than anywhere in the woods, there was a pleasant breeze, and bugs were non-existent. We hung out outside for the rest of the day, going for short walks, resting and working in the lawn. We also met another woman who lives in a van and had a great conversation with her.
The entire day, the sky was overcast with a solid layer of clouds, and so we weren’t too hopeful that we’d have a good sunset. But as the sun dropped, the sky lit up in a bright shade of pink, and it turned out to be one of the best sunsets we’d seen this summer! The park turned out to be a perfect place to sleep for the night, and it almost made us wish we had just spent the week camping here. Oh well, I’m sure the locals prefer that we didn’t, but we’ll definitely keep it in mind for the next time we return to this area!
