Southern Tongue Range

 

The weather continued to hold the week after we hiked Deer Leap. Moreover, it would be 20 degrees warmer with almost no wind and, with the 100% cloud cover, we wouldn't have to wear sunglasses. It was proving to be a perfect Monday to hike the Southern Tongue Range. Wendy had the choice to take a day off from work this week and she chose Monday to give us the opportunity to hike as late as we liked. 

If we were going to hike these mountains together, with as little snow as possible and no rattlers, this had the markings of a perfect day to do so.

Best of all, Dan had the day off and needed these last three mountains in order to complete his Winter 12ster. I was excited to be hiking with another human after a couple of months of just Sunny and me. Sunny was elated to see him and greeted Dan with his usual calm, placid demeanor. I would have followed that sentence with a winky face emoji and tongue out emoji, but such things are not apropois of a serious blog post.

Main Ascent

The trail dips down to the 330' elevation of the marsh at the Northern tip of Lake George's Northwest Bay, then climbs steeply to the 1475' elevation in the col between Fivemile and Fifth Peak. The light was dim for our 7am start, so some of my photos at the start aren't so great. They're good enough to document the terrain at least.

The trail crosses at the best possible location to avoid a bunch of marshland. The bridge is in good condition.

The junction. We were dubious about the corrected distance being factually correct.

Sunny stayed on leash for a bit, but I eventually gave in. He was very excited indeed.

The main ascent is a bit of a trudge at 15% to 20% grade.

The red trail was wide and extremely well-marked on the way up.

Icy cliffs in the distance. These can be spotted throughout the area.

Crossings over the col and down by the lake feature these bridges. presumably for snowmobiles. The maps of the region do not indicate this as a snowmobile trail, however, so it must be for ranger use only.

Up and down and across, Sunny probably climbed the mountain twice.

"Are we there yet?"

"I sure hope so."

I just think they're neat.

We definitely appreciated our spikes on about 80% of this hike.

We came to the col about 8:30am. Left takes you to Fivemile, straight takes you down to the other side of the mountain to the lake, and right takes you South to Fifth Peak. We hung a right and started climbing again almost immediately.

The hike to the summit did have some 15% grade sections and a short 20% grade section, but it was managable. Dan and I took little breaks as we climbed each section. We had plenty of daylight; there was no resaon to taunt our bodies into injury.

As we came to the summit at around 8:45, the lean-to loomed into view.

It seemed like a great spot to camp, barring the usual threat of rattlesnakes in other seasons, that is. It gives me the heebies just thinking about waking up to one of those.

There was some firewood in the lean-to and some cooking tools hanging from a tree.

The view was lovely here, especially since the trees and brush had no foliage to speak of. 

We popped a squat to rest and snack. I also took the time to groom Sunny's paws.

The Southern ledge of the peak affords a lovely view of the extreme Southern ADK.

Sunny and Dan bonded quite a bit on this hike.

Let's go!

Thunderbox!

Dan and I decided to bushwhack down the Southwest side of the summit rather than backtracking around.

Like much of the terrain on this range, there were cliffs, but they seemed to always quickly smooth out as long as you hiked in the right direction. Generally, the idea is to jog in the direction that the valley below is ascending.

Looking back at the summit, a view you probably never see in the summer.

Lazy wins!

The trail crosses along the top of the moutnain for a bit to another viewpoint, then descends sharply.

Ups & Downs to French Point Mt.

The hike from Fifth Peak to French was the most challenging part of the hike. It's telling that French is the only "Mountiain" between First Peak and Fifth Peak despite the name of the latter. I'd argue there are actually three major PUDs on the trail betwen Fifth Peak and French Mt.  These bumps and peaks aren't as cruel as some of those found in the High Peaks, but they're also not nothing.

Looking accross, we could see the lumps to French in the distance. We couldn't say we were dreading it, but we knew it would be Type 2 fun.

Descending into the first col was steep and, in some spots, icy. We were glad to have our spikes. A lot of the descents along the ridge to French featured better than -20% grade with some -30% according to the maps. Of course, this is only an average and the real story is told by the pictures.

We did have some lovely flattish spots to rest our legs.

After climbing a bit, the trail curled around the second of the PUDs on the East side. Although the ups and downs were difficult, it was still a very lovely ridge walk. In many cases, ridge trails (including many of the ones in the High Peaks) are situatied along the middle of the ridges they traverse. By contrast, the Tongue Range here in the Southern ADK spoils hikers with views along a large percentage of the journey. That feature gives this hike a unique flair.

Ice, ice, baby coming down the 2nd PUD.

Coming down the 2nd PUD was pretty steep. It was snowing, but it was a very pretty snow without too much wind.

Still more pretty pine stands on some flat sections gave us a chance to catch our breaths.

Blowdown going up French.

Sunny was still having a great time chasing after all kinds of smells. We saw canine and feline tracks up there, as well as some deer. Dan and I weren't struggling by any measure, but the climb up to French from the last col was just a bit laborioius. It's a good thing it was so pretty.

The grade on the ascents was nothing compared to the grade on the descents. I felt like these would have been easier to climb up than down in this weather. The blowdown up French was managable.

Come on, guys!

French Point is great.

To be honest, the camping on French Point would be really nice on calm days. Today, Dan suggested we take our summit break in the col betwen the two peaks on French because the weather coming in brought a bit of a breeze and it wasn't very comfortable.

