Eddy and Thomas Mountains - Lake George Wild Forest - 5/14/16

On this day I chose to climb another pair of peaks that would be new to me:  Eddy Mountain and Thomas Mountain.  This pair lie in the Hudson River Special Management Area of the Lake George Wild Forest.  They are near the Town of Lake Luzerne.  Don't confuse this Thomas Mountain with the one in Bolton.

I chose River Road as my access route and I parked at the first large parking lot (where road maintenance ends).  From there I continued north along the river on the unmaintained road to the next small pulloff.  There is a sign there indicating a foot path to campsite #6.  The same footpath also continues past Bear Slide waterslide on Buttermilk Brook and on to the Gay Pond Road. 

I turned on this trail and almost immediately I saw the charred remains of a forest fire.  It realized that this fire was probably the fire that occurred on 4/23/16.  On that day, I was just to the north climbing Number 7 Mountain and I saw extensive smoke nearby to the south.

This fire occurred near campsite number 6 and went most of the way up the south side of Morton Mountain.  I don't know if the fire started from a spark from a campfire at site 6, or if it was from some other fire ring or cigarette butt.  I do remember that on 4/23, the ground was very dry and that a ground fire would spread quickly.     

Looking at the charred ground from campsite number 6.

The fire damage ended right at the Bear Slide Falls.  This water slide is perhaps 300 feet long and is well worth a visit if you haven't seen it.  It is only 0.8 miles from the parking lot where I parked; even less from the parking spot for campsite #6.   

I was on the trail early so the Bear Slide wasn't in the best light for photographs.  I was out in advance of the black flies, but they caught up with me about 9 AM on top of Eddy Mountain.   

Buttermilk Brook

Above the Bear Slide water slide, I crossed Buttermilk Brook and climbed Eddy Mountain.  There is no real view from the summit, but a few viewpoints are nearby. 

A viewpoint near Eddy Mountain.

This spiderweb looks like a CD.

 At the best viewpoint, south of the true summit, I found a memorial to someone who passed away in 2014.  There was a large flag and some objects fastened to a tree.  

A memorial was found at this viewpoint south of Eddy Mountain.

Looking NW from the viewpoint.

The memorial objects on the tree below the flag.

After the memorial, I headed for the ridge containing Thomas Mountain.  I crossed an old woods road along the way.  I headed to the south end of the ridge and then proceeded north.

A cairn on a ledge at the south end of the Thomas Mountain ridge.

This looked like an old car headlamp, but I didn't see anything else around.

I found the state land boundary running right along the top of the ridge and I saw several boundary markers along the way, in addition to the yellow blazes.

A state land boundary marker on Thomas Mountain. 

Thomas Mountain did not offer any spectacular viewpoints either, but the woods were open and inviting.  I did put on a bug headnet after leaving the summit of Eddy Mountain and it remained on my head most of the rest of the way (the price of hiking in May during the black fly season).

I thought the nicest part of the ridge was the north end; just due to the lush green grass in contrast to the trees where the leaves were just beginning to open.  I've included a few pictures from this area below.   

A viewpoint north of Thomas Mountain 

 From the north end of the Thomas Mountain ridge, I dropped off the ridge heading NE until I came to the Gay Pond Road.  From there, I went back to the Bear Slide trail and back to the car.

More charred forest floor.

Hike Stats:

Hike Distance:  8.7 miles

Hike Time:  5 hours

Total Vertical Gain:  ~2350'

The route (traveled counter-clockwise)

The route as shown on the Nat Geo map.

Thomas Mountain - Bolton, NY - 3/30/14

Where to go on a rainy day, that was the question.  Leesa and I wanted to get out just to take Rev for a walk.  It's hard to keep a hound dog indoors all day!  The former Cat and Thomas Preserve, in Bolton, NY is probably the place we have gone most often on a rainy day, and, in fact, we went there again today.

 

This area became State land in 2013.  The Lake George Land Conservancy is no longer the owner, but they maintain the trail network under an agreement with the State. 

 

We got to the trailhead about 2 PM.  It was lightly raining.  Once again, snowshoes were necessary to prevent post-holing in the rotten snow.

