Lake George Wild Forest - 6 Ponds & Leantos - 10/2/12

Today I went for a long walk in the Lake George Wild Forest on the east side of the lake.  I started in Hogtown at Dacy Clearing.  It's a great area to walk with all kinds of trails and things to see.

Rev checking out Bumps Pond 

I didn't really have a set agenda.  The weather was questionable, so I thought I would just head out and see how it would turn out.  I headed north with my dog Rev to Bumps Pond.  Lots of good color in the leaves.  Probably 70 % turned or so.  We continued north to Fishbrook Pond and traversed the west shore before reaching the lean-to on the north shore.

Look at the Reflection!

Rev was ready for a snack, so we stopped there and had a bite to eat.  I decided at that point that I wanted to hit all 6 ponds and 6 lean-tos in the area if the rain held off.  We continued on.  The next pond was an out and back to Greenland Pond.  The trail was quite wet and the trail markers have long since disappeared.  There was flagging in a couple spots and some cats eye pins in a few trees, but the trail wasn't too hard to follow.

2 more Bumps Pond pics

We reached Greenland Pond and Rev took off, following some scent and starting heading clockwise around the pond.  I could see her running through the tall meadow grass on the north side of the pond. She was on the other side before I knew it.  I followed the trail around the south side and met up with her at the Greenland lean-to.

We returned to the main trail and continued north to Millman Pond.  I my opinion, Millman Pond has the best lean-to of the group.  It is definitely the most well cared for lean-to I have seen.  It was well maintained and clean.  It also sits in a nice location.

Onward to the north we reached Lapland Pond and the lean-to there on the NE section of the pond.  I didn't reach this lean-to last year due to a rattlesnake in the path that I didn't want to disturb!  No problem this time and I got to have a better look around.  The lean-to sits high on a knoll with a grassy lawn overlooking the pond.

Fishbrook Pond

One more pond to go, Black Pond and lean-to # 5 for the day.  The leanto can be missed if you are not careful. It sits high above the trail and is reached by a small unmarked footpath.  On our way out, we followed our route in until we got to Fishbrook Pond, when we followed the east shore this time so we could see our last lean-to of the day (Fishbrook - south).  Back to Bumps Pond where we also followed the east shore so we could take the trail to Sleeping Beauty Mountain. 

North lean-to at Fishbrook Pond

With increasing clouds, the visibility from the summit of Sleeping Beauty wasn't as good as it could be, but the summit is worth a visit in just about any weather.

Mushroom high-rise

When we at last reached the car, I checked my GPS to find that we had gone 16 miles.  Rev probably went almost twice that.  She's not one to miss an opportunity to explore.

Boardwalk at Millman Pond, viewed from the lean-to

Millman Pond Lean-to

Northern Fishbrook Pond Lean-to

Lake George from Sleeping Beauty Mountain

My route - click map to enlarge

My route - viewed on Google Earth

Hike Stats:

Hike Distance - 15.9 miles

Total Vertical Gain - 2890'

Hike Time - 8 hours (including stops)

See my Every Trail link for more route information