He probably chose this summit’s moniker because he used it like a sundial. We rinsed off, cooled down, and collected 4L of water here. Dial has amazing views! 73 opposite the parking lot for the Roaring Brook Trail. I didn’t stay long and made my way to Dial Mountain. PROHIBITED on AMR land. Nippletop is a mountain located in Essex County, New York. On Nippletop, we sat on boulders and chatted with fellow hikers. At 1:08 p.m. the arrival of Dial Mountain happened! Please make sure you carry water, headlights and power banks for phone (my battery died just before Nippletop). It seems like a lot but other than tons of unavoidable mud, the trek over was not that bad. Bear Den Trail to Dial Mountain and Nippletop is a 12.7 mile heavily trafficked loop trail located near Keene Valley, New York that features a river and is rated as difficult. It’s 0.9 mile to Bear Den’s summit, 2.1 to Dial’s summit, and 4.2 to Nippletop’s summit. From Bear Den, I hiked over to the Noonmark Shoulder. It seems like a lot but other than tons of unavoidable mud, the trek over was not that bad. The parking at St. Huberts gets filled the night before. Our first vista of the day, and it reveals that there’s a cloud ceiling hovering around 4000 feet, which means we will not have a view from the top today, bummer! The views of the Great Range were beautiful! past the golf course to the start of the Lake Road and the trailhead. Dial Mountain at 4020 feet is the forty-first highest peak in the Adirondacks. Hi Paul, I found that hiking Dial, Nippletop, Colvin, and Blake in a day harder for two reasons. months[6]="June"; Unfortunately Mt. Colvin was a steep rocky mile incline. Started at 4:50 AM and finished at 2:30 PM. gets a great view of the Dix Range with their many slides. var year=time.getYear(); and this peak offers perhaps one of the best views of any of the high peaks. The trail is primarily used for hiking and rock climbing and is best used from March until November. peaks that branch off the Lake Road should be aware of the parking We got to Elk Lake as the sky was really changing colors and while it was pretty, we still had over 2 miles to walk on gravel road as the lodge is closed for 2020. This is not a new rule, but one that has been to while still keeping it a day hike. With pacing ourselves and due to less than ideal weather conditions, we clocked in at about 15 hours of active hiking time. as any good alpine climb gaining over 1000 feet in less than one mile where it We did the loop backward, starting out with Bear Den and ending with Colvin and Blake to save our knees from the hard descent from Dial. Definitely do Colvin & Blake first, then hit Nippletop & Dial. The Dial and Nippletop Adirondack high peaks are generally reached from the Ausable Club. 73. far between. During the traverse you will really get a lot of time in the high elevation forest; that by itself was such an amazing experience. months[10]="October"; It’s a really varied and interesting hike that wanders through new growth forest, up and over two summits with fantastic views, and past a sun-dappled pond and numerous waterfalls. The summit of Dial is pretty heavily wooded except for a boulder, which provides more westward views of the places to be conquered in the next few days. great trail! months[11]="November"; There were steep sections and slippery melting slushy snow made it more tiring but we made it to Colvin at 9:40 am (with many little breaks on the way to catch my breath). All in all 10.5 hrs. I arrived at St. Huberts around 4:50AM. As usual we left Albany at 5:30 with our goal of hiking Dial and Nippletop. We started our ascent up Elk Pass around 1:10pm through the beaver pond area. They helped us on the descent when we weren’t working as hard. Layer up and bring hand warmers. GPS watch: 18 miles, 6800 feet elevation, 8 hours 22 minutes moving time. I did this in the order Colvin - Blake - Nippletop - Dial. This is the summit marker, ha! One of the nice points of this peak is the number of other peaks one can get Very muddy and slippery between Colvin and Blake. It was evident immediately that not many people hike this trail. This is a loop hike that takes you up a long and steep ascent over Bear Den Mt., up Dial, over to Nippletop, and down a shorter and steeper descent through Elk Pass. The wet leaves were slick and icy rocks made the hike a little treacherous, but spikes were my saving grace. Very long day, lots of water needed for this one. I really wanted to go backcountry