Sleeping Beauty Mountain and Bumps Pond - Lake George Wild Forest - 10/25/15

I've climbed Sleeping Beauty many times before but I hadn't done it yet this year so it was time to climb it again.  It was warm for a late October day (50's) and there were still quite a few leaves on the trees.  It was breezy and the skies were alternating clouds with sun.

I parked at the Hogtown parking lot and didn't take a chance on driving the Dacy Clearing Road.  I could have done it with my car if I drove slow and carefully, but I hadn't seen the road in a while and didn't want to take a chance.  The road is 1.5 miles each way, so it added 30 minutes each way to my hike.

The road to Dacy Clearing.  Look at all the leaves still on the trees.

Rev in orange.  Lots of hunters were out. 

I wish I could find out the history on this foundation that is just before Dacy Clearing.

I signed in at the register at Dacy Clearing and there were a group of 21 cub scouts on the trail ahead of me.  It didn't take long to catch up to them.  I walked carefully since the old road has many "roller" rocks that were covered by leaves.

The trail from Dacy Clearing to the summit is 1.8 miles but it always seems less than that to me.  The first 0.6 miles is a slight grade before the junction with the Bumps Pond trail.  After you branch off onto the Sleeping Beauty trail, it soon begins to climb in earnest.  The trail was wet from last nights rain, but it wasn't muddy.  As I was climbing, one of the hunters in the area fired about 10 shots.  It scared Rev and she hung more closer to my side for awhile after that.  

I reached the top and as always, I was reminded just how good the view is.  I was also treated to interested clouds moving across the landscape.  The pictures below can do the talking.

  

Fun clouds!

Heading to the lower viewpoint. 

Someone cut most of the branches off this live tree so they could try and have a fire!

I had the summit to myself for 15 minutes and then I decided to continue on to Bumps Pond.  The scouts hadn't caught up with me yet, so I moved on before they reached the top.

Bumps Pond is an additional 0.8 miles from Sleeping Beauty.  The trail is fairly rugged and this portion feels like more than 0.8.  The pond was quiet and I didn't see anyone after I left the summit of Sleeping Beauty.

Sign at Bumps Pond.

I scooted around Bumps and made my way back to Dacy Clearing.  The mixed sun and clouds and turned to all clouds.  It was nice to visit this area again and I'm sure I'll do it again next year.  

The old chimney on the west side of Bumps Pond.

Hike Stats:

Hike Distance:  7.5 miles (including Dacy Road)

Hike Timea;  2.5 hours

Total Vertical Gain: ~1300' 

The route

Lake George Wild Forest - 6 Ponds & Leantos - 10/2/12

Today I went for a long walk in the Lake George Wild Forest on the east side of the lake.  I started in Hogtown at Dacy Clearing.  It's a great area to walk with all kinds of trails and things to see.

Rev checking out Bumps Pond 

I didn't really have a set agenda.  The weather was questionable, so I thought I would just head out and see how it would turn out.  I headed north with my dog Rev to Bumps Pond.  Lots of good color in the leaves.  Probably 70 % turned or so.  We continued north to Fishbrook Pond and traversed the west shore before reaching the lean-to on the north shore.

Look at the Reflection!

Rev was ready for a snack, so we stopped there and had a bite to eat.  I decided at that point that I wanted to hit all 6 ponds and 6 lean-tos in the area if the rain held off.  We continued on.  The next pond was an out and back to Greenland Pond.  The trail was quite wet and the trail markers have long since disappeared.  There was flagging in a couple spots and some cats eye pins in a few trees, but the trail wasn't too hard to follow.

2 more Bumps Pond pics

We reached Greenland Pond and Rev took off, following some scent and starting heading clockwise around the pond.  I could see her running through the tall meadow grass on the north side of the pond. She was on the other side before I knew it.  I followed the trail around the south side and met up with her at the Greenland lean-to.

We returned to the main trail and continued north to Millman Pond.  I my opinion, Millman Pond has the best lean-to of the group.  It is definitely the most well cared for lean-to I have seen.  It was well maintained and clean.  It also sits in a nice location.

Onward to the north we reached Lapland Pond and the lean-to there on the NE section of the pond.  I didn't reach this lean-to last year due to a rattlesnake in the path that I didn't want to disturb!  No problem this time and I got to have a better look around.  The lean-to sits high on a knoll with a grassy lawn overlooking the pond.

