Huckleberry Mountain - Lake George Wild Forest - 3/15/16

It's soooo nice to have a few hours of daylight now when I get home from work.  I took advantage of the opportunity by heading to the Lake George Wild Forest and the Hudson River Special Management Area.  I was also interested in the Huckleberry Mountain Forest.

Huckleberry was just acquired by the Open Space Institute and will soon be sold to New York State to incorporate these additional lands into the Lake George Wild Forest.

The parking lot was a mud hole, but I was able to park off to the site, next to the Hudson River.  I went past the car gate and followed the Bear Slide jeep road past accessible campsites 17 and 18 to the end of the gravel surface. This surface terminates at the magnificent Bear Slide falls in Buttermilk Brook.  This water slide is the longest one I know of.  It may be more than a couple hundred yards long and is certainly impressive in the spring.  I haven't been here during the dry season, so I don't know how much water flows here in the summer.  It is certainly worth a look in the spring, or after some heavy rain.   

Bear Slide Road.

Eddy Mountain

Bear Slide

I continued to follow Buttermilk Brook past Bear Slide and came to a waterfall with some manmade stone cairns and walls nearby.

The was near the falls above Bear Slide

Part of the falls above Bear Slide.

Rev on a wall near the upper falls

Shortly thereafter, I came to the Gay Pond jeep road.  I turned right to head east a short distance to reach the southern base of Huckleberry Mountain.  From there, it was just a half mile climb in open oak trees.

Very open forest,

Large rock slab plateau at 1500' on the SW flank of Huckleberry.

A cairn along the way.

The true summit of Huckleberry.

I reached the summit at 6 PM.  It was time to hustle back to the car.  Rev led the way, easily following the scent of our route up.  7 PM we were back at the car.  A great weeknight out! 

Crane Mountain looms to the north.

The Gay Pond road.

Back to Bear Slide.

... and out on Bear Slide jeep road.

Hike Stats:
Hike Distance:  6.2 miles
Hike Time:  2.5 hours
Total Vertical Gain:  ~ 1250'

The route (Click image to enlarge)