From smoked hocks to spectacular views: A thwarted day trip turns into a smokehouse visit and a ‘Chester Challenge’ hike
By Tim Rowland
Beth and I had some big mountain fish to fry in the southern part of the park last week, but just north of Lake George traffic on the Northway came to halt. Through the wizardry of modern navigation, we had been warned in time to jump off the interstate just prior to the backup. But then the re-route became backed up too, at which point the disembodied high-tech basically said, “Son, you’re on your own.”
Time being tight, it became clear that a full-day hike was not in our future. Luckily, in difficult times such as this when the door to one athletic adventure is slammed in my face, I am blessed with the skill to quickly pivot toward a destination that sells smoked meat.
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So being within an eight-minute drive of Oscar’s Smokehouse, which earlier this year was named to the state’s Historic Business Preservation Registry — and the only place where the Alabama-born Beth believes it possible to find a decent smoked hock in this godforsaken northern outpost — we stopped there before considering more modest hiking options.
Our vehicle was pointed toward the attractive hamlet of Chestertown, nerve center of the Chester Challenge, a collection of 11 modest hikes, where you can earn a pin by completing six.
We decided to try Kipp Mountain, a ledgy little 1,612-foot dome that rises over Loon Lake in Warren County.
The trailhead is on Ben Culver Road, and once you’re in the neighborhood, good signage will point the way.
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Encounters of the fawn kind
From the trailhead, the route winds easily through a hardwood forest studded here and there with attractive evergreens popping out of emerald waves of ferns. You may or may not notice that you are headed in the opposite direction from your destination, but even so, the little trail is just short of a mile long.
As the trail climbed gradually and fishhooked back in the proper direction, Beth said she had a strange feeling of being watched. A few steps later, my eyes made out a collection of spots in the undergrowth that on further inspection were attached to a fawn who was indeed following our progress with considerable interest.
Having been spotted, and not in a good way, the mother who was a few feet away flashed the white of her tail and they were off. Much of the forest floor had been nibbled down to the nub, indicating there were plenty more deer browsing on these parts.
At six-tenths of a mile the trail steepens and grows more rocky as it ascends a ridge. After a couple of moderately steep pitches, the grade eases and views of the valley below begin to appear through the red pines that commonly populate low peaks in the Eastern part of the park.
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Views from Kipp’s summit
Kipp is the dominant mountain as seen from Loon Lake, and the views of the lake and its attendant boating activity from the ledges is excellent.
All the familiar southern peaks such as Crane, Eleventh and Gore populate the background. Overall, the views had the feel of the popular Bald Mountain trail near Old Forge, although on this day at least, it didn’t have similar crowds. On a bright Sunday afternoon, we had the trail to ourselves on the way up, and passed just three families on the way back down.
Gaining 430 feet in just over eight-tenths of a mile, this is, overall, a pretty easy climb with a great payoff. If you’re in the neighborhood, Kipp is a worthy destination in itself, but if you want to make a day of it, Chestertown has some great restaurants and you can probably knock out six of the Chester Challenge hikes in a day, if you’re interested in the pin.
Although if Kipp is any indication of the quality of these trails, you’ll probably want to do all 11.
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For Ex/Al readers, Tim Rowland’s excellent essays about points of interest and difficult social issues we are facing Adirondackers are always worthwhile. Tim and Beth’s unplanned hike up Kipp Mtn. is no exception – especially for the memories it brought back to me.
One dry summer in the latter half of the 1950s, Kipp Mtn had become an instant tourist attraction because the top of the mountain was on fire.! Suddenly, Rt #9 had become a viewing platform where travelers (there was no Northway back then), tourists, and local people would gather each evening along the side of the road to look across Loon Lake at the wildfire lighting up the nighttime sky.
I forget who, among my teenage Pottersville friends, came up with the idea that we should go fight the fire, but it seemed like a good idea at the time – especially since we had heard that they paid volunteers 75 cents per hour!
To make a long story short, a handful of local heroes made their way out Landon Hill Rd., walked the freshly bulldozed track put down by Lorenzo Hayes, and offered our services to Chestertown Forest Ranger Ed Carpenter.
Ed welcomed us, gave us his five minute course in fire fighting 101, and put us to work on the fire line. We soon became self-professed experts in the use of the 5-gallon backpack pump, and the four-tooth Council rake. Later, sometime after the fire was declared out, we each received our government checks for our services. By then we’d all moved on to other teenage priorities (diving for tourist quarters at Stone Bridge and Caves, and chasing girls mosty come to mind).
For me, the Kipp Mtn. fire would be the first of many more such activities involving wildfire suppression, dedicated forest rangers and colorful Adirondack characters. It would seem that the road to the Adirondacks comes in many different flavors….-
What a great story, Louis—how exciting! I loved reading that—thanks for sharing it.
Terrific story Tim.
As a regular summer vacationer at Loon Lake between 1963 and 1993, saw Kipp many times (especially summer full moon rises!) but only climbed it during COVID 2020 when anything outdoors was a treat.