Lake George Wild Forest - State of New York Dept. of Environmental Conservation
Sleeping Beauty - Lake George 12ster
Erebus - Lake George 12ster
DIRECTIONS:
GPS Coordinates 43.549465, -73.556013 for Dacy Clearing
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| Dacy Clearing Parking - only if the Dacy Clearing Road gate is open, otherwise ... |
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| ... parking is at the Hogtown Lot which you drive through to get to Dacy Clearing Road. That would add 1.5 miles of gravel road walk each way to the hike. |
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| If the gate is open, drive on up to Dacy Clearing. |
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| I had read that the road is very bumpy and rutted but I did not have any problems in my SUV. The road actually seemed pretty smooth. Based on piles of gravel in the Hogtown lot, it might have been recently regraded. |
TRAIL MAP:
Lake George Wild Forest East Map - State of New York Dept. of Environmental Conservation
HIKE DISTANCE: 8.5 miles
THE HIKE:
This a HUGELY popular hike. On the preceding Saturday, September 17, I counted 95 people that had signed the trail register going to Sleeping Beauty. Only two were going to Fishbrook Pond and one to Erebus. On the rainy (but turned pretty) Thursday when I went, four people had signed the trail register and I didn't run into any of them.
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| The trail starts from Dacy Clearing. |
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| Signing in at the trail register. |
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| It had pretty much stopped raining by the time we started but water was still coming down out of the trees, |
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| At the intersection we went right on blue to Sleeping Mountain and would be returning from the left. |
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| Sunshine! Just in time for approaching the overlook. |
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| The trail turns sharply right but it's 0.1 mile straight ahead to ... |
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| ... overlooks at what is referred to as Sleeping Beauty summit although the actual summit is half a mile away. |
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| Lake George |
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| The High Peaks in the distance. |
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| Continuing on towards Bumps Pond. |
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| Passing the true summit of Sleeping Beauty Mountain. |
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| At Bumps Pond we turned right towards Fishbrook Pond. We'd get a better look at Bumps Pond from the other side on the way back. |
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| Brodie's backpack is uneven because I had to take my rain jacket out of the right pocket for a passing rain shower. |
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| Fortunately that was the last of the rain and it did not last too long. |
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| Coming up on Fishbrook Pond. |
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| Fishbrook Pond |
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| A hard left from the yellow trail where we had come in from on the left to the red trail on the right. |
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| You can tell 95 people did not traipse through here just days before. The trail is rougher with some overgrowth and blow downs but remains well marked and easy to follow. |
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| Leaving Fishbrook Pond and heading to Erebus Mountain. |
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| This section of trail is also much more lightly used. |
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| Where the trail turns left, right goes down to Lake George. Not enough daylight hours on this day to add that on so left we went. |
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| They don't want people actually going to the summit of Erebus and trampling vegetation so this high point on the trail counts for the Lake George 12ster. |
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| Passing along a swamp heading towards Bumps Pond. |
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| Bumps Pond |
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| After Bumps Pond the trail widens with some partial views of Lake George to the right. |
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| I was actually very surprised that this was the only litter I saw that I packed out. |
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| Coming up on the intersection where we had turned towards Sleeping Beauty at the beginning of the hike. |
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| Now retracing down ... |
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| ... signing out at the trail register ... |
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| ... and back to the car. |
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| It was only about a 35 minute drive to Red Roof Inn Glen Falls - Lake George where we spent the night. The cost of the room is $120 more on a Friday night than on a Thursday night so the bonus of doing this hike on a Thursday was both lodging savings and a very popular hike with nobody else around. |
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| Two down, 10 to go but I think I have this worked out to where two more 2-day trips should do it. So if I make this my annual early fall hiking trip, I should finish in 2024. |
