Black Mountain - Lake George NY

I want to keep this blog focused on Hiking so it is only appropriate to start with our hike up Black Mountain on Lake George in the summer of 2011. We were taking a extended family vacation with my wife's family and rented a nice house right on the lake in Hague NY.

We were planning to hike while we were there so in preparation I went out and bought a nice pair of hiking boots. I bought a pair of Vasque Breeze Gore-Tex hiking boots.

We decided to go up Tongue Mountain first. We drove our car to the parking area and started up the trail. It was pretty hot and muggy day and the flys and gnats were terrible. For me physically the hike was a completely different experience from the hike a few years earlier. Sans the insects, I really enjoyed it.

A couple days later we were ready to take on Black Mountain. We planned to start from the lake trailhead so we needed to get a permit from the Glen Island Ranger station. We left early in the morning with a stiff wind coming up the lake and with a little hesitation considering the gnats on the previous hikes. The wind blew up some pretty good sized waves up that made it a very bumpy ride.

On our way we encountered a stranded boat with a dead battery. We picked up a couple of their crew and took them with us to the ranger station where there is a camp store. Luckily, the camp store had a battery and they were able to hitch a ride back to their boat with someone else.

We got our permit, drove to the trailside dock, tied up the boat and headed up the trail. Here I am at the start, you can see our boat tied up to the dock in the background.

The trail wasn't too bad to start but it got steeper the higher we went. We stopped for a photo-op where the trail from the parking lot intersected the trail.

From left to right: Meg, Erich, Emily, Kevin (Me) and Elaine. Jen took the picture. A little further up the trail we came to fantastic overlook with a view of the narrow islands and further down to Bolton Landing. 

Not far from the overlook, we met some hikers coming down from the summit. As we passed they told we were almost there and that the view was "life changing" We couldn't wait to get to the summit. Once on top, the views north toward Hague were magnificent ... yes, life changing!

Even though there were a lot of large clouds, the day was very clear. We stayed on the summit for about an hour having lunch and enjoying the view. Jen enjoyed it!

Reluctantly, we headed back down with a lot of good pictures and some memories for a lifetime. I would highly recommend this hike to everyone, the trail has a pretty easy scramble near the peak but I wouldn't let that discourage you.