As most people know, Lake George is blessed with amazing beauty; both from the water and from the surrounding mountains. Many of the mountains offer vistas that just can't be beat. Today, Leesa and I found another one of those today - Spruce Mountain.
We almost postponed this trip because the forecast was for cloudy skies, and we wanted to do this trip on a good visibility day, but we were in the area and I figured we would come back if the visibility was lacking. As it turns it, We'll be coming back anyway because it is a tremendously beautiful peak. We had luck on our side today as we had bluebird skies for some of the day.
From Route 22, head north past the road to Huletts Landing... the next road on the left is North Road. Turn onto North Road and follow it to the T in the road. Turn right and follow it past Military Road a short distance to the end of the plowed portion of the road. There is parking space for a couple cars.
We started following the unplowed portion of the road. There are posted signs on either side of the road.
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| The start of the unplowed portion of the road. |
After walking for just a couple minutes, there is a sign on the right hand side of the road where a orange disc trail begins. It is private land, but the property owner has graciously allowed hikers to used the trail as long as they stay on the trail. How awesome!
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| Thank you! |
The orange discs turned to rock cairns. In the snow they became somewhat had to follow, but all you need to know is that the trail follows the west edge of the ridge and it straddles the state land boundary. Up on the ridge there are white paint blazes the remainder of the way.
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| Climbing the west face of the ridge. |
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| There is also nice signage, similar to the SOA trails in the McKenzie Mountain Wilderness in Lake Placid. |
Views come early and often on this hike. On this day, we were getting slammed with 35 mph winds that were pretty continuous, but it was worth braving the wind to stand on the various viewpoints and take pictures.
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| Wow, look at that view! Black Mountain on the left, Huletts Landing down below. |
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| Agnes Island, center right. Harbor Island and Vicars Island center left. |
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| Rev wasn't fast enough for a ground squirrel... |
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| Just another fantastic viewpoint |
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| Sabbath Day POint and Deer Leamp on the far side of the lake, center. |
The trail is rugged in spots. Between the false summit and the true summit, the white paint blaze trail dives down to the left to avoid a steep rock face. On the return, we followed the white paint blazes back on the ridge before taking a yellow disc trail that made its way down through a boulder field back to North Road.
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| Rev looking at parts of the airway beacon on the summit. |
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| The summit, and more beacon parts. |
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| The base of the former airway beacon. |
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| This was steeper than it looks in the picture. |
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| These blazes are similar to those on the long trail in Vermont. |
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| Leesa coming down the ridge. |
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| On the yellow trail. |
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| Looking back up the yellow trail. |
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| Last open view on the way down. |
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| Almost back. |
We'll be back to do this route again in the summer or the fall. This is another gem on the Lake George coastline.
Hike Stats:
Hike Distance: 4.5 miles
Hike Time: 3.25 hours
Total Vertical Gain: ~1500'
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| The route |
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| The route on the Nat Geo map. (Cross Road is actually signed as North Road) |
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