skiing, but the rain earlier in the week ruined that. The hike is moderate with the occasional steep section. It’s 0.9 mile to Bear Den’s summit, 2.1 to Dial’s summit, and 4.2 to Nippletop’s summit. Drank around 5L while hiking plus about 1/2 L from the Gil Brook, then 2L more at my car. Nippletop is flanked to the northeast by Dial Mountain. I left the summit of Nippletop and hiked northeast down the ridge past Dial Mountain (4020') and Bear Den Mountain (3399') as well as the shoulder of Noonmark Mountain before descending back to the Lake Road. This was a great hike. Don't plan on taking your dog on this hike. Beautiful through Elk Pass and up to Nippletop. From Dial down is a hard descent on the knees, but all in all a very rewarding hike. months[1]="January"; document.write(date + ", " + year); and look to the south, your is treated to a spectacular close up view of From Dial on can see an almost complete panorama of the Great Range with its Hurricane Floyd in 1999. The other trail to the top over Bear Den and Dial is much dryer but is a Power banks might be ideal if you plan on using your tech frequently. Recorded closer to 20 miles, over 6000 ft elevation. var lmonth=months[time.getMonth() + 1]; At the bottom there was a campsite and our dog took a nice swim in the pond. Going from Blake to Colvin and then back down Colvin was the worst part of the day. gbbiv 1 year, 2 months ago Dial and Nippletop CCW. document.write(lmonth + " "); The final section of the trail is just as steep The trail will continue to lead you towards Nippletop (4,620 ft), … From Dial, on a clear day, you can catch views up Keene Valley. if (year < 2000) Hiking stats at a glance: ~14 miles ~4,000 ft elevation gain 2 High Peaks – Nippletop 4,620 ft and Dial 4,020 ft 9 hrs (Parking lot to Parking lot) Now that the holidays are officially over my weekends are free once again, and what better way to ring in the new year than with… From Nippletop we could see all of the Colvin Range and Elk Lake all the way to the left. Views from Nippletop, Colvin and Dial were fantastic. Starts out of the ausable club, so there’s an easy few miles on either end of the hike. There are a number of We reached Blake at 11 am!! The temp was a crisp 34° at the base and was really frigid and windy on top. below. things to look at while ascending and you'll get a great view at the end. Hikers or climbers approaching any of the is most likely better if you climb Colvin, Blake and Nippletop first, and Couldn’t stay long because we knew the sun was starting to set soon around 4:30 with many miles back to the car. This was almost an hour to go this 1.3 miles... tough and unrewarding. Mount Colvin, Nippletop, and Dial Mountain Loop is a 18.3 mile moderately trafficked loop trail located near Keene, New York that features a waterfall and is rated as difficult. Dial is most often climbed with Nippletop Mountain – due to it being along the same ridge. Nippletop Mountain Photos. The mountain is part of the Colvin Range. My second solo hike. It was a VERY tough day, the hardest day of hiking I've ever ventured out for. Steep rocky descent and ascent from Colvin to Blake, with no view at Blake. We powered through that in about an hour. peak directly or go up Nippletop and then descend to Dial and then out. enforced for over 100 years. months[12]="December"; Plan to park in the parking lots nearby (we parked 0.7 miles away from St. Huberts). We had to do some slight ascending up Bear Den Mountain and Noonmark shoulder but the rest was a long and technically easy descent in the dark with headlamps. Length 12.7 miElevation gain 4124 ftRoute type Loop For parking, you can park in the same parking area, as Gothics and Pyramid (here is a link to directions, beginning in the second paragraph). I most enjoyed the climbs to and from Colvin-Blake, although my legs eventually started to tire. It If you take a short walk (30 feet) past the summit The section between Nippletop and Elk Pass is steep, dropping a thousand feet in a little over a mile, which sounded more appealing to go down than up to me. This being said it is a long day hike and it Luckily we made the relatively easy jaunt up to Dial by 4pm and were again rewarded with awesome views on the rock ledge and powerful winds. We then went down to Colvin and Blake. Beautiful views!! It is was a long day, but a good one. Going down dial is definitely the best way to go. The 1.3 miles over to Blake was tough--it was midday and hot by now, it was the 4th peak of the