Hiking, Snowshoeing - Good Luck Mountain

The string of beautiful spring-like weather continues, so today, we headed for Good Luck Mountain, in southern Hamilton County. This short climb has some wonderful open cliffs on top that provide great views for the effort. Once again, it was sunny and in the low 50s, and a very nice day to be out.

We left NY10 and started walking along a marked snowmobile trail until we reached this trail junction with a register. We were in the Ferris Lake Wild Forest management unit of the Adirondack Forest Preserve.



We continued to follow the snowmobile trail, which was well-packed and easy to walk on with snowshoes, despite the 2-3 feet of snow still in the woods. Near the point where we were to leave the trail, we reached Good Luck Lake. We've paddled here at least once every summer, and it's also good swimming, but we'd never visited in winter before.



Now we left the snowmobile trail and began a steady, and sometimes steep, climb below the icy cliff face.



As we stood below the cliffs, we could see the lake below.



Turning upward again, the cliffs, and our destination, towered above us. We would skirt the cliffs to the left, and climb steeply around them to the summit. This section was made more "interesting" by the numerous post-holes left by some idiot(s) who had decided that snowshoes were not necessary. We took some satisfaction in knowing that their ascent and descent must have been a bit miserable.



The view from the cliffs is mostly to the west. Spectacle Lake is the most prominent feature in the distance.



After a pleasant lunch break atop the cliffs, we headed back down the steep section to the valley, and back to the car along the snowmobile trail. An ice cream stop in Johnstown made the day complete.