Black Mountain 2009

This past Friday I went up Black Mountain on the East side of Lake George from Black Mountain Point. This is a favorite trail of mine as it is a nice little trainer for the High Peaks and it has some real nice views of Lake George. Also, since this trail is for the most part accessed via the lake, it is usually quiet. I was not disappointed. In fact the trail showed very little signs of recent travel. The trail is clear with only a couple of small obstacles. However, as pleasant as the woods were, they were well populated with black flies, that got out of hand a couple of times. One nice part of the day was that I had the summit all to myself, which is a first in recent years. Even the black flies left me alone up there. This trail and a lot on the east side of Lake George do not get a lot of use and are great places to get away. I usually see less people of these trails than I do on the high peaks trails in the Adirondacks.

I want to mention a couple of things about our boat trip up to Black Mountain Point. We saw an otter not 30 feet from our boat in Warner Bay. I saw a pair of them last fall in there, but I was surprised to see one during the busy season. They must be getting used to people. The other thing that I want to mention is my feelings as we made the turn at 14 mile island heading into the Narrows and looked into Shelving Rock Bay at the Knapp Estate. Even the houses that are not part of the Knapp Estate, like Tommy Hilfiger’s House fit into the Old Adirondack feel that little corner of the Lake has for me. I really enjoy looking at these new and old homes that take me back to how I imagine the glory days of the Adirondack were. Anyway this area just takes me back I guess.

Oh and I checked on both my letterboxes and they are fine.

Big Hollow Road letterboxing maintanence

I went up Big Hollow road in Lake George today. We locals call this road/trail the Backside of Prospect. What a nice day to be in the woods. I saw so much bird life it wasn't funny. At one time I had a goshawk jumping from limb to limb over my head for 500 feet. I also saw among other birds four different species of wood peckers... I really need to work on my bird identification.

I traveled up Big Hollow to check on my letterboxes that I have placed along the road and to find a pleura of Geocaches that have been hidden all over the place.

My Lb's survived the winter very well considering that they are in recycled containers. The one thing that concerned me was that all of them were either hidden in a slightly different location or they were left out in the open. The fourth Lb of my Prospect Mountain Environmental Series was left exposed in the rock wall that it was hidden in. I was lucky to not have them muggled. But the important thing is that they are all safe and ready for another season of letterboxing.

The geocaches were easy to find and were in non-discrip locations. The purpose of the caches I believe is to bring people up the road.

One thing to note. The beavers have replaced the dam at the second reservoir again and the pond is a pond again. Life is good.