Recently added to Champlain Area Trails, Coot Hill climb is less than a mile with minimal effort
Story and photos by Tim Rowland
Crossing the Crown Point Bridge over Lake Champlain and driving into New York, motorists can hardly help but notice a dramatic gouge in the mountains, as if the Almighty himself had taken his terrible swift sword and given the West Champlain Hills a mighty whack.
Not so evident, from this vantage point anyway, is a stony outcrop along the northern rim of the forested box canyon that offers up some spectacular views of Lake Champlain and, perhaps even more impressively, a window into the 400-foot gorge itself.
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This is dramatic stuff, but it is reached by a short and fairly tame trail that ascends just 250 feet over six-tenths of a mile. It has also recently been preserved by Champlain Area Trails through a permanent easement on 65 acres that CATS will turn into a nature preserve. “That glacier-carved canyon beneath Coot Hill’s south-facing cliff is not just stunning — it’s a reminder of the mile-high ice that once shaped our landscape,” wrote CATS executive Director Arin Burdo, announcing the easement.
The northern prominence is known as Coot Hill, and if there’s a knock on this hike it’s that it is too easy. If you were raised in a family that spared the rod, but substituted onerous quantities of guilt, you almost feel as if you don’t deserve such a view for such a minimal amount of invested foot travel.
If you need to drive many miles to get there, you might also feel that a 15-minute hike doesn’t deliver enough bang for the buck so as to make it worth your while. I am here to strongly refute that notion, because the summit offers so many varied entertainments that it’s easy to spend an hour or two at the top.
To get there, take Edgemont Road out of Port Henry west to the intersection with Moriah Road; turn left and go a short distance to Lang Road, turning left on a dirt road of diminishing quality and then hanging on for as long as your gumption and your car’s suspension hold out. You don’t need all-wheel drive, but it’s a bit sketchy for a sedan.
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When my wife Beth and brother Bruce hiked Coot in early April, some pretty gnarly washouts remained, so advance with caution. Properly outfitted, you can drive Lang Road to a fascinating little cemetery that bears the graves of soldiers from the Civil War and one, Abel Allen, from the American Revolution.
So after examining the local cemetery, we set out for the summit. The trail crosses a little stream and proceeds mostly on the level until turning sharply to the right and climbing moderately over loose rock and stone slabs toward the top. At half a mile the trail parallels the canyon rim, and there are a few little herd paths where you can wander through the scrub and peek down into the abyss.
A brook roars down below, but you never quite see it, and there are all sorts of interesting geological features as well as interesting shrubs, and of course the soaring birds for which Coot Hill is known.
The dead-end gorge creates some serious updrafts that are adored by raptors that come to hunt or maybe just show off. Some shrill calls pierced the damp air, which Merlin pegged as peregrine falcons, and later we saw them scouting the cliffs on the far side of the canyon.
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The top is a candy store of visual treats, dominated by Lake Champlain and the Green mountains of Vermont in the distance. Icefalls clung to the northern wall of the chasm visible through the evergreens, cliffs and scree.
It’s worth packing binoculars so you, just as British rangers did some 275 years ago, can peer down on the fortifications at the tip of the Crown Point peninsula formed by Lake Champlain and Bulwagga Bay.
The British would have been keeping an eye on their enemy the French, but it’s the ruins of the British fort that came along later that you can make out today. This peninsula would have also been bustling with activity and a small city’s worth of residents back then, belying its sleepy appearance today.
In keeping with this history, Coot Hill will be included in the Regional Office of Sustainable Tourism’s Lake Champlain Region Revolutionary Quest, a self-guided trail highlighting the region’s significant contributions during the American Revolution.
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With such a short trail up Coot there would be plenty of time after your hike to motor on over to the Crown Point Historic Site to learn more. That would make for a very rewarding day.
Did you see ‘Leafy Winters’ gravestone in the cemetery? Such a sweet name. Last time we visited there was a huge American flag flying on the summit. I have to take ‘fault’ with the idea that Big Hollow was carved by ice. The deep gorge between Coot Hill and Bulwagga Mountain to the south must be the result of a fault with a little help from the glacier. Also of geological note, this is a great place to see how the Adirondack rock (mostly gneiss) has been domed up thru the flat lying limestones and shales of the valley below. One story that’s a hoot is about a local Romeo who thought the views here would put his girl ‘in the mood’. He actually managed to drive to the summit where the aphrodisiac vista had the desired effect. Unfortunately, while the couple were getting busy in the front seat, they kicked the shift lever into neutral and the truck began rolling into Big Hollow. A tree stopped their descent but talk about your rocky relationships!