Phelps Mountain and Table Top Mountain

When John and I booked our accommodations for a trip to the Adirondacks (staying in Lake Placid) for Memorial Day weekend 2025, it was abnormally hot in New Hampshire. Turns out that for our 3-day weekend, we’d be dealing with a nor’easter bringing needed rain, but annoying hiking conditions.

Saturday, May 24th

The original plan was to hike Phelps and Table Top Mountains together because they share the same trail (Van Hoevenberg) for about 3.3 miles before splitting off for their summits. The forecast on Saturday wasn’t great (highs in the mid-forties and rainy), so we decided to just get Phelps.

Fun fact: trailheads to us are pitchoffs to these Adirondack folks. Our pitchoff for the day started at the Adirondack Loj (fancy way to spell “lodge”?), where you have to get there early and be ready to fork over $18 to park. I was anxious to be hiking in the weather conditions, but there were plenty of people as insane as we were.

2.3 miles in we arrived at Marcy Dam and soon had to decide whether we were going to take the high-water route or brave the water crossing; we chose the latter, but I wasn’t thrilled with it (prior experience has left its mark). As usual, John easily made it across with his long-ass legs. I went upstream a bit to where there were three thin, bark-less (i.e., slick) tree trunks laid down to connect my path of largely spaced rocks. With my poles, I made it without incident (but I growled to myself while doing it).

The next mile or so there’s minimal gain. We had fun moving from rock to rock to avoid running water and mud on the trail. We took Phelps Trail to reach Phelps Mountain. Most of the gain was in this 1.2 miles of rock hopping because the trail was a literal stream. We were happy to be wearing our winter boots. The trip back was uneventful, and we looked like you would expect in a day of constant rain and mud. Because of the weather, the trails were not as crowded and there were no bugs. Silver linings!

Sunday, May 25th

The weather was considerably better the following day: just cloudy and a bit warmer. We wanted to get Street and Nye, but we heard that the water crossing was about three feet deep; on me, that’s up to my hip (literally, I just measured). We figured our best bet would be to trudge up the same trail as the previous day to get Table Top Mountain.

Except we weren’t trudging! We were plowing through all the mud like it was nothing and made better time, despite an additional .3 miles on the high-water trail (just after Marcy Dam).

The herd path for Table Top is off of the Van Hoevenberg Trail another 1.2 miles after the junction with Phelps Trail. The path itself is about .7 miles, and I liked it better than Phelps Trail. The climb was a narrow trench of ledge that created the path of least resistance for multiple inches of water. Surprisingly, the rock was not at all slick; coming down would have been so much slower and treacherous had it been. The trail eventually levels off and you move from one mud lake to another; it’s really fun stuff! Had the bugs been out, I can imagine that this area would have been miserable. On the summit there was a funny guy who kept saying to anyone new who joined, “It’s a great view of people eating lunch.”

Nothing out of the ordinary happened on the descent. Instead of taking the high-water route, we opted to cross the river. We weren’t concerned about getting our feet wet, at this point.

After each hike we ate at Lisa G’s in Lake Placid. Great food, nice vibe.

Lessons Learned:

• You’ll likely see way less people if you hike in the rain in the Adirondacks.
• Wear boots, instead of trail runners, to avoid mud-seeped feet.
• Hypothermia weather = no bugs.
• Keep some cash on you for parking.