Starbuck Mountain

By Bill Ingersoll

Starbuck Mountain is part of a six-pack of mountains crammed into the geographically-busy region between NY Route 28 and the Hudson River. Seriously, just look at a topographic map and you’ll see the two rows of triple-summited ridges lined up perfectly with each other, the central axis skewed somewhat to the east of north. Starbuck accounts for two of the six, but the others are Harris Rift, Fox, Middle, and Black.

P Gay and Casey mountains to the west almost make this a nine-pack, but their alignment is far less perfect.

Whether this is a six-pack of beer, or maybe a half-dozen jumbo-sized eggs, I’ll leave that to the explorer’s imagination. But there are few other places where the forces of uplift and faulting are so readily evident, or so neatly arranged into rows and columns.

The two southernmost mountains are prominent features of the drive north from Gore Mountain toward Indian Lake. If you are familiar with this stretch of Route 28, you may be able to picture the drive through the hamlet of North River followed by the long hill as the highway climbs into the mountains. Twin cliff-faced slopes preside over this journey: Black Mountain on the right and Starbuck Mountain on the left.

Both mountains stand on state land, but neither get the attention they deserve. This is partly because public access has historically been awkward, although some recent acquisitions have improved that situation. Nevertheless, this outing is one for the experts – those people who delight in scrambling over the little-known corners of the Adirondack Park. That said, if anyone were to ever install a formal hiking trail here it would become one of the most popular family hikes in the central Adirondacks.

Getting There – There is no formal trailhead for this adventure, but there is an excellent parking area located at precisely the right point. If you are in Indian Lake, follow Route 28 east; for those people in North Creek or North River, follow the same road northwest. At the intersection with Cleveland Road, look for a large turnoff marked by a giant red chair. This spot is practically at the foot of Starbuck.

The Trail – Although the signage may not be obvious, the woods opposite the big red chair is a corner of state land. Begin by crossing the highway and stepping over the cable guardrail, then looking to the left. Just before POSTED signs mark the beginning of private land to the west, a footpath leads into the woods.

This little trail is a rock climber’s access route to the foot of Starbuck Mountain, and it is useful for bushwhackers seeking the summit, too. It is about 0.6-mile long and is marked by occasional small cairns, leading through a forest where you may find Dutchman’s breeches blooming in May. It crosses Raquette Brook (where a repurposed roofing ladder makes an unlikely bridge) and then a powerline corridor within minutes of leaving the highway. The path ends at the foot of a rock wall located at Starbuck’s southeastern base.

This path gets you to the mountain, but the rest of your day will be spent off-trail. As with any bushwhack, there is no one right way to the cliff tops, but I have found success by flanking the mountain to the east as far as the first babbling brook and then ascending from that direction. Your destination is not the 2,555-foot summit itself, but the broad ridge that stands apart from it to the south.

And what a destination it is! Starbuck is everything it appears to be from the highway, with far more than a singular viewpoint. The openings begin near the east end of the ridge and extend for almost half-a-mile to the west – not continuous, but with several photogenic openings. Just follow the edge of the mountain until you reach a grassy clearing at the west end, with a view that extends from Gore Mountain to Snowy Mountain.

The highest point of this ridge is roughly 2,365 feet, which is just 640 feet above your starting point. You’ll notice there are no coffee baristas or space jockeys here; Starbuck is an historic surname that appears on several features in the Indian Lake region.

Other Destinations – The accompanying map should make it clear this is not the only thing there is to see in these woods. Neighboring Black Mountain has a matching set of ledges of its own, and to the north lie the chain of beaver flows known as the Black Mountain Ponds.

The key to unlocking these other features is a fisherman’s path that begins on private land but climbs through the draw between the mountains. Without the landowner’s permission to access the start of this path, you’ll need to head cross-country to find it from the climber’s trail. Parts of the fisherman’s trail are obvious, other parts not so much, but with a skilled eye you can follow it to a scenic ledge beside the largest of the Black Mountain Ponds.

Bushwhacking up Black Mountain is not dissimilar to the Starbuck Mountain experience. Likewise, there are several scenic openings spread along the ridgeline, although these favor the view south toward Gore Mountain.

My mentor, Barbara McMartin, wrote hiking guidebooks not just to celebrate the established trails, but to illustrate how the Forest Preserve holds so much more potential for trail development. She never wrote about Starbuck and Black, but when I explored this area over multiple visits in 2020 and 2021 my thoughts more or less followed hers: these mountains are so scenic, so close to a major highway, with such a great established parking area, that good family-friendly hiking trails could be built here with minimal impact on the remoteness of the wilderness beyond the two summits.

Bill Ingersoll is a co-founder and the vice-chair of Adirondack Wilderness Advocates. For more information on this area, please visit: adirondackwilderness.org/hudson-gorge-wilderness.