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Mt. Jo – A Short Trail to a World of Insight

I have climbed Mt. Jo on ADK’s Heart Lake property many times over the years.  Usually, I just storm up the “Short Trail” to get to the top for its grand view of Heart Lake and the Adirondack High Peaks.

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However, on this day I decided to join Andy, one of ADK’s summer Education Interns, as he lead a group to the summit.  I was in for quite an education “seeing” for the first time all that I had missed in my rush to the top.  lNot long after we started, Andy paused next to an old stump which, if I had ever seen before, I had never noticed.  It turns out that it was the resilient remnants of the 1903 fire that swept Mt. Jo clear of all trees.  Andy explained that after the fire, seeds from aspen and paper birch blew in and pioneered the woods we see today.  Later red spruce, balsam fir, and red and striped maple seeds drifted in and added to the growth.  Once the paper birch die out, the small red spruce will be able to reach their final height of 50 feet and the mature forest will return.

Next we noticed a boulder sitting all alone, how sad.  Actually it is an example of a glacial erratic, a boulder transported and deposited here by glacial ice.l  What made this one especially notable was the tree growing on its top with its roots stretching down its side to gain nourishment from the thin soil on which the erratic sits.

Anyone familiar with many Adirondack trails will soon notice how well built this trail is.  ADK’s expert trail crew has lavished many hard hours building the steps and water bars on this trail.  I must note here that the so called “Long Trail” is not as well built, and I would only recommend it for snowshoeing in the winter.

After awhile, we came to the section where the trail passes small exposed bedrock cliffs. Here the groundwater seeping through the soil and over the cliff surface creates a fabric of moss and lichens.  We learned that these hardy primitive plants slowly dissolve the mineral surface ultimately breaking down the rocks.  These plants also visually soften the stark surface of the rock.


 

 

In due course our group broke out onto the open rock of the summit.  What fun it was to scramble up the final rocks and feel the breeze on our faces. As the picture (top) shows, Algonquin (and Wright) peaks were center stage with Heart Lake nestled at the base of Mt. Jo.  Even Mt. Marcy was visible as the high point on the horizon left of center.

At this point, Andy stopped being our guide and became our “Summit Steward.”  He was stationed on the summit of Mt. Jo for the rest of the day to answer other climber’s questions and educate the many Mt. Jo visitors about the Adirondacks and its natural history.  While we rested, Andy was kind enough to give us one last lesson about the formation of the Adirondack mountains and the 1.1 billion year old Anorthosite on which we stood (or sat).  He also showed us that right there in plain view were excellent examples of dikes.  They are intrusions of magma in cracks in the Anorthosite and which form a rock that is even harder than the Anorthosite. This greater hardness causes them to weather more slowly than the Anorthosite, thus sticking up like veins.

All in all, quite an eye opening hike in more ways than one.  Not only did I learn much more about this wonderful mountain environment, but I also got to see how ADK’s Education Intern program makes the Heart Lake experience so much richer for our guests.

I hope you get to have the full Mt. Jo experience in the years to come, and if you believe as I do in ADK's Education misson and the importance of environmental and natural history education in preserving our great Adirondacks, then perhaps you might consider a contribution to the Education Intern program.

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NOTE: For a more complete description of the trail, please see ADK's (guide to) ADIRONDACK TRAILS - High Peaks Region 13th Edition, pp 140-141.

Hope you have a great hike!
Bob Goodwin