When Dinah and I flew to Montreal to visit her relatives, we didn't exactly find ourselves in a scramblers' Mecca. The closest mountain appeared to be Lyon Mountain in the Adirondacks in New York State. At 1172 m Lyon Mountain is lower than Calgary's Nose Hill (1230 m) and offered a modest elevation gain of 587m.

Mapquest.com indicated it was an hour and a half drive, but with morning rush hour traffic in Montreal, one missed turned and a delay at the border, it took us nearly three hours to reach the trailhead.

The trail followed a rocky streambed that was impossible to lose (a new, smoother trail is planned). The ascent took an hour and ten minutes. We hiked in trees until we reached the summit and even then the forest surrounding the bare rock of the summit offered limited views. An abandoned fire lookout afforded far better views although we could see little of the distant peaks because of cloud cover.

After climbing down from the lookout we met a guy who lead us through the woods along a path to see Avril Mountain -- "It's worth a ten-minute hike to see," he told us -- but we weren't impressed. The descent down Lyon Mountain was fast: 30 minutes.

Our first impression of the Adirondacks wasn't encouraging, but we would return in a couple of days to climb the two highest peaks there.