High Nopit Mountain and Amy's Park - Bolton, NY - 4/23/17

On this perfect weather Sunday, Leesa, Rev and I headed to Bolton, NY for a 2nd straight day exploring this area.  Our first stop was High Nopit Mountain.  The mountain features a southern rock face and we suspected some great views as well.  We parked on Trout Falls Road at a point where the Lake George Land Conservancy Yellow Amy's Park Trail crosses the road.

We followed the yellow trail up the steep incline to the connection with the red trail.  We turned left on the red trail, following it to the end at a nice ledge with a view of Pole Hill Mountain and a distant view of Lake George.  Next we began a bushwhack to the summit of High Nopit Mountain, an additional distance of about 3/4 mile.  This area is in a conservation easement and we traversed several logging roads.  There were no posted signs anywhere on the mountain.  

High Nopit Mountain as seen from Padanarum Road

Amy's Park has nice trail maps posted at various points along the way, along with "You Are Here" indicators. 

Padanarum Road at Amy's Park yellow trail crossing. 

LGLC has many nice preserves, and Amy's Park is no exception.

We never skip a good ledge... 

An early look at Lake George.

The ledge at the end of the red trail.

  

a zoom view of the lake while we bushwhacked towards High Nopit.

Leesa and Rev on the southeastern ledge of High Nopit 

As expected, as we approached the summit and the southern cliff face, the views were spectacular. The perfect weather didn't hurt either.    

    

Great view of Lake George from High Nopit.

Zoom view...

The summit of High Nopit

Leesa, Rev and the "summit cone".

A "summit" cone.

Looking southeast.

From High Nopit, we would see Pole Hill Mountain, Lake George, Crane Mountain and Gore Mountain among other things.

Crane Mountain in the distance.

Crane Mountain (left), Gore Mountain (right)

Our guide...

When we left High Nopit, we returned to the Amy's Park red trail and began a clockwise loop around South Pond and North Pond.  This turned out to be a surprisingly delightful loop.  The red trail led to the blue trail, to the orange trail, and finally to the yellow trail.  All were beautiful.  We especially liked the rock viewpoint on the peninsula of the yellow trail.  We stopped there to eat. 

North Pond. 

One of several beaver lodges.

We liked this rock ledge viewpoint on the yellow trail. 

Rev was nudging me for food here...

Another beaver lodge.

Look out, here she comes...

The largest of many nice bridges.

Hike Stats:

Hike Distance:  6.7 miles

Hike Time:  4 hours

Total Vertical Gain:  ~ 1200' 

Our route...

Bartonville Mountain - Brant Lake, NY - 4/22/17

My 2nd hike on Saturday, after I hiked the Barton High Cliffs in the morning, was a short afternoon hike up Bartonville Mountain in Brant Lake.  A mountain bike park with hiking trails is planned for this mountain.  I parked at the intersection of New Street and Market Street where there is a parking area.  Orange ribbon was visible on trees.

I followed the ribbon and it was obviously the layout for a mountain bike path.  The ribbons follow a zig zag path to provide a grade acceptable to mountain bikers.  At one point, a spur trail leads to great view of Brant Lake from the south.  This will be a great short hike for families with young children.  The viewpoint is only about a half mile from the start. 

The viewpoint of Brant Lake on Bartonville Mountain.

A zoom view of the lake.

From the spur trail, it is only another quarter mile to the summit.  The orange ribbon doesn't go to the true summit, but it goes close to it.  To return, I followed the orange ribbon back down.  I'll have to stop back when the trail system is done to see how it turns out.  I'm sure mountain bikers and hikers alike with like trails.  It's a fun mountain with close proximity to a beautiful lake.

  

The high point of the orange ribbon trail... not too far from the true summit.

I saw this on the trail near the summit.  What used to be up here.

My starting location

Hike Stats:

Hike Distance:  1.5 miles

Hike Time:  1 hour, including stops

Total Vertical Gain:  ~ 600'

The hike route.

Stevens Mountain - Brant Lake, NY - 1/28/12

Yesterday  (Friday), I worked all day in the rain at Gore Mountain Ski Area.  The ski conditions actually became pretty good as the snow softened up.  I'll be there again tomorrow, so today was a hiking day.   Leesa and I didn't want to drive far so I suggested another mountain ridge north of Brant Lake that I hadn't hiked before.

This ridge consists of Number Eight Mountain, Little Stevens Mountain and Stevens Mountain.  The ridge runs east-west just north of First, Second and Third Brothers.  I knew that there were some open ridge views.

Today's weather was mid 30's with a mix of sun and clouds.  We parked on Pharaoh Lake Road and hiked north towards Pharaoh Lake about a half a mile before turning right (east) to bushwhack up Number Eight Mountain.  There is an open ridge just before reaching the summit where you get great views of Brant Lake to the south.  The summit is treed.  We continued on with a steep descent in hardwoods approximately 700 feet before climbing 500 feet to the top of Little Stevens.

The summit of Little Stevens also has a great view to the south.  We continued eastward toward Stevens Mountain.  The ridge between Little Stevens and Stevens only drops a hundred feet or so before climbing Stevens.

The summit of Stevens Mountain has a great open rock summit.  Great views every direction except north.  On the summit of Stevens we met my friend Dave who had arranged a 12 o'clock hookup with us on the summit.  After enjoying the summit for a bit, the 3 of us descended the steep southern face following a blue blaze trail marked by the boy scouts.  This trail leads to Scout property on Curtis Reed Road.   Dave had permission to park and hike from their property, so we returned via the blue blaze trail to his car.  He then brought us back to our car.

Hike Stats:

Hike Distance:  5.25 miles
Hike Time:  5 hours
Total Vertical Gain:  2250'
Trailhead Elev.:  930'
Summit Elev.  (Number Eight Mountain):  1942'
Summit Elev.  (Little Stevens):  1719'
Summit Elev. (Stevens Mountain):  2162'
Finish Elev.:  1140'      

Brant Lake from shoulder of Number Eight Mountain

Looking up towards the summit of Number Eight Mountain

  

In the distance, are First Second and Third Brother from right to left

Little Stevens from Number Eight Mountain

Number Eight Mountain from Little Stevens

Looking south from Stevens.  This  is a fantastic summit

Looking SW from Stevens 

Lots of rock and ice on the southern face of Stevens 

Our route shown in blue

The bushwhack on this trip was relatively easy.  We managed to avoid blowdown and thick pine forest.  The hike was quite similar to First, Second and Third Brother except that Stevens Mountain has quite a spectacular open summit compared to the others. 

We enjoyed the day.  We wore MICROspikes the entire hike.  The southern exposed ridge faces have very little snow,  only ice.  Even the shaded areas on the north side only had 4-5 inches of snow.