Buck Mountain

[Dick]

Feeling the need to get out, but with not that much time, Joanne and I decided to go up Buck Mt. for the zillionth time. Still beautiful as always. Only 6.6 mi. r.t. and 2,000 vertical. The weatherman seemed to be waffling over the forecast, but it ended in our favor, with an incredibly beautiful spring day. What a day to be out! Unfortunately, half the Capital District thought so, too. It turned out that we had overdressed for the occasion, and shorts would have been just fine for most of the way, although it was a little chilly on the summit. The trail up was uneventful. Joanne took lots of pictures, including wildflowers, flowering trees, cliffs, and summit views (I tried to post a few, but got a "not a valid image" error, though they are jpg). Lots of birds to listen to. Lots of people were descending, so we hoped we'd have the summit to ourselves. Not a chance! There were still about twenty people or so at the top (one appeared to be a group of about a dozen). Eventually they all left, and for a few minutes we actually were alone. Then the next shift came...and came and came. Heading back, we sometimes felt as though we were descending the "up" escalator! Lots of soloists, duos, and trios: caught one embarrassed couple in mid-smooch; one woman had run out of water, and we were happy to give her some of ours; two guys actually set up tents (illegally) near one of the streams; several guys came up huffing and puffing, but tried to hide it when they approached us, as though they were walking down the street (why?); lots of friendly dogs, and a couple of trail runners. A most pleasant day, in spite of the crowd.

[windsong781]

Boy am I suffering from cabin fever and feeling the need to get out. So much rain, so little time. I'm still waiting for the perfect weekend to get out to the Lake George area to hike the Tongue Mt Range. Temperatures have been so unseasonable cold this spring. Any problems with black flies in the Buck Mt. area? If the weather is semi-favorable this weekend I am planning on hiking either Fishkill or the Tongue Mt Range.
Windsong

[Dick]

Not a single black fly to be found that day, nor a week ago on Black Mt. or the ponds area. Too cold for the little buggers, I guess. Unfortunately, the current forecast calls for showers and cool temps for the rest of the week and on through Monday. But don't let that stop you!

Dick

[Kevin]

Windsong, PM me when/if you decide to hike the Tongue Mt range. I'd done the first half from the north, but wouldn't mind rehiking it and adding in the second half (or just doing the second half). If I'm available of course, I do have plans this weekend and next.

Buck is my new favorite eastern shore hike. For the climb you definitely get an enormous payoff on top.

[windsong781]

Tongue Mountain

Hi Kevin, Hi Dick
I hiked the Tongue Mtn Range this last weekend with my husband Mike. We inadvertently ended up in the Lake George area after having to rent a car for the upcoming week (truck broke down). Our orig. plan was to go to Hudson Valley and hike the Fishkill Ridge, in search of the Timber Rattlesnake. But not having the truck eliminated that plan as we needed four wheel drive to get to where we would set up base camp. We ended up camping at Rogers Rock SP (big mistake, I hate public campgrounds). Didn't get to sleep until very late Sat. night due to noise. Woke up later than planned on Sunday. Started our hike at noon from Clay Meadow, which we have done before, 1.9 miles up, which brings you 0.55 m north of the Fifth Peak lean-to. It was our plan to complete the hike following the range south to the Point of Tongue and out via the Northwest Bay Trail. At this juction the sign indicated that it was 6 miles to the Point of Tongue on LG. We figured that we had done the worst of the hike just getting up the first 1.9 miles, wrong. I did not have my trial map as it fell out of my pack in the car. But I had the route envisioned in my mind having gone over it several times over the past year and having hiked in from the North twice, but never getting much past Fifth Peak. What I did not remember from the trail description was that after Fifth Peak, French had two knobs and First had two spurs. Just when you thought you had finished one peak the other portion of the peak appeared. At one point in time I asked Mike if we had passed the point of no return, and if not if we should hike out the way in which we came in. The sky was growing dark, and it looked like t-storms were rolling in. We decided to keep going, always thinking that the Point could not be that far away. It did rain but it was at times when we were in denser forest rather than on the ridge. It would have been nice to have known how far we were into the hike, not having a map, but then again we were not in the city, but in the mountains. Don't expect big signs saying "you are here". Mike also left the GPS in the car. Another mistake. I was beginning to not feel so great, and really wanted the hike to be over. The few times we were able to stop were few and far between as we knew we were pushing to get out before it got too dark. I believe that we got to the Point of Tongue at around 6:00. So we had about 3 more hours of sunlight left to finish the last 5 miles along the bay. This portion of the hike was a bit deceiving as the route climbed somewhat to protect the bay from erosion. It was not what I envisioned once again, and it took much longer than expected to complete the last five miles. We had a head lamp, but we knew that some portions of the trail would be hard to pick up again as there was much mud, blow down and few trail markers along the NW Bay Trail. I envisioned sleeping in the woods for the night, but kept telling myself that we would make it out before dark really set in. We got to our car at 8:48, the sun had set and it was just starting to get really dark in the woods. I can remember the sound of the peepers on our way out. They were so loud that I wished that we had had a recorder. It took 8.75 hours to hike 13 miles. Good or bad, I don't know. I figured good having hiked less than an hour per mile with alot of climbing involved between peaks. I would like to know what the total elevation gain was for this 13 mile route. Next time we may canoe in from the NW Bay Inlet and set up camp along the bay, or hike in with gear for an overnight providing that I can handle the weight. There is no water on the top so it is essential that you carry in enough to last at least two days. We had 96 ounces each for one day and did not finish it but probably could have. The next time we will also plan better by giving ourselves enough time to hike the range so that we can "enjoy" the hike and rest between peaks if needed. All and all, in the little time that we had to enjoy the views, seeing Lake George and the surrounding peaks made the hike worthwhile, and we found some good snake habitat along the way, which we will venture back to in the near future. Saw a chipmunk enjoying the view of Lake George, red spotted salamanders and frogs (all suitable snake food). Kevin, we'll let you know when we are going in again so that you can join us as you mentioned (btw, just saw your post tonight, but I understand that you were busy anyway). Dick, I think that the black flies are waking up as they took many bites out of me. They weren't terrible annoying though, not really in your face yet. Hope you all enjoyed your long weekend.
Windsong

[Rivet]

Hello, I did the exact same hike on Saturday. My book (50 Hikes in Adirondacks) gives the hike as 12.5 miles, 3000 feet elevation and 8 hours time.

I thought the views along the ridge were great. I was a little afraid about encountering a rattler snake, but we only saw one gartner snake resting on French mountain.

I stopped at the point of the tongue and waded my feet in the water. It was very cold!

Parts of the NW bay trail were annoying where it went through some swampy areas and up and down for apparently no reason. Toward the end it got better as it followed an old horse trail.