A great thing about living in the North Country of upstate NY is the easy accessibility to short adventures, even on weekdays with just a couple hours to kill.
On Thursday, I took a trail run from Lake George village to the summit of Prospect Mountain. Although the hike was only 1.5 miles each way, there was a steady grade and lots of rocks to negotiate.
Hike Stats
Trailhead Elevation: 477'
Summit Elevation: 2021'
Time Up: 36 minutes
Time down: 22 minutes
Total Vertical: 1582'
Round Trip Distance: 3.09 miles
With the auto road closed for the season, there was nobody on the summit.
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| The trailhead starts at this significant pedestrian bridge over the Adirondack Northway (I87) |
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| The view south from the bridge |
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| Looking along the bridge |
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| Machinery remains of an old incline railway |
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| US Geodetic Survey marker |
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| A couple shots looking at the southern end of Lake George and LG village |
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| The Adirondack Northway in the Distance with French Mountain at the far right |
According to Wikipedia, the summit used to have an incline railway car from 1895 to 1903. At one time, there was also a summit building, and later, a firetower. This large gear is about all that remains,
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| Summit pavilion |
In the summertime you can pay to drive the auto road to the summit and there are quite a few picnic table for people to use. The auto road is 5.88 miles each way, and is open from around Memorial Day to Columbus Day.
View Prospect Mtn 20111103.kml in a larger map
Total trip time, including time on the summit was 1 hour and 15 minutes. Not a bad way to get a view and a little exercise. A future trip here in the winter may include a cross country ski on the auto road.
hi. do you recommend going there in early november?
ReplyDeleteI go there all year around and I'm there quite often.
ReplyDelete