Porter Mountain

Porter Mountain is one of the Adirondack High Peaks in Adirondack Park.
Somewhat overshadowed by its higher and more popular neighbor, Cascade Mountain, with which it is often climbed, Porter is nevertheless rewarding.
While it lacks the pseudo-alpine open summit of Cascade, there are nevertheless wide views available from the summit, particularly of the Johns Brook Valley to the east (which Porter blocks from Cascade); it is often less crowded than Cascade.
A yellow-blazed trail leaves the trail to Cascade about 0.5 mile short of that mountain's summit and leads down into the col between the two peaks about 1 mile to Porter's summit.
It is also possible to follow this trail from its other terminus, over neighboring Blueberry Mountain from Keene Valley, although that involves a greater vertical ascent and a longer trip.

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"Started of at the bottom of the mountain with snowshoes, about half way up had to switch over to micro spikes for it got very icy, we summited porter mountain first, it was an overcast day with great views from there, by the time we hiked over to cascade about 35 minutes later the clouds rolled in covering the top of cascade so we had no view." — williamcasey • Mar 29, 2019

"Belle journée ensoleillé avec des bon amis! La rando fut très rapide vu que nous étions assez rapide. Impossible d'aller souper par contre. Aucun besoin de raquette. Probablement la dernière fois de la saison que je les apportes. " — fsoucy76 • Apr 7, 2018

"Deep snow - trail hard packed snow throughout - easy to walk on. Little ice (snow covered). Spikes throughout. Mostlly sunny with low wind apart from above the tree line on Cascade where it was breezy. 29-39 degrees. Saw lots of people coming up and down. Only saw 2 groups doing Porter as well though." — rhinteractive • Apr 2, 2018

"Pretty buggy on the summit but not terrible. We summited Porter before we reached Cascade and were thankful that we did as we could see many people on the Cascade summit. Quite muddy going from the Porter sign to the actual summit." — brittanypalmieri • Jul 5, 2017

"After summiting Cascade Mountain, I was exhausted. I attempted Porter. I was already dreading the fact that I was going to have to climb to the summit after hiking down into the col, and then back up and out... but when I sunk into the mud past my shins, I threw in the towel. " — jennifermurphy • Jun 29, 2017

"Enjoyed a nice 6.2 mile RT hike of Casade and Porter on a very warm, January day - snow covered was minimal, barely enough to cover the rocks, mushy by the end of the hike. Low hanging clouds, very grippy ice in the col. Nice beginning hike for a few of our friend who have not done a HP in winter." — deb-and-rob • Jan 21, 2017

"I was going to attempt Porter earlier this year when I did Cascade, but the weather hindered the attempt. Today was a great day with lots of people on the trail. A great view of Cascade as well." — MarkEarle67 • Aug 31, 2016

"A humid rainy morning, we did this and cascade just because my wife Deb needed Porter to catch up to me on our quest for the 46. No views at both summits, lot of fog, wind and rain. Also the trail was muddy but we had fun, great exercise and she got another notch in her belt." — hbotc • Aug 14, 2016

"Left the trail head at 8 AM, we made good headway despite the overcast day and rainy drizzle. It was my companions very first high peak, and she enjoyed it despite the weather. I was able to point out where the mountains we should have been able to see were. We summited, and then headed over to cascade, where we saw more of the mist that was the scenery this day. " — Kazmuglin • Jul 10, 2016

"First summit of the day in our quest to become 46ers. No views, but an easy enough climb, so not too disappointed. Stayed around 3mins before heading on to Cascade, bitterly cold day. But, at the end of the day 4 down........42 to go !!" — UK-Ranger • Nov 14, 2015

"Had to collect this view after Conquering Cascade since it's so close. Again, no view due to rainy weather and clouds but none the less amazing to be on the high peaks in any weather! " — psychobettie77 • Oct 25, 2015

"My 2nd high peak in the ADk's. Great day out for a hike in the mountains!! Not too hot but still worked up a big sweat. Climbed with my wife Kristie and two daughters, Kaitlyn and Morgan. Fun day!!" — guntet • Sep 6, 2015

