WhatTheHikeRx

Today Tilly and I knocked one of the few remaining Lake George 12sters off the list by hiking Black Mountain!

Tilly, as always, was the perfect companion though I still claim she is part mountain goat.

The trailhead starts from a parking lot that turns left on to an old gravel road. I began to think I should have took the stop sign gate seriously as soon I came across a house on my left which is distinctly NOT trail -like. However the rangers must have expected this reaction as a wonderful DEC sign was posted on a tree to the right of the house indicating I was indeed in the right place, on an actual trail, and if I just turned right and walked 1.8 miles (hahaha very accurate) I would find myself at Black Mountain Summit.

Mountain goat in the lead, we began walking at a leisurely pace as the trail had some rocks…yes this is New England hiking we don;t hike without rocks…and I was shocked by how little the trail actually ascended in the first half of the hike. Both Tilly and I looked at each other as if to say “when does it get hard?”

The second half of the trail had a nice stream to cross and a lot of wet rocks. Apparently this is normal as a lot of water runoff connects to the streams year round on this trail. And with rain comes…MUD. Lots of mud. Shin high mud. Pull off your boot mud. I definitely had a few close calls on loosing a boot but overall if you step quick and fast the mud doesn’t have time to suck your boot off.

Further up the trail some ice was still clinging to the rocks and branches but nothing a good pair of well positioned boots couldn’t handle. I was a bit worried for the way down but Tilly was patient with me and it went smoother than I thought it would.

While the day started off without a cloud in the sky, but the time we reached the summit, rain clouds were threatening the horizon. Still, we took a 20 minute break to fuel up and enjoy the views of Tongue Mountain Range as well as Lake George before 3 other hikers came up to appreciate the vista as well.

There is also a cool, and still function/in use emergency radio tower before the actual summit that was interesting to look at. I had no idea we had an active tower so close! A fire tower is also enclosed with the radio tower, so unfortunately it is not accessible by the public. Still pretty neat!

The decent was nothing remarkable except for the later hikers coming along the trail. A very nice couple found the dog water bowl I had managed to lose and were bringing it up the trail with them. Trail magic, gotta love it. People are so nice to each other when out in nature. I wish we could bring that same caring to the concrete jungle.

Anyway, not sure what is next on the Hiking bucket list but I’ll be on vacation soon so I’ll have time to plan my next steps!