Tongue Mountain Range, Lake George Hike Review

Tongue Mountain Range, Lake George Hike Review

by Kathleen Lisson

I was in Lake George for a wedding last weekend, so I spent my weekend hiking the Tongue Mountain Range. 

On Saturday, I hiked from the Clay Meadow Entrance to the Five Mile mountain lean-to and back to Clay Meadow, reaching the summit of Five Mile mountain and Huckleberry mountain. The kind hikers I met at the Lean-to said they referred to the area as Brown Mountain, but my map says that Brown mountain is North of the lean-to. 

On Sunday, my husband and I hiked from the Clay Meadow Entrance to the summits of Fifth Peak, French Point mountain and First Peak before looping back on the trail along Northwest Bay. My husband likes a difficult hike and he was not disappointed. We had an early lunch at the Fifth Peak Lean-to. By the time I reached the trail intersection near Montcalm point I was ready to stop climbing mountains. Though it should have been, the last 5 miles of trail was not easy. We were walking slowly because I was breaking in my new boots. We finished the 13.5 miles hike in just over 8 hours.

My husband and I joked that the trees in the Adirondack Park are carnivorous. Many trees seem to be 'eating' the DEC trail markers by covering them with bark.

We signed out at the trailhead and went to have a delicious dinner at Cate's Italian Garden on Main street in Bolton Landing. The service was flawless and the food was delicious. I recommend the warm mozzarella and tomato crostini.

I appreciated that our waitress let us sit in a corner so our sweatiness didn't offend any of the other customers. The restaurant has tables outside for warmer weather, I look forward to coming back later this summer.

Off On Adventure blog's trip report of the section of the trail we hiked on Sunday: www.offonadventure.com/2014/01/tongue-mountain-range-lake-george-wild.html

The All Trails report of our Sunday hike is here: http://alltrails.com/trail/us/new-york/tongue-mountain-range-loop