"First ADK High Peak. Probably the first real mountain I've ever climbed, for that matter. I drove up from the Finger Lakes early in the morning, and got right to it. I wanted to see if I could actually climb these mountains not having really done a lot of elevation-gain hiking, and after a lot of reading I decided to just go for it. I chose this hike because it's been termed the "beginner hike." It was kind of cloudy, and rain was expected in the afternoon, so I tried to make time. I got to the Cascade/Porter junction around 10:30 am, and elected to do Porter first due to the persistent "mostly cloudy" conditions. Twenty minutes later I had summited my first high peak! This worked out as planned, since the views atop Porter are comparatively limited, so the low ceiling didn't really matter. I hung around long enough to eat a granola bar and hydrate, and then it was back down to the trail junction again . . ." — cbp5800 • Aug 15, 2015

"We arrived at the trail-head around 5:35am and signed the register at 5:45am. Our goal was to make it back to the hotel by 10:30ish so we could checkout by 11. Needless to say, that didn't happen. With this being the 1st time hiking a High Peak or any peak for the matter, I had no idea what to expect. There were a ton of rocks/boulders to traverse, and with me being unprepared wearing only Keen Sandals, it was definitely more challenging than it should have been. We made it to the trail split around 8:00. It took about 30 minutes or so to make it to the summit of Cascade, our 1st High Peak. It was extremely windy and chilly. I literally had to crawl to the summit on all 4 fours because I was scared for my life; I was afraid of falling. After a quick snack, it was onward to Porter. We arrived at the summit of Porter around 9:15. Still windy and chilly, but not as scary as Cascade. We had a quick snack and texted our wives to let them know we made it. We quickly descended and made it back to the car around 11:15. Ryan dropped me off at my hotel around 11:30ish. " — jackmhare • Aug 14, 2015

"Après une courte pause et une photo avec notre prochain objectif en arrière-plan, la descente s'amorce vers l'embranchement où nous allons rejoindre Porter. Petit problème, nous avons manqué l'embranchement et avons dû remonter un 500m pour y retourner. Quelques moments mémorables lors de notre chemin vers Porter ont impliqué Antoine se vantant d'éviter la boue, juste avant de s'enfoncer bien profondément dedans. La vue du sommet de Porter est moins grandiose que celle vue de Cascade, mais le sommet est bien moins achalandé et représentait notre 12e montagne sur 46! Le retour s'est fait sans histoire." — PL5 • Jul 5, 2015

"First hike of the season. Solo. Made up for orphaning Porter on my birthday hike the previous fall with 9 people. Loop from Marcy Field -> Blueberry -> Little Porter -> Garden -> Route 73 back to Marcy Field." — ndru-virus • May 16, 2015

"Hiked with Tommy. My first ADK 46'er! In conjunction with Cascade. Fiercely cold, summit was completely socked in. Met a dog that looked like a bear and bumped my head pretty bad on a tree leaning across the trail." — kellieirene • Jan 2, 2015

"This is a popular hike of mine. I have escorted many people up this mountain along with Cascade. This was the last time I climbed this. I also went up in 2006, 1988 and Winter 1987. I have old photographs, not digital of that Winter hike. We had camped on the summit of Cascade." — hbotc • Aug 20, 2014

"This was added on to a trip to Cascade. The trail was a bit muddy and puddle filled in the col between Cascade and Porter. It was fun watching my 20 pound, pretty girl Boston Terrier marching thru mud and deep puddles. She seemed to be enjoying herself hiking off-leash. It took three shampoo/rinses to get her clean once we got back to camp! " — johngilligan • Jun 16, 2014

"This was my husband and my next attempt at 46er. We decided to enter from the garden parking lot because this was the shortest route. We're still getting our "mountain legs" and trying to gauge what is the right tempo for us. The guidebooks said this route was "boring" and "dull" but we found it to be actually quite amazing. At this time of year the leaves are just beginning to open and the tiny, bright green leaves didn't obscure the distant views to the other side, facing towards Big Slide and the Brothers. We had excellent views the whole way. The trip was long and steeper than the last one (Cascade). We took along too much stuff again but we are still learning what is the important stuff to bring and what is superfluous. As we got higher and higher, we realized that we were probably the only ones on the trail and probably the only ones for some time. We confirmed this once we got back to the log at the start of the trail. Because the trail seemed so undisturbed, we got a special treat! We noticed that a moose had been following the upper part of the trail for quite a while (almost to the summit) and because the trail was wet, the prints were very distinct. We took so..." — SummitSusie • May 16, 2013