This wasn’t really a hike, just a walk in the park with the dog and my sons.  It was a warm, spring day and we had a nice outing.  Even though we have all lived in this area our whole lives we had never before actually tasted the famous “Saratoga Spring water.”

     It sucked.

This, too, wasn’t really a hike, just an excursion into the Visher Ferry Nature Preserve.  It was longer and more strenuous than the walk in the park the weekend before, but I still considered it a ‘training’ hike.   The Preserve includes ruins of the old Erie Canal locks.

 This easy, 5.1 mile hike takes you up from NY, across part of MA and into VT where the cave know as the Snow Hole can be found.  It’s a large crevasse and small cave that, due to the lack of sunlight, has snow in it almost year-round.
      At the entrance of the cave is a large rock with the names of many visitors chiseled into it.  Some of these signatures date back over 100 years.

  This 10 mile loop runs long the mountain ridge near North South Lake, hugging the lip of Neuman’s ledge for some distance.  It is, quite literally, a breathtaking view.

This is a familiar place to me.  I grew up in this area and visited this overlook on a regular basis.  It’s a pleasant, short hike with a rewarding view that, on a clear day, stretches from Albany, NY all the way down to Kingston.
     Powell House is actually the name of the Quaker Meeting house at the base of the hill.  The overlook, and a network of nature trails, are all in the Bird Sanctuary.

Just a 1.4 mile loop to a fire tower on the top of the hill.  Nice view, though.

[Strange that I did not include a picture if it’s such a nice view.]

Surprisingly, this 11 mile loop is not a very strenuous hike.  The elevation change is gradual and not very great (only 600 feet).   Still, it offered some of the most breathtaking views of the summer.

This 7.5 mile loop doesn’t offer panoramic views, but it it a pleasant afternoon hike through the lower Hudson Valley.

Opus 40 isn’t a hike, it’s a piece of artwork.   A very large piece of artwork.  This sculpture (named Opus 40 because it was the artist’s Magnum Opus and he expect it would take him 40 years to complete it) is made entirely of piled stones and needs to be seen to be believed.  If you get a chance, go.  The magnitude of what this guy (his name escapes me) did is astounding.   Even more so if you realize he did it for no apparent reason.

The trail up climb Black Mountain is an 8.5 mile loop that opens onto a windy outcropping of rock at the summit.  There’s a weather station up there as well as a spectacular view.

[Again, great view, but no picture.]

Hadley mountain trail is a short hike (only a 4 mile round trip) but it can be strenuous in places.  The pay-off, however, is one of the best 360 degree views available.  As a bonus, there is a fire tower at the summit and, on most days, a friendly guide to answer questions. 

[I must have kept forgetting my camera.]

This is a local hike, but a very nice one.  It’s a 1/2 mile (one way) walk along the Helderburg escarpment.  It is narrow and steep but well-traveled and short enough for even small children.  The views are spectacular (for a local place) and, as this is only a small portion of Thatcher Park, there are a lot of other things to do besides hike.  The Park has a large pool, playgrounds and ample picnic areas.  Bring some friends.  Make a day of it. 

One of the many mountains that surround Lake George, Buck provides a pleasant 6.6 mile loop to and from its summit and a rewarding view–on days when it isn’t storming, that is.  This day, it was raining off and on and, as you can see in the picture, a storm was rapidly approaching.

 This 2.8 mile round trip trek to the weather station, observation tower and helicopter landing pad atop Cathead Mountain turned out to be a pleasant, short hike.

Stratton Mountain is mostly associated with skiing, but it offers some very nice hiking trails as well.  A 9 mile trail loops up the side of the mountain to an observation tower at the top.  It’s a moderately difficult hike, nothing too strenuous but I worked up a sweat and had to pick my way carefully along the rocky trail at times.
     As usual, I was glad for the chance to relax and recoup at the summit.  There were other hikers there, and one woman in a dress and high heels with a small boy who was begging to be allowed to climb the observation tower.  I was so curious, I had to ask how she made it up the mountain dressed like that.  Her answer: she took the ski-lift, which had dropped her and her son off only a few hundred yards from where we were.
     Maybe I’ll do that next time.

Not to disparage Haystack, but this was not, to my recollection, a stellar hike.  It was a pleasant 4.8 mile round trip through some nice forests, but there wasn’t much of a view and what little view became available was mostly obscured by fog.
     Or maybe I’m just getting tired of walking up and down mountains every weekend.  (Have I mentioned yet that there is no beer involved on any of these trips?)

 This was one of those hikes where it almost took longer to get there than it did to make the 3.4 mile round trip to the summit and back.   Cook is up in Essex county, near Fort Ticonderoga–that’s a bit of a haul from Albany, but it is a pretty ride through the Adirondacks.  The hike itself was another one of those pleasant, not-so-strenuous walks through an area of monotonous beauty.
     If you do come all the way up here, you should go see Fort Ticonderoga, too.  It’s just outside the village of Ticonderoga and the kids will love it.

 On this hike, tactics changed a little.  Instead of a ‘mountain hike with a view’ trail, Three Lakes Trail winds 14.4 miles along relatively flat land, past three scenic lakes (hence the name ‘Three Lakes Trail’).   Since it didn’t go up and down so much, this turned out to be a relaxing day and the scenery was still fantastic.

 By the time of this 4.8 mile loop ( a really short one, by comparison) I was in my best hiking shape.   Still, this mountain just about did me in.  The trail was steep and rocky and going down was just as strenuous as climbing up.  In some places, the trail went straight up rock faces and you have to climb up ‘trail ladders.’
     Let me tell you, you haven’t lived until you’ve carried a squirming cocker spaniel up a rickety ladder, only to come face-to-face with a skinny mongrel at the top who takes an instant (and mutual) dislike to your dog.  The next few instants were a blur of fur and yelping and swearing.
     On the other hand, it was a rewarding trip.  The view was spectacular, enhanced by the turning of the leaves.
     A friend of mine had also taken up hiking that year and had told me that she and her husband’s first hike had been Crane Mountain.  She said it had been kinda rough and that they had gotten snippy at each other toward the end.  They did go on other hikes, though.  I give them credit, if Crane had been my first hike, it would have been my last.

 This is an outcropping of rock that juts a little ways into 13th Lake and serves as an excellent location to eat lunch.  The water in these Adirondack lakes is so blue and clear you cannot imagine it.  Loons were floating on the lake and calling to one another.  It was really quite pleasant.

This was the hike I had been looking forward to all year.  High up in the Catskill mountains are the ruins of the Overlook Hotel.   It’s a 13.5 mile round trip to see them but, as I have said, I love this stuff.   The trail was relatively flat and not very strenuous (it used to be a carriage trail) so the hiking went pretty well.  It was cold, however, and even snowed a little.
     At last, the ruins came into view.  They were cool!  These big, abandoned hulls of a 19th century luxury hotel.  It was really interesting and fun and nostalgic to look through them.
     I wasn’t through congratulating myself for having walked the 7 or so miles to get there when I noticed there seemed to be an awful lot of people at the site.  Surely there aren’t that many people willing to walk 13 miles just to see an old building.
     Turns out, there isn’t.  On the other side of the ruins is a parking lot, and a road that leads up and down the mountain.  Most people, apparently, simply drive up here.

The Hike Pages continued until the end of 2001, running parallel with other blogs. From this point, however, The Cracks of Time takes over as my primary blog.