Number Seven and Joe Baker Sag Mountains - Hudson River Special Managemement Area - 4/2/16

After a morning hike up Pilot Knob in Lake George, and a mid-day trip to Rutland, VT to do some errands, I made it back to Lake Luzerne in time for a late day hike to Number Seven Mountain and Joe Baker Sag Mountain in the Hudson River Special Management Area of the Lake George Wild Forest.  There are a lot of hikes in the area and I'm just getting around to explore them, in part due to the extensive writeup in the Discover the Southern Adirondacks book.   It's funny how I only live 20 minutes from here, but hadn't explored the area in detail before now. 

I got started from the end of Buttermilk Falls Road at 4:30.

 Since it was late, I did a trail run along the jeep road for the first 3.6 miles to the point where I wanted to turn east into the woods.  I began clinging on the remains of an old logging road, staying on the north side a a drainage.  After 0.3 miles, the logging road faded away and I crossed to the south side of the drainage.

I soon came to an  an old monument which was a boundary marker for a state land parcel.  There was also a lot of new pink ribbon; probably done by a survey for the parcel just purchased by he Open Space Institute.

State land property boundary monument.

A closer look

After passing the monument, I started to hook southeast and then south, heading up into the col of the double summit.  Once in the col I turned west to climb to the true summit.  The walking was easy and the summit is all hardwoods. 

Approaching the summit of Number Seven Mountain.

To get views, you need to continue west until you reach the ledges.  I was after 6 PM when I got there so I couldn't linger, but I did appreciate the view for a couple minutes.  I also had to decide what to do next.  I decided to trek through the newly acquired Open Space Institute property to reach Joe Baker Sag mountain.  It was the direction I had to go and if I wasn't able to make quick progress, I could drop back down to the river and the jeep road. 

Late evening view west from Number Seven Mountain.

It was an absolute pleasure working my way down the SW face of Number Seven.  I'll use this as the ascent route next time.

The SW flank of Number Seven

More of the SW flank

Once I was off the SW flank, I entered a maze of logging roads on the OSI property.  I used them when they were to my advantage but I soon found myself back in the woods.

Logging roads on the Open Space Institute property.

I reached the summit of Joe Baker Sag at 7 PM.  There wasn't much there to inspire me at that hour.  I didn't see any views and the sun was going down.  Rev and I dove over the side to get back down to the Hudson River. 

A little cubby on the west face of Joe Baker Sag

We came out at campsite #11 and were back down to the road with a few minutes of daylight to spare.  I broke into another trail run and we got back to the car just as it was getting dark.

Designated campsite #11.

The highlight of this trip was the summit of Number Seven mountain.  It's definitely a worthwhile destination.

Hike Stats:

Hike Distance:  8.7 miles

Hike Time:  2.75 hours (including trail run portion)

Total Vertical Gain:  ~1500'

The route (click image to enlarge)