Where to go on a rainy day, that was the question. Leesa and I wanted to get out just to take Rev for a walk. It's hard to keep a hound dog indoors all day! The former Cat and Thomas Preserve, in Bolton, NY is probably the place we have gone most often on a rainy day, and, in fact, we went there again today.
This area became State land in 2013. The Lake George Land Conservancy is no longer the owner, but they maintain the trail network under an agreement with the State.
We got to the trailhead about 2 PM. It was lightly raining. Once again, snowshoes were necessary to prevent post-holing in the rotten snow.
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| New State sign at the parking area |
From the trailhead, hikers can choose a 1.4 mile hike to Thomas Mountain or a 3 mile hike to Cat mountain. Today we chose Thomas Mountain. We were just out trying to wear the dog out a little.
It took us a little over 30 minutes to climb the trail (old jeep road) to the Thomas Mountain cabin. The cabin is now available similar to lean-tos on state land. The cabin is to be shared by any and all that arrive. We have stayed there several times and have not had anyone else arrive looking to stay on any of the nights we've been there. You can also now have an outdoor fire there which previously was not allowed.
We were glad to see the cabin is still in good repair. In fact, someone has repainted the front of the cabin. It is a bright medium blue color. The previous coating had faded to a light blue gray.
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| The view of the Lake George was almost obscured by clouds when we arrived |
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| A rather bright blue now decorates the front |
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| Cat Mountain in the distance |
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| The faded blue can be seen on the left side |
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| The blue trail leaving the cabin |
As often happens on rainy days, the clouds dropped down to shroud Lake George. As we were at the cabin having a snack, we watched the clouds blowing to the south and beginning to lift. Some of the pictures below show some of the different cloud patterns.
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| Clouds beginning to lift off the lake |
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| The inside of the cabin |
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| Another view of the lake |
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| Rev enjoying the snow |
It was one of those days where we could have just sat and watched the cloud changes on the lake, but we had gotten rather wet from the rain so we didn't linger as long as we would have liked.
It would have been fun to ski down the wet snow on the old jeep road trail, but the snowshoes worked well on the post-holed soft wet snow on the trail.
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| Thomas Mountain old jeep road trail |
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| The blue trail to Thomas Mountain |
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| Flood waters flowing over still frozen ice |
Hike Distance: 2.8 miles
HIke Time: 1 hour, 15 minutes
Total Vertical Gain: ~ 700'
