AAdirondack park is the largest protected area in the contiguous United States. It boasts over 2000 miles of hiking trails, and contains over 12 million acres of pristine boreal forest. It is composed of 1606 Mountains that form a massif in northeastern New York. The Adirondack mountains form a roughly circular dome, mostly composed of wild and rugged terrain.

After many years of planning, we decided to begin a project to explore the Adirondack Mountains. Our goal is to find caves, mines and other features hidden with the over 5000 miles of mountains and forest. To keep our first visit easy, we began by exploring some leads on the outer edge of this mountainous area.  We planned for a few days of hiking, and a single night of camping.

Our goals were to find a cave said to be near the Devil’s Washdish and visit the suspected location of a cave or mine near the peak of Thunderbolt Mountain. The details concerning the cave near the Devil’s Washdish were from the field notes of the mysterious yet very accomplished explorer Robert Carroll. Our only detail concerning the location on Thunderbolt Mountain was a marking on a map that came from Russell Gurnee, Former president of the Explorers Club.

After hours of navigating through some very rugged terrain, we found the Devil’s Washdish Cave. We rewarded ourselves with lunch along the shore of the Devil’s Washdish, where we could admire the towering cliffs of Treadway Mountain. After LIDAR scanning the cave, we began our journey to Thunderbolt Mountain. By 4pm we had made it one third of the way up the mountain. As the sun began to set behind Pharaoh Mountain, we setup camp for the night.

The next morning, we were greeted by calls from the loon at Pharaoh Lake in the valley below us, and snorts from nearby deer. We packed up camp, and continued working our way up Thunderbolt Mountain. Along the path we had plotted up its steep slopes, we unexpectedly stumbled on a beautiful waterfall that was not documented on the maps we had examined. When we arrived at our goal, we saw what looked like the entrance to a cave from a distance. Upon closer examination, it turned out to be just a small niche. I suspect that the marking on the map was a lead given to Russell Gurnee by a local, that he never followed up on.

After a successful first run, we are eager to begin to dive deeper into the wilds of the Adirondacks. We already are in the process of planning an expedition to locate two large marble caves that had been discovered by late explorer Robert Carroll.