Off on Adventure: French Point Mountain and First Peak - Tongue Range

I had intended to hike elsewhere on New Year's Day, but when I woke up, there were some really interesting skies that made me think I should hike somewhere to try and capture some really cool pictures. The Tongue Range in the Lake George Wild Forest immediately came to mind.

French Point Mountain and First Peak are the best viewpoints on the range, so that is where I headed. After parking at Clay Meadows, I opted for the Northwest Bay Trail as opposed to the Five Mile Point Trail. The Five Mile Point Trail is often icy, and it would be on this day. I also didn't care to climb Fifth Peak.

The Northwest Bay Trail isn't that exciting, but it gives a jumping off point for a bushwhack to where I wanted to go. The bushwhack starts 2 miles from the sign-in register. As measured from the sign-in register once you turn onto the Northwest Bay Trail, there is a footbridge at 1mile, another at 1.75 miles and a 3rd one at the 2 mile mark. These footbridges cross small drainages. At the 2 mile drainage, there is also a large cairn about 100 feet up the drainage, that is visible from the trail. Most likely someone built it to mark the logical point to begin a bushwhack!

The cairn 2 miles down the NW Bay Trail

The route is pretty easy from this location. I chose to go up French Point Mountain first. The interesting skies that I was hoping to catch had gone away but there is never a bad day on these peaks.

Looking North. Black Mountain on the right.

Most of the pics below are looking south on Lake George, but from a few different viewpoints (and of course Rev gets in a few photos).

After going down to to First Peak, I bushwhacked back the way I had come. Rev could smell the scent and she took us back on the exact route we took on the way up.