Having a fire here on a calm morning would be something. One of the things I'm realizing I love about winter hiking along Lake George is that the motorbot noise polution is almost negligible. In the Summer, it's damn near constant. Aside from Sunny's bear bell, the calm of this hike was great for the brain chemicals.

Good boy!

First (and Ultimate) Peak

We knew we had to lose 500' of elevation and regain about 300'. This wasn't too daunting, especially since the map didn't really seem to feature any more PUDs. 

Looking across, it seemed like a lot more than 300' from the col, however the trail bent right along the ridge a bit and we hoped that it followed as close to the top of the ridge as possible so we wouldn't have to climb back up as much.

The hike down from French Point had more -20%  to -30% grades on the descents. 

It was really cool to do these Southern Adk hikes in the winter with the bare trees affording a deep view of the woods. Sunny was still full of piss & vinegar.

The trail did bend across the face of the ridge. It didn't follow the top, but it also didn't lose as much elevation as it could have.

There was still hella ice, however. I did avoid it in some spots.

Looking back at the last boulder field descent to the col.

There was a water source in the col. Sunny did not partake.

As with the rest of the ascents on this range heading South, the ascent was tiring but relatively tame compared to the previous descent.

Hello from First Peak.

Let's Bush Bash!

Dan had visions of his wife's cooking dancing in his head. I really wanted to get home for Quinn's hockey practice. I'd considered bushwhacking down First Peak and Dan actually brought it up earlier in the hike. With him there, I was feeling very confident about successfully navigating down. I did have some concerns about hitting heavy blowdown from last year's tornadoes, but we could always go around if we did.

At the end of the day, as bushwhacks go, this wasn't exactly the most dangerous to attempt. The grade was reasonable and getting lost was laughable considering all you had to do was head downhill until you found the lake. Were I alone, I may not have attempted it, but with another human companion, it seemed like a fun experience to have.

We started down at around 12:15pm.

Sunny was ready for a heckin' bushwhack. We'd followed the scent of another hiker and their dog to Fifth Peak, but they'd turned back from there. Following the trail for Sunny had been hit or miss the rest of the hike, but he didn't do too bad. During the bushwhack, he stayed between Dan and me for the most part. 

For the most part.

We went down a channel on the East side of the mountain. I think we'd have probably been better off, distance-wise, a little farther North according to the map. However, the terrain itself seemed pretty rough, so this way worked out fine.

The terrain was step-like. We hiked down one ledge, traversed Northeast as best we could, then found the next place to descend another ledge. Some of the ledges were quite tall and steep, but they always smoothed out to a reasonable descent if we jogged North enough.

I did try to get some shots of the taller cliffs, but the scale of them didn't allow for a very good shot. Just know that there are a couple of spots where you absolutely do have to jog North before finding a spot to head downhill.

If the brush on this side of the moutnain was impassible in other seasons, we saw no evidence of it. All in all it was a fun descent. We were all in pretty great spirits.

The serenity of the bushwhack was quite welcome.

This scramble near the end of the descent was the most messy one we had to tackle, but it was still managable. The final map did calculate average grades of -20% to -40%, but it was all very managable when using your brain to pick the right path. Still, I probably wouldn't want to climb up it.

Dad! I smell trail! I smell water!

We found the trail at 1:00pm on the dot, 45 minutes after we left the summit.

Dan advised me to head North around it whenever possible whenever avoiding an obstacle. I did my best to do so, though there were some instances where it was just easier to bend South for a bit, then jog back.

At any rate, according to AllTrails, we had turned a 3.4 mile hike to the point and back to a 1.2 mile bushwhack, shaving 2 miles off the hike. 

Lake Walk

Dan was keen to cross the lake when and if we could. As we hiked along the trail, I was keen to agree. After hiking Seymour, I wasn't as put off by long, flat hikes as I once was. However, if we could avoid the constant ups and downs along the Northwest Bay Trail, I'd be down to clown.

Sunny was very put off by the sounds of the lake lapping against the shore.

Sunny stayed close the rest of the hike out. He was starting to get tuckered out.

This one tree was the most challenging blowdown remaining on the trial. There's a herd path going around it, but you can also go over or under it as you please.

Lots of streams can be found along the trail. This isn't surprising as the range is so close to the lake. They're all quite pretty when they're iced over.

Busy beavers. Dan said that, in addition to grinding their teeth down, they eat some parts of the wood.

The spoil from the tornado is fascinating to see.

The trail crews have done a hell of a job cleaning this up.

The trail is very passable thanks to their efforts.

More vehicle-rated bridges can be found over the bigger streams on the Northwest Bay Trail.

I think I wouldn't terribly mind just hiking this trail to the point and back someday. It's not difficult, but has some good elevation change which would be nice for the exercise. It is, however, less fun after hiking three mountains and a bunch of PUDs.

At great length, we came to a spot where we could hike on the lake. We removed our spikes (which had already outlived their usefulness to be honest) and set off.  Dan taught me about ice safety along the way which I appreciated.

Hiking on the ice was a really fun, new experience for me.

We crossed the lake at the throat of the Northwest Bay Brook. There were some ice fisher folk out there doing their thing. We made our way carefully across. We climbed up from the shore at a fishing access point and road walked back to the car, finishing at about 2:30pm.

I'd brought the wrong cord with me on this hike, so the map isn't complete. 

I am very grateful to have hiked these mountains at the perfect time, thanks to both Wendy and Dan. I'm hoping to hike the Northern Tongue soon, also hopefully with a friend. I plan on snowshoeing Buck later this year on a bluebird day if possible. 

Edit pass 2025-01-21