Table Top Mountain

Date: June 14, 2014
Hikers: Me, Elijah, Abbey

The forecast was partly sunny and 72° in Keene Valley. It turned out to be overcast all day, except for the one time the sun appeared for about five minutes while making the trip from Heart Lake parking lot to Marcy Dam. It was beautiful hiking weather actually, with hardly any insects. The trails were quite muddy, the mountains having just absorbed three solid days worth of steady rain. In particular, the Table Top Mountain trail, which runs from the Van Hoevenberg trail to the summit of Table Top, felt more like a stream than a trail for most of its length.

Abbey

We hit the trail from Heart Lake to Marcy Dam at 10:25 AM, having gotten a late start. This being our first High Peak of the season, we didn't have all of our gear as together as we could have. "Honey, have you seen my..." was the beginning of many questions posed to my wife, Jeanette, that morning.

As always, we started the hike with Abbey on her leash, as per park regulations. It's kind of a silly rule for a docile, friendly, stay-with-you dog like Abbey, but when we run into some of the less well-behaved dogs in the park, we understand. Generally she is off leash, but we put her back on when approaching places frequented by park rangers or groups of hikers, particularly if they have a dog. Abbey is a wonderful hiking dog. She stays near and constantly surprises us with how easily she climbs and leaps over obstacles that seem formidable.

Table Top trail head.

We reached Marcy Dam at 11:35, hiking at a fairly brisk pace. Because of the recent rain, the reservoir that had been completely empty on our last visit actually had quite a bit of water in it and reminded me of how it used to look before the dam was destroyed by Tropical Storm Irene. Here we met a park ranger who thanked me for having Abbey on a leash. We asked her about the trail up Table Top and got some good information.

At 1:08 PM we reached the unmaintained trail to Table Top. These trails are sometimes called "herd" paths and often incorrectly (and annoyingly) called "heard" paths. This one was unmistakeable and easy to follow, even though there were no trail markers, except where the trail begins on Van Hoevenberg Trail. As I mentioned, most of the trail had lots of water in it. Some places were very muddy and some seemed more like a raging stream than a trail. It gets steep in some areas and is a narrow path on bedrock in others.

Table Top Summit

We reached the summit at 2:00. The only thing that made us sure we had reached our destination was a sign that read plainly, "TABLETOP MOUNTAIN". Another group of hikers joined us on the summit and one woman was kind enough to take a picture of Elijah and me next to the sign. There are some limited views of the MacIntyre Range and Mount Marcy, which were both blanketed by clouds. Mount Marcy's Iroquois designation, Tahawus, which means Cloud Splitter, seemed apt. We ate our lunch of peanut butter, Nutella and raspberry jam sandwiches with barbecue chips on the summit. It's amazing how delicious even simple kid foods taste after some exertion and in the presence of such beauty.

At 2:25 we began our descent and made it back to the Van Hoevenberg Trail by 3:06, where we continued South to take a look at Indian Falls before returning to our car. About 1/10 of a mile up the trail we crossed Marcy Brook and turned immediately right for about 100 yards or so to the top of the falls. Not much to see from the top and we didn't feel like bushwhacking our way to the bottom to get a better look, so we started back towards Marcy Dam, which we reached at 4:40. The Van Hoevenberg Trail, which seemed so rugged on the way up, seemed very easy after hiking up the truly rugged Table Top.

Muddy and spent, we reached the Heart Lake parking lot at 5:36 PM. This marks my 17th of the 46 High Peaks and Elijah's and Abbey's 10th. I spent a beautiful day of hiking with my elder son and my most excellent hiking dog. We are so blessed to have such an expanse of natural beauty so close to home.