Hiking - Hour Pond

Yesterday, on the calm day before Tropical Storm Irene invaded our area, I joined a Schenectady ADK trip to Hour Pond, just west of Thirteenth Lake in the east central Adirondacks. There was a relatively new trail to Hour Pond that cut about 2 miles off the previous route, and this trip aimed to explore it.

We started out hiking along 13th Lake, which was calm and serene, despite the first signs of Irene's clouds approaching from the southeast.



Across the lake, we viewed Balm of Gilead Mountain, which Holly and I had climbed only a few days earlier.



Arriving at Hour Pond, we lingered for a while at a nice lunch spot along the shore. Nearby were some ferns beginning to turn their autumn colors. Be sure to click on the photo to see the fine detail in the veins of color beginning to appear.



Several of us explored along the shoreline as far as the outlet of the pond. There were even nicer views here than at the lunch spot a quarter mile away.



After a long lunch break, we checked out the relatively new leanto, and then headed back to the cars, after about a 7-mile round-trip hike.

This would make a very nice snowshoe hike in the winter, but many of us conceded that although marked as a ski trail, skiing it would be beyond the abilities of an average intermediate skier.