Tomany Mountain and Otter Lake

This time of year is tough; the weather's warming up and you want to be out but the snow is going fast. Too deep to hike, maybe not enough to snowshoe. However, in the Arietta area there is still just enough snow to snowshoe and I got out both Saturday (Mar 31) and Sunday (Apr 1) to get the last snowshoeing of the season in. Saturday, Randy and I met up with Kathy and Gail and we went to Tomany Mountain. This is a nice little 3 mile round trip hike. It's quite steep going up to where the old fire tower used to be and there isn't much of a view from there even this time of year. But, given the wonderful weather, we made the trek up. Once up there, it's a beautiful site. The base of the ranger cabin is still there, as is the old well. We started late in the morning, 10:30am and got up there about 12 noon. We had a little lunch then went back down the mountain, a lot faster than we went up, I can tell you!

On Sunday, Gail is the hike leader for a bushwhack around Otter Lake. Since there are a lot of Otter Lakes in the Adirondacks, let me say that this lake is just north and east of Green Lake (next to Cananda Lake and Caroga Lake). This was a scheduled Herkimer Alpiner hiking club hike and we had myself and Gail, Kathy and 5 or 6 other club members in attendance. This is a pretty level hike around this small lake. The only challange was the swamp crossing. Tricky when the snow is melting or has melted. At one point we were hummock hopping our way across. But everyone made it without getting wet. We stopped for lunch at a spot where we had a view of the lake. Then made our way back to the trailhead. Were were back at the cars by 12:30 or so. Since rain is predicted for this afternoon, it's good we finished a little early. The rain will wash most of the rest of snow away. The snow was pretty rotten by noon time, it won't last much longer.

I've been in contact with a group of people going on the AT thru hike in 2008. I've set up a hiking partner for March 11th, 2008. I'm really getting ready!