Mount Adams is a dazzling but somewhat difficult hike, with a distance and gain in elevation similar to the High Peak of Cascade, even though its elevation is some five hundred feet less. My gizmo clocked it at 5.3 miles round trip, but then I tend to poke around a bit, so my totals always come in on the high side; the official distance round trip is 4.8 miles.
If Mount Adams were on the northern side of the High Peaks, safe to say it would be crawling with hikers like Ampersand and Hurricane. But it sits to the south, far from the madding crowds and relatively unnoticed. The southern access to the High Peaks is starting to draw a bit more attention, but it’s still just a trickle compared to the waves of hikers at the northern trailheads in Keene Valley. The reasons are threefold: One, there are limited services—hotels, restaurants, nightlife—to the south; two, the trails into the High Peaks are somewhat longer by way of the south; and three, there’s no quick and easy way to