day, and I felt that was a difficult section of trail for a peak that's not even 4000 feet--and took us over an hour. Challenging hike, fantastic views. forty-first highest peak in the Adirondacks. During the traverse you will really get a lot of time in the high elevation forest; that by itself was such an amazing experience. Did this a couple months ago. Hike stats at a glance: ~19 Miles 6,000 ft of elevation gain 4 High Peaks - Nippletop (4,610), Dial (4,003), Colvin (4,081) and Blake (3,970) 10 hours total time ~80 degrees and sunny I will apologize for my outrageously long post in advance, but a long day calls for a long post and I do not… aax_getad_mpb({ Aug 1. Weather conditions were great, trails were dry, air was cool in the morning, and even later in the day, you aren't that exposed to the sun for long. Incredible, but difficult long day. It’s a pretty easy out and back unless you’d like to pair it with additional peaks. Besides, Nippletop has the best view, so you’ll probably want to get there later in the day to avoid morning fog. You do get a good impression of the great ridgeline they For parking, you can park in the same parking area, as Gothics and Pyramid (here is a link to directions, beginning in the second paragraph). months[5]="May"; very do-able. I trudged through and I complained and the bugs got worse as the evening progressed. . //]]>. Pretty great views on Dial, Nippletop, and Colvin. var months=new Array(13); Continuing along the same trail will lead you to Dial Mountain (4,003 ft). Completed Oct 11th. var date=time.getDate(); You can see Round Trip Distance: ~14 miles. The walk from Dial to Nippletop is about 1.8 miles; you will first drop 100′ of elevation and then gain about 720′. Incredibly muddy and slick from rain the day before- bring extra socks and wear gaiters if you have them. south of the High Peaks sign in Keen or 5.9 mi north of the junction of US 9 and NY We have also been asked to mention that dogs are absolutely The things we will do for our fur baby! Nippletop Weather (Days 0-3): The weather forecast for Nippletop is: Mostly dryTemperatures will be below freezing (max -4°C on Fri night, min -12°C on Wed morning)Winds decreasing (fresh winds from the ESE on Wed night, calm by Fri afternoon). It was a great day, climbing 2 of the Adirondack 4000' peaks. We met a hiker who had also just hit his 40th summit and he snapped our picture on Colvin at 12:30. Dial has been long The mountain is part of the Colvin Range. Our thought was to get the steep incline over first and have a easier end to the day. Leach trail from Nippletop to Dial Mountain was actually soft and easy underfoot. Nippletop Mountain 4,620 ft elevation High Peak Rank: 17 Dial Mountain 4,020 ft elevation High Peak Rank: 41 Total miles: ~13 Time including stops: ~9 hours. Sat. [CDATA[ All images are property of adktrailtalesandtails and may only be used with express permission. months[4]="April"; Nippletop Mountain: 4620′ Dial Mountain: 4020′ Bear Den: 3399′ Total Duration: 8.5 hours of hiking + 1.25 hours at summits. Tough, but fun. of the great range. However, your rewarded by the large opening caused by We reached the Lake road and we were so happy to be on flat ground again. Nippletop is known to be one of the wetter 46s, the Elk Pass Trail being As usual we left Albany at 5:30 with our goal of hiking Dial and Nippletop. It’s a pretty easy out and back unless you’d like to pair it with additional peaks. At the bottom of the Pinnacle Ridge trail is a stream, a small "waterfall", and a campsite that we were prepared to use if needed. months[3]="March"; The toughest part was the hike from Colvin to Blake and back. Blake has no views at all. The loop can also be done counterclockwise, by going over Elk Pass first. Lot was full, but I was fortunately able to get one of the last spots across the street. What I Wore Ice breaker merino wool baselayers (top and bottom), socks EMS zip off hiking pants Long sleeve tech top Columbia Snow-pocalypse Omni-heat jacket Vasque Snowblime boots From Dial, on a clear day, you can catch views up Keene Valley. The ascent is steep and seems longer than its 1.9 miles to the summit, with the glorious views from Nippletop’s ridge worth the ascent. Dylan McKenzie 1 year, 3 months ago Ausable Club Parking Area to Dial Mountain, Keene, NY, USA. From the top of Dial I hiked to Bear Den Mountain which is another wooded summit. Trip Time: 11 Hours (20-30 minute break on each summit including Bear Den Mt.) // End -->, //