Little Peak

Colden is cliffy. Algonquin is steep. Marcy is the biggest of big girls. Gothics is the gnarliest of gnarly boys. And then, south of the High Peaks, in the Vanderwhacker Mountain Wild Forest, between the towns of Minerva and North Creek, overlooking Route 28N, there’s Moxham, which is—well, to be totally frank about it, a forested lump shy of 2,500 feet tall that I probably wouldn’t bother visiting if it weren’t for my niece, Daisy.

Look, the issue isn’t specifically Moxham, which boasts a pleasant ridgeline, exposed slabs plunging from the summit, and a sweeping vista of the Hudson River, the garnet mine on Ruby Mountain, the fire tower on Snowy Mountain, and a whole bunch of sky. As the saying goes: It’s not you, it’s me. Typically, I’ve set my sights on the most grueling Adirondack objectives, such as multi-mountain link-ups in the middle of winter. Challenge, hardship, suffering—that’s my jam. I like to serve myself raw to the raw wilderness, like