So I really should have posted this forever ago, but on 10/24 Robinson, Lauren and I headed up to Lake George. Our goal? To hike Sleeping Beauty Mt. ... without getting lost on the way there, or freezing to death, or getting caught in the rain, or staying overnight, or meeting terrifying animals, or ... you get the picture.
So around 9:30 I swung by Lauren's and picked both her and Robinson up, we hit the Northway (I-87), took exit 20 and got onto 149. But not in such a lovely order. We got to exit 20 OK, and then we missed the turn for 149 - so we went at least 12 miles out of the way. I've never been to Sleeping Beauty Mt., which is surprising because it's so close and it is such a nice hike. But since I've never been there, I had no idea where we were going or what kind of roads my Ford station wagon was going to be tackling.
We took a left off of 149 onto Buttermilk Falls Rd. and began an entertaining drive. The first part of the road was nice and paved - my car appreciated it. Suddenly we passed a sign saying 'Dirt Road Ahead,' and then there was the dirt road. OK, so it wasn't that bad. It was definitely better than a lot of the unpaved roads I've been on, but my car is old and I was terrified that something was going to break (it would be just my luck too).
The directions said to 'bear left onto Sly Pond Rd.' and then to 'continue on to Shelving Rock Rd.' These directions are technically correct, but I would argue that the descriptive terms of 'bear left' and 'continue on' should be switched. It definitely made us confused in the middle of nowhere. Eventually we found the little parking lot in Hog Town and we celebrated that my car had made it that far.
From this lot there is an access trail that, in good weather, you can drive down to a closer lot. Since it really wasn't 'in season' for hiking any more, the road was closed and we had to hike it. The path was easy going and was much more entertaining than some other access trails I've been on (I didn't do the length of the access path to the Avalanche Pass trail justice in that post), but, adding 1.6 miles to our trip (one way), it almost doubled the length of our hike.
Reaching Dacy Clearing, the second lot, we turned left and hopped a barrier to get onto the summit trail which is 1.8 miles one way. After a short ways up this trail, hikers come to the stone remnants of a building. None of having been here before, and all of us obviously entertained by the ruins, we stopped and climbed around them for a while. I forgot to mention above that when we started the hike, there was another hiker who started just behind us; he had legit trekking poles and, seeing as it's hunting season, was decked out in fluorescent orange. He had a much faster pace and passed us before we reached Dacy Clearing. When we stopped at the old foundation we must have given him at least a 15 minute lead on us.
At this point, it started to rain. Just a light sprinkle, but we still crossed our fingers and hoped for the best. The trail led us up a series of long switchbacks (when the trail doubles back and travels up the hill in a zigzag motion) and the rain progressed. We continued to slip up the mountain for what seemed like way more than 1.8 miles.
At one point the trail turned left and flattened out, we could see the gray sky and a trail marker was spotted that simply stated 'Summit 0.1 mi ↑.' At the same time, the hiker who had passed us on the access trail passed us again. We exchanged friendly 'hellos' and he went down another trail that would loop him back to Dacy Clearing by the longer route that passed Bumps Pond.
We proceeded the 0.1 miles, saying that it was perfect placement for that sign - we had been seriously starting to hate those 1.8 miles. The trees opened up on our left and the mountain opened up on our right. We were greeted to the summit by an insane view of misty mountains and a slap of cold wind in our faces. We scrambled around the rocky summit, took in the view, shot some pictures and hastily retreated to the protection of the trees.
After lunch and lots of marshmallows, the food of champions, we headed back down. We had initially planned to take the route to Bumps pond, but we were cold and tired and absolutely drenched. This direction was a lot of fun, I'm still not sure how Lauren made it back to the car without twisting an ankle, but thankfully she did. We signed out on the registry, piled back into the car and began the long journey down a wet dirt road.
When I got back home and got to look at my car, it was covered with mud. Now, I'm all for off-roading and I was very pleased to see that my car looked like it had just been through the swamp and back. I'm not entirely sure how it got so dirty - our max speed on the dirt rad was probably 30 - but it did. And I would have loved to have taken a picture, but my Dad cleaned it off before I could. I can only imagine what people on the Northway were thinking when they passed a dirt covered station wagon.
So there is the account of that hike. When you think of Sleeping Beauty, either the Mt. or the story, rain and marshmallows definitely do not come to mind. ;) I'm not sure what's in store for me next with the outdoors, but I will definitely keep you posted. The best I can say about anything is that it's looking like Mom and I might head up to Hadley again this fall.
Happy trekking,
G
