Brown and Five Mile Mountain – Tongue Mountain Range

On Saturday I took my good friend Sarah on a hike near Lake George. I hiked with her for the first time back in 2008 when I was first getting into shape and we hiked Sleeping Beauty together–it has been nearly six years since we did that hike! I wanted to do an easy hike on Saturday because I still had to do my long run on Sunday, so I picked part of the Tongue Mountain Range–the trail to Five Mile Mountain.

The book of day hikes that I have boasted that this hike had amazing views. About 3 miles into the hike I deemed it the book of lies.

Two miles in we reached the lean-to and possibly the summit of Brown Mountain, which had a small view of the surrounding mountains, but mostly of the trees. I did get to see many tiny red salamanders on the trail, along with plenty of mushrooms.

The book I had also said that the summit of Five Mile Mountain was .7 miles away from the lean-to. It seemed like it was more than that–unfortunately I forgot to wear my GPS so I couldn’t track our mileage. The trail kept winding up and down and eventually we came to what we thought was the summit.

It had a pretty, although limited view of Lake George, not as good as the book made it seem. But it was nice to stop and enjoy the sun for a little bit, while we chatted with the two other people up top–the only other two we saw on the summit.

Not many others were hiking this trail on that day.

Brown Mountain & Five Mile Mountain via the North end of the Tongue Mountain Range Trail
~8 mi RT
Brown Mountain Elevation: 1,965′
Five Mile Mountain Elevation: 2,258′