From the Lake George Recreation Center on Transfer Road in Lake George, NY, you can access, not only the LG Recreation Trails, but also the Berry Pond Preserve of the Lake George Land Conservancy (LGLC). Transfer Road and the trailhead is just off of Route 9N and just west of Exit 21 of the Adirondack Northway (I87). The Preserve offers the chance to see a heron rookery at Berry Pond, and also offers a loop trail with an overlook which provides distant views of surrounding mountains and of Lake George itself.
The trails of the Recreation center are quite a maze. To get to the Berry Pond Preserve, you need to go out to the end of the Recreation center trails, out past Viper's Grotto to begin the hike in the Preserve.
Leesa and I chose this hike for a Sunday afternoon. Scattered showers were expected, and we got caught in them as we reached Berry Pond. The trail loops around Berry Pond, but a beaver has dammed up the outlet. You need to walk on the dam to complete the loop. The dam is still kind of narrow at the time, so we didn't complete the loop.
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| A double decker beaver cut! |
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| Approaching Berry Pond through the ferns |
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| A heron nest (rookery) at Berry Pond |
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| The beaver dam at the Berry Pond outlet |
After waiting out the storm under a thick canopy of trees, we headed for the overlook. The sun came back out pretty quickly as well as the blue sky. That was great. We were able to get decent views from the overlooks.
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| One of the views from the overlook |
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| Neat sky |
The trails in this preserve don't have an abundance of trail markers, so in addition to printing the LGLC map to take with you, I would take a compass just in case you need it. The trail system is a mix of old jeep roads and foot trails. The trails of the Lake George Recreation System are mostly jeep roads.
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| The view of Lake George from the other overlook |
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| Our route for the day |
Hike Stats:
Hike Distance: 5.6 miles
Hike Time: 2.5 hours
Total Vertical Gain: ~1300'
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