Treadway Mountain - A Short Ascent to an Interesting Summit

Treadway Mountain is my favorite peak (with a trail) in the Pharoah Lake Wilderness. The trail starts at a trailhead parking lot in the Putnam Pond State Campground (entrance fee). This is a great, and popular, car camping campground located about 5 miles west of Ticonderoga, 3.8 miles from the turn-off (south) from NY 74. The first part of the trail around the south west end of Putnam Pond leads over rolling terrain 1.8 miles to the turn-off for Treadway. In the summer if you have a small boat, you can paddle across Putnam Pond to a short spur trail which leads up to the same trail junction. Or as I did, in the winter if the ice is thick enough, you can hike across the lake on snowshoes to the same spur trail. This will take about 1.2 miles off of the 7.8 mile round trip as well as save some additional up and down.

The lower part of the trail up the mountain is a relatively gentle walk through the woods. The whole ascent from the parking lot is about 900 feet. After awhile, you begin to ascend in ernest, and presently you break out of the woods to walk on open rock. As part of the adventure in this section you will need to climb a small cliff (picture), which can easily be skirted to the left if you go off the trail. Finally, you will reach a short steep section over rock and arrive at the southeast end of the U-shaped summit ridge. You can rest there and scramble around to get good views to the south. You can also see your final summit goal across the deep intervening valley. The trail follows around the U and dips down scrambling over yet another small cliff to reach the col at the end of the valley coming up from the south (your left). After that all that remains is to climb up over more mostly open rock to the summit.

To me, the best place to rest and enjoy the view is maybe 30 or so yards past the summit where this view of Pharoah Lake was taken. On the day we climbed Treadway in early February, the sun came out just as we were resting and eating our lunch here.

In the summer, this is a popular destination because of the interesting open summit and the views of the High Peaks far to the north. I hope you enjoy this mountain as much as I always have.

NOTE: For a more complete description of the trails, please see ADK's GUIDE to ADIRONDACK TRAILS - Eastern Region, pp 111-112.

Have a great hike!
Bob Goodwin