Chimney Mountain & Eagle Cave

"Do you think these halls are fair, where your King dwells under the hill in Mirkwood, and dwarves helped in their making long ago?  They are but hovels compared with the caverns I have seen here: immeasurable halls, filled with an everlasting music of water that tinkles into pools, as fair as Kheled-Zaram in the starlight."

         - Gimli, Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

A few miles south of Indian Lake, the self-appointed Moose Capital of New York State, is a marvel of Adirondack adventuring.  Heading up Route 28, one of the major thoroughfares into the park, you will pass through North Creek, home to Gore Mountain, and then North River, well known for the spring Hudson River Whitewater Derby.  Soon after, you will see a gigantic rustic wooden chair on the right side of the road, a well known tourist photo-op and advertisement for a local artisan who makes a style of furniture that has become known as "Adirondack Rustic".  Once you get to this point, you should pay attention because your turn is coming soon.  You'll make a left onto Chamberlain Road, which then turns into Chimney Mountain Road, and follow the signs until you reach the parking lot for Chimney Mountain and Eagle Cave.  The parking lot is situated on a small dirt patch next to a serene and isolated lake with a few summer cabins on it.  The proprietors put out a box asking for a $3 donation to park, but there is no booth or parking attendant, nor is there any permit to show that you paid.  Nevertheless, $3 is a small price to pay to continue being able to use their land as the trailhead.

You'll have to walk through their property and past a few cabins to get to the trail register and the beginning of the trail.  The hike up is fairly short, but steep, probably only around 1.5-2 miles.  I've done it a few times and it usually takes about 45 minutes to an hour.  The trail is eroded down to bedrock in many places.  The steepness mixed with the bare rock and loose soil make the hike strenuous in spots and on warm summer days it is extremely buggy, so I would suggest bringing a mosquito headnet.  The trail can also be somewhat confusing at times due to weaving herdpaths from people who either didn't quite know where they were going or were attempting to go to the cave without going to the mountain.  The only way I know how to locate the cave entrance, though, is by summitting the Chimney first.  Just stay to the right while hiking and you will easily find your way to the mountain.

After about an hour of strenuous hiking, you will arrive at Chimney Mountain.  I was lucky enough to work at a wonderful place called Camp Pack Forest a few years ago and once a week we went on an overnight camping trip with our campers, aged 14-17.  This trip was one that we did, as there is a large, flat marked off camping area almost right next to the Chimney.  Chimney mountain is appropriately named as it is an intrusion of harder rock into a softer rock which erodes more quickly, thus produces the chimney-like appearance at the summit - it is squared off and straight up on all four sides.  The first time I hiked here my friends and I spent a long time figuring out how to forge a path to rock climb to the top, which is an exhilarating experience.  even more exhilarating was trying to descend the chimney without falling too our deaths.  It was a very dumb decision :-P  On later trips, I saw people climbing the chimney properly with gear such as harnesses and ropes.  You must also be careful in this area because the entire rock field is scattered with deep postholes which lead down into small, interconnected caverns.  I could easily see someone punching through with their leg and either twisting an ankle or, worse, breaking a leg.

The Chimney and Eagle Cave are on the edge of one of the great wildernesses of the Adirondacks: the Siamese Ponds Wilderness Area.  Within these woods there are 33 bodies of water, and yet just 33 miles of hiking trails and 4 leantos.  It contains one of the highest densities of wildlife in the park; this is one of your best bets to see animals such as moose, coyote, beaver, and black bear.

The peak of Chimney Mountain is on a ridge.  Directly opposite, parallel to, and behind the chimney is another rock-capped ridge.  On the other side of that ridge is the opening to Eagle Cave, a marvel of Adirondack adventure.  It is the deepest cave in the park and attracts spelunkers from all over.

The entrance to Eagle Cave is what spelunkers call a "belly wiggle".  It is only about 18 inches high for the first 10 feet.  After that, the cavern opens up into an enormous room they call the Great Hall.  You will need to bring headlamps, of course, as the cave is pitch darkness inside and dress warmly, as even on a hot summer day it is very cool inside.  The cave goes down at least four levels and on the lowest level there are chunks of ice year round.  You will also need to be very aware when you enter the cave because soon after the belly wiggle there is a fissure in the left wall which drops 70 feet into the "Bat Room" on the second level.  Speaking of the Bat Room, there used to be large groups of brown bats which used the cave to hibernate during the winter months.  The first time I spelunked here I even found a few frozen dead bats in that room.  Two years ago, the state Department of Environmental Conservation closed the cave for the entire year to study a devastating fungus which causes White Nose Syndrome in bats.  This disease has baffled attempts at control by scientists and threatens to exterminate ALL bats in the Northeastern United States in the next 20 years.  When I was a kid, I used to see bats almost every night in my backyard; that sight is so rare now that I got incredibly excited when I saw a bat last year.

There is only one physically difficult part about the cave, a spot known as the 10 ft vertical drop.  It is at the end of the Great Hall and the only way to descend to the second level.  The first two times I went to the cave, we had to tie off our own climbing rope around a boulder at the top of the drop.  Last time I went, though, someone had left their rope tied off with very convenient handholds made of plastic piping.

Lastly, remember that caves are formed by water seeping through ground for eons.  As such, parts of the cave are very wet.  It was difficult to take pictures in the cave, but you can see some of the wetness in this picture.

In an effort not to give away all the amazing things you'll find on this hike and spelunking adventure, I'll leave you to discover Chimney Mountain and Eagle Cave for yourself :)  It is quite beautiful and a unique sort of experience.  These last two pictures are of the Chimney from the ridge containing Eagle Cave and the distant lake at which the trail starts (with a horsefly in the foreground to give an idea of how buggy it was haha).  I also found a nice youtube video overview of this adventure.  Enjoy!