Tongue Mountain Range - 11/11/11

The Tongue Mountain Range on the west shore of Lake George provides without a doubt the best views of Lake George.  It's not a short hike.  The loop trail covering the lower part of the range is 12.3 miles long.

I did this loop as a trail run to make it a half day trip instead of a full day trip.  It was a day of wild weather.  When I started in the morning the temperature was 38 degrees.  At the finish, it had warmed to 45 degrees, but while I was at the viewpoints on First Peak and French Point Mountain, snow squalls came through mixed with sunshine.

A lot of the pictures below show the same view but with changing weather.  It was really quite interesting to watch.  The images don't quite capture it, but they give you an idea.

Trailhead Elevation:  415'

Max. Elevation: 1815' (Fifth Peak)

Distance Traveled:  12.3 miles

Hike Time:  5 hrs 25 minutes (Trail ran where possible)

Total Vertical:  3209'

Trail sign at the southern end of the Tongue Range (Montcalm Point)

View south from Montcalm Point - Dome Island in the distance

Another view south from Montcalm Point - Pilot Knob on the left

An old trail marker being swallowed up!

View south as I climbed towards First Peak

Some of the islands of the narrows

Looking NE

View south from First Peak

The sky was pretty dark at this point, but it quickly changed

Look at all those islands

A panorama looking south from First Peak

The squall on the horizon

It's coming in

Another panorama

This picture was taken within minutes of the others.  There were quick breaks in the clouds.

Sun and snow at the same time

Look at the squall moving through

Snow squall blowing through

Fascinating to watch

This hike is among the best in the Lake George area.  For my trip, the weather made it that much more fascinating.  I didn't see another person on the whole trip.

View Tongue Mtn 20111111.kml in a larger map


If you want to see all the pictures from the trip, you can view them here on my Picasa Web Album.

Kayaking Northwest Bay - Lake George - 10/9/11

Lake George in the Adirondack Park in New York is just a spectacular place.  With the best weather of the year lasting all weekend, the lake was calling out to us.  Motor boat traffic was pretty light, making it an even better day to paddle. 

Leesa and I launched about 12:30 from the Northwest Bay parking lot on Route 9, a couple miles north of the Town of Bolton Landing.  Our route consisted of paddling south on the Northwest Bay Brook to where it entered the bay, then continuing south on the east side of the bay along the Tongue Mountain range to Montcalm Point at the tip of the range.  We then rounded the point and entered the Narrows, where we paddled past Pine Island before landing on Turtle Island for a break.  The docks have already been pulled in on many of the islands including Turtle.  We noted that campsite 33 on the SE corner of the island has an especially good spot with a nice rock outcropping on which to sit and view the lake.  We then continued into the middle of the narrows, circling around Juanita Island before returning the way we came.  We paddled a leisurely 12 miles total and returned to the parking lot around 6 PM.

Car top boat launch parking

Click to enlarge and see our route highlighted in blue

Some nice color in the Northwest Bay Brook

Exploring Turtle Island

Looking south from Turtle Island towards Pine Island and Chingachgook Island

Looking East from Turtle Island towards Shelving Mountain

Site 33 on Turtle Island gets the rocky point!

A curious native on Turtle Island

Looking for a handout

We didn't see any on this trip

Heading back into the brook

Leesa's stealth move, looking for wildlife

Almost sunset

Our route made a great half day paddle.  Lake George has crystal clear water.  The water temp. was down to 62 degrees, so no swimming, but nice none-the-less.