Caving

by Henk de Smidt

One of the more interesting caves would be Eagle Cave at Chimney Mountain. The trail head for this cave is located on private property at the end of Big Brook Rd, Route 4. There is a self-pay box for parking, ($5.00 per vehicle in 2022) Sign in at the trail register and head east on the easy to follow 1.25 mile trail to the Chimney Mtn. For all your Geologist pay close attention to the rocks on the trail and the rock slabs you walk on. The entrance to the cave is near the top of the mountain and closed for about half the year to let the bats hibernate in peace. I have always gone in May and found snow and ice in the deep crevices around the base of the mountain that the cave is located in.

Getting into the cave is a tight squeeze, but that only adds to the adventure. Once inside you are at the “upper balcony” from there make your way down to the floor of the large room by heading down a steep pitch and keep exploring, by going further down. Just make sure than when you go down you know that you can get yourself back up. Unfortunately a lot of markings have appeared on the cave walls to point visitors in certain directions, taking away from the exploring aspect of this cave.

If you combine this with the rock climbing trip, you have gear available for those who need a rope and maybe a harness, although we have never used a harness, we always took rope and webbing.

Since DEC campgrounds require a two night minimum reservation you could do as we did, and add rafting on the Indian to Hudson Rivers. Consider Adirondac Rafting Co. They did a great job for us and made sure we covered everything to earn the Whitewater Rafting BSA patch.

Drive up and Climb on day one, Raft on day two, and Cave on day three before heading back home. If making it a three day event Lewey Lake or Blue Mountain Lake might be the better choice for camping.