Bushwhack to the Ledge

From my house looking north, one can see a ledge at the top of the mountain. Several of my family have been up there but I never have. Today, my brother Steve, his son Justin, Randy and I hiked up there. The only map I have does not lable the mountain but it's about 2000 feet. It is probably a mile there, up steep, rough terrain. It took us about 1.5 hours to get there and the view of the valley was terrific. We could see a long way down the Sacandaga Lake, Northville, our own little valley (and our houses), and the local pond called Winnie's Pond. While up there we built a very small fire and grilled some hot dogs. Boy they tasted great. We built the fire on bedrock, right where a spring flows so putting the fire out was very easy. Then we hiked back down, a slightly different way. Again, extremely rough going. An ankle breaker if not careful. We were home by 2pm.

It was a great test of my new inserts. The way was so steep that the testing was very hard but my toes were not, except in the nearly vertical spots, pushing the ends of my boots. I took a day pack but with everything I carried, it probably weighed about 20 or 25 pounds. Spot tried to go with us but with her legs being so bad, I had to have my Mom hold her in the house till we were gone. Mom reported when we got back that Spot was very unhappy. I felt terrible but there's no way she could have made the hike.

I'm more than ever convinced that I'm ready to take on the Northville - Lake Placid trail. I'm not going to get any younger or have any fewer pains. I've started telling my family about my end of July hike date.