Hiking the Black Mountain Firetower Loop – 9.20.20

Yesterday my friend Frank and I drove up to the Lake George area to hike Black Mountain, one of the Lake George firetowers. It was a chilly yet sunny day, perfect weather for hiking! Some of the leaves were even starting to turn.

The last time I attempted to hike Black was back in July—4.5 months after ACL surgery—which proved to be too much for my knee. We never made it past the Lapland Pond lean-to. However yesterday was a much different story. It’s crazy how much of a difference 2 months can make. Granted, the hike isn’t difficult, but it is the longest hike (in mileage) I’ve done since surgery! And even at the end I felt like I could keep going, which boosted my confidence.

We started at 8:30am. The parking lot was just starting to fill up. It took us just over 90 minutes to get to the summit where some really great views awaited.

We hung out on top for about 30 minutes and then headed down the back side of the mountain (The last time I did this route was in 2015!) We stopped at a few look out points on the way down. I much prefer this trail than the main trail we came up. It’s just a little steeper in some spots and has some switchbacks but overall it’s nicer. Eventually the trail flattens out a little and runs past Black Mountain Ponds and Lapland Pond. It’s so pretty.

We are so lucky to live only a short drive from such good hiking. I think this was the 4^th time I’ve climbed Black.

Despite the cars in the parking lot, we didn’t see many other people. Five people total passed us on the way up. We saw one group on the way down sitting at a look out ledge, a few other people going up, and a large group of what looked like college students coming in as we were exiting the trail. It was busy, but not as busy as I expect the high peaks would have been.

It felt great to be in the mountains again! I’m already planning my next hike.