Autumn Color on Severance Hill

What better way to cure the post-visit depression we suffered after our friends Eric and Ginny left, than to find a local hike to pump some endorphins and give us some inspiring views?

We checked around and decided to climb Severance Hill.  It is about five miles from our campground and involved only about three miles of hiking.

Here, David points the way from the trailhead:

To get up the mountain, we first had to cross the Northway.  No problem.  Just find the human-size culverts and keep walking!  Kathy introduces us to the first of two:



Beyond the Northway, we found the trail register and dutifully signed in.  Another couple was on the mountain ahead of us.  We would keep an eye out for them.

The Town of Schroon was first settled in 1804, north of the current Schroon Lake hamlet. However, there is a claim that the town was occupied during the Colonial Period as a French colony, and there is thought to be a lot of bloodshed at this lake, as evidence shows it was once a large battleground.

The origination of the name "Schroon" is not precisely known: some believe it to be derived from a Native American word for large lake. Others believe it devolved from French soldiers who inhabited the region during the French & Indian wars. The soldiers were enamored with Madame Scarron (a popular paramour of French King Louis XIV and prior to that the wife of noted French poet/playwright, Paul Scarron). Schroon Lake was also the former home to the Scaroon Manor resort wh  ich closed in 1962. The Scaroon Manor was the site for the 1957 Warner Brothers movie "Marjorie Morningstar" which starred Gene Kelly, Natalie Wood. Carolyn Jones and Ed Wynn. The "Scaroons" are mentioned twice in the book, "The Last of the Mohicans," by James Fenimore Cooper, as a place seen by Hawkeye (Natty Bumppo), Chingachgook and Uncas after they had departed Horicon (the name used by Cooper for Lake George) while traveling northward chasing Magua and his two captives, Cora and Alice Munro

During the 19th  century, harvesting of white pine and red spruce occurred in this area, and often took place on lands in close proximity to water courses such as Schroon River, because the logs could be easily transported down rivers and streams.  Early cutting (1800‐1850) concentrated on the harvesting of pine, while later in the century it shifted to red spruce. Much of the hemlock was cut in the 1850‐1880 period to supply the local tanneries. Hardwoods were not generally harvested, because profitable markets did not exist for them until the early 1900's, and because they could not be transported as easily since they don’t float.  In fact, hardwoods were generally only harvested in the conversion of forests to farmlands and used to make charcoal and potash in order to subsidize that land clearing.  Consequently, much of the lands that would later make up interior sections of the Hoffman Notch Wilderness Area sustained very little harvesting of hardwood logs since most of these lands were purchased prior to cost effective means and markets were available for hardwood logging.

On our hike, we found mainly hardwoods toward the bottom of the hill, but an increasing number of spruce and hemlock as we climbed to the top.  Occasionally, we found evidence of old growth, such as this old fellow that succumbed to the ravages of nature and expired by falling across the trail:

Further back in history, the entire Adirondacks region was once covered by the Laurentian Glacier, whose erosion produced over 1300 lakes and ponds, including Schroon Lake.  As all glaciers do, the Laurentian Glacier carried large boulders with it as it spread over the area.  When it melted, some of the boulders that had been floating on top or buried in the belly of the glacier fell to the ground and remain where they were deposited.  David found one of these glacial erratics and stands on it to show you its size:

It wasn't far to the top, where we had a spectacular view of Schroon Lake, shaped somewhat like a demented hourglass with narrows in the middle, and wider at the north end (to the left in this photo) and south end (to the right beyond the photo):

A little further beyond the Schroon Lake viewpoint, but still at the top of Severance Hill, we came upon a lovely view of Paradox Lake, which is said to be haunted:

We poked about the summit to try to find the survey marker for the peak, but couldn't find it.  Our GPS said that we were at 1,710 feet above sea level, and we found three spots at that height.  However, peakbagger.com and other resources indicate that the hill has an elevation of 1,634 feet, and we never found a marker, so we're not sure of the actual height.

Having bagged our little peak and all the resplendent views, we focused, as we descended, on the new autumn color.  Leaves are turning yellow, orange, red and brown, everywhere we look.  Most of the colorful leaves are maple, but Kathy found a large leaf that was the exception to the rule:

Still, the colorful leaves we found made great souvenirs.  We found a downed tree bearing one of the trail blazes and grouped our leaf collection with some pretty just-fallen acorns and the blaze, to illustrate all of the beauty we found this afternoon:

We have a feeling our hikes over the next two or three weeks will get even more colorful, and we plan to share all of that color with you!