 

 

New State sign at the parking area

 

From the trailhead, hikers can choose a 1.4 mile hike to Thomas Mountain or a 3 mile hike to Cat mountain.  Today we chose Thomas Mountain.  We were just out trying to wear the dog out a little. 

 

It took us a little over 30 minutes to climb the trail (old jeep road) to the Thomas Mountain cabin. The cabin is now available similar to lean-tos on state land.  The cabin is to be shared by any and all that arrive.  We have stayed there several times and have not had anyone else arrive looking to stay on any of the nights we've been there.  You can also now have an outdoor fire there which previously was not allowed.

 

We were glad to see the cabin is still in good repair.  In fact, someone has repainted the front of the cabin.  It is a bright medium blue color.  The previous coating had faded to a light blue gray.

  

 

 

The view of the Lake George was almost obscured by clouds when we arrived

 

 

A rather bright blue now decorates the front 

 

 

Cat Mountain in the distance

 

 

The faded blue can be seen on the left side

 

 

The blue trail leaving the cabin

 

As often happens on rainy days, the clouds dropped down to shroud Lake George.  As we were at the cabin having a snack, we watched the clouds blowing to the south and beginning to lift.  Some of the pictures below show some of the different cloud patterns.

     

Clouds beginning to lift off the lake

 

 

The inside of the cabin

 

Another view of the lake

 

 

 

 

Rev enjoying the snow

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was one of those days where we could have just sat and watched the cloud changes on the lake, but we had gotten rather wet from the rain so we didn't linger as long as we would have liked.

 

It would have been fun to ski down the wet snow on the old jeep road trail, but the snowshoes worked well on the post-holed soft wet snow on the trail.

 



Thomas Mountain old jeep road trail

 

The blue trail to Thomas Mountain

 

Flood waters flowing over still frozen ice

 

 

Hike Statistics
Hike Distance:  2.8 miles
HIke Time: 1 hour, 15 minutes
Total Vertical Gain:  ~ 700'

 

Cat and Thomas Mountains - Bolton, NY - 7/27/13

I've done this loop hike before, but often times I've just gone to Thomas Mountain when I'm looking for an hour long hike.  This time Leesa and I did the loop hike of Cat and Thomas Mountains.  We went clockwise hitting Cat Mountain first, then took the blue trail to Thomas. 

A re-route on the yellow trail to Cat

The hike to Cat Mountain is 3.4 miles and mostly follows an old jeep road.  The last steep section has been re-routed into the woods, which is a nice improvement.  It took as about an hour and twenty minutes to reach Cat. 

The Tongue Range and beyond from Cat

It felt quite a bit warmer on the open summit than it did in the shady woods.  There was a perfect breeze out and the day was really comfortable.  We lunched on the summit and did a little exploring.  We did notice a white blaze trail heading south from the summit, and a red blaze trail heading east.  I suspect these are older trails and may not be used any more, although the paint didn't look that old.  We didn't follow them to see where they went.

Cat probably provides the best view of Lake George from the west.  You can see the Tongue Range, the islands of the Narrows, and everything heading south from there.  It really is a great viewpoint.

Looking south.  Long Island on Lake George can be seen (and also Trout Lake) 

Leesa and Rev on the summit

USGS summit disc

Almost feeling a tinge of Fall in the air

Rev looking comfortable

When we left the summit of Cat Mountain, we took the blue trail that winds along the ridge back to Thomas Mountain.  This trail is pretty rugged and I would not recommend it to folks that don't do much hiking.  There is one small viewpoint along the way, but Cat Mountain is the best.

As we got to Thomas, there were a group of folks enjoying the view from the cabin.    We chatted with them for a few minutes before we left.  Thomas has a great view also (see my earlier post on Thomas). We stayed at the cabin a few minutes longer and then we took the blue trail the rest of the way down instead of the orange trail (jeep road).

Our route

Hike Stats:

Hike Distance:  8 miles

Hike Time:  4 hrs, 45 minutes including stops

Total Vertical Gain:  ~2000'