Fishbrook Pond

One more pond to go, Black Pond and lean-to # 5 for the day.  The leanto can be missed if you are not careful. It sits high above the trail and is reached by a small unmarked footpath.  On our way out, we followed our route in until we got to Fishbrook Pond, when we followed the east shore this time so we could see our last lean-to of the day (Fishbrook - south).  Back to Bumps Pond where we also followed the east shore so we could take the trail to Sleeping Beauty Mountain. 

North lean-to at Fishbrook Pond

With increasing clouds, the visibility from the summit of Sleeping Beauty wasn't as good as it could be, but the summit is worth a visit in just about any weather.

Mushroom high-rise

When we at last reached the car, I checked my GPS to find that we had gone 16 miles.  Rev probably went almost twice that.  She's not one to miss an opportunity to explore.

Boardwalk at Millman Pond, viewed from the lean-to

Millman Pond Lean-to

Northern Fishbrook Pond Lean-to

Lake George from Sleeping Beauty Mountain

My route - click map to enlarge

My route - viewed on Google Earth

Hike Stats:

Hike Distance - 15.9 miles

Total Vertical Gain - 2890'

Hike Time - 8 hours (including stops)

See my Every Trail link for more route information

Sleeping Beauty Mountain - 9/18/11

For me, fall and winter are the best times to be hiking. Our first cool weather of fall came this past week and it was great. I woke up on Sunday, and it was in the low 40's. Leesa and I got up and out to do a half day hike before going to the "Jazz on the Lake" Jazz Festival in Lake George in the late afternoon.

Sleeping Beauty Mountain was our target for this hike.  The mountain is located on the east side of Lake George, north of Buck Mountain and south of Black Mountain.  We parked at the Hogtown Parking Lot in Fort Ann. Sometimes you can drive 1.8 miles further on a gravel road to Dacy Clearing, but the gate was closed on this day.  Our total hike distance for the day ended up being 7.8 miles.  We hiked up to the Sleeping Beauty viewpoint, which is not quite the summit, then continued north to Bumps Pond where we looped around the pond and came back.

Note:  As we approached the viewpoint, we saw a sign that said "Summit .1 miles" with an arrow that pointed the direction of the viewpoint.  That is not the true summit.  The true summit is further north, and you have to bushwhack a short ways off the trail to reach it.  It is in the trees.

Dist. Traveled:  7.8 miles

Elev. at Summit: 2347'

Elev. at Lookout:  about 2100' (I forgot to look)

Hike Time: 3.5 hours

Total Vertical:  1200'

Our route is shown in blue

Trailhead parking at Hogstown

The remains of an old house foundation on the way to Dacy Clearing

Mike... hanging on!

Leesa at the Sleeping Beauty viewpoint

From the Sleeping Beauty lookout, you have an unobstructed view to the East, South and West.  It is a fantastic spot, perhaps better than any other location on the east side of Lake George.  The combination of the views, the grasses and the rock terrain is unbeatable.

There are nice spots here to sit and soak up the sun on a nice day

When we reached the summit we were the only ones there!  We got to sit and eat our lunch and look around before anyone else showed up.  There is plenty of room on the summit and lots of nooks and crannies for people to enjoy the summit in privacy, but it is still nice to have an entire summit to yourself.

Looking West

Nice blue sky.  The temp got up to arround 60 degrees at noon

Lots of dead trees here and also towards the summit

This was a nice spot a little lower down at the viewpoint

i want to camp right here.  It is the perfect spot.

We didn't want to leave the viewpoint

After spending about an hour at the exploring, we continued northward passing over the actual summit, then we descended to Bumps Pond. We went counterclockwise around the pond and followed the loop back to the trail split .6 miles above Dacy Clearing. 

Bumps Pond

The camera didn't capture the sky very good in the picture, but the reflection in the water looks nice

The gravel road out from Dacy Clearing, looking towards the old home foundation

Several people rode bicycles to Dacy Clearing and then began their hike. That effort saved them 3.6 miles of walking in and out on the gravel road. The old gravel road is pretty, but it adds some time on to your hike if you are on foot.

The beginning of fall colors

Sleeping Beauty Mountain is certainly one of my favorite peaks in the Lake George region. I'll have to return to camp near the lookout.