REDFIELD & CLIFF MTNS ADK 46'ERS (The "Rev it up" hike)

I made plans with ADK High Peaks Forum member and fellow blogger, (Off on Adventure) TelemarkMike for a trip to Redfield and Cliff. I stopped for some early morning pictures along the Upper Works Rd...

Mike and his new dog "Rev" were waiting at the trailhead when I arrived. We headed out from the Upper Works along the Calamity Brook trail and were delighted at how cool the morning was. We stopped briefly at Calamity Pond to enjoy the views...

We then proceeded to the Flowed Lands and once again stopped for a break and took in the views and wildflowers (Starflower)...

We stopped at the McMartin Lean-to to check it out...

Near the Lean-To their was an opening with a view...

We made it to the Lake Colden crossing fairly quickly afterward...

The Opalescent Brook was a pleasure to hike along as we headed towards Uphill Brook Lean-To...

At the lean-to we ate snacks an prepared to hike the herdpaths. We headed to Redfield first and the herdpath followed the picturesque Uphill Brook most of the way up...

We arrived at the summit and enjoyed the views south of Allen Mtn...

There was views north and west of Skylight, Marcy, Gray, Colden and the McIntyre Mtns as well...

After watching a military bomber skim the summit of Marcy we decided the weather looked iffy so we headed down to the junction to the Cliff Mtn herdpath...

The herdpath up Cliff was very muddy in the lower section...

Had very steep cliffs in the middle section...

And a lot of blowdown along the ridge...

Although a relatively short ascent took us a while longer than expected.
Rev did great all the way through and only had to be helped up a couple vertical cliff sections.
We enjoyed the limited views of Colden from the summit, but we wanted to head back down to the main trail before any weather moved in...

There was however some nice fungi and flowers (Bunchberry) to look at near the summit...

There were some nicer views as we descended back down the steep Cliffs...

The hike out along the Opalescent was nice and we took a couple breaks along the stream, vowing to come back in warmer weather and swim in some of the holes...

We kept moving however to stay ahead of the black flies and soon we were back at the Lake Colden bridge, where Rev made it up the ladder on the other side with no help!...

Rev is really turning out to be a great hiking dog!

I enjoyed the wildflowers along the trail including multiple Pink Ladyslippers as it sprinkled lightly on us...

We made it back to the trailhead in about 12 hours, a long but satisfying hike with great company. Thanks to Mike and Rev for a great day out.