Shelving Rock Shuffle

We visited the Lake George Wild Forest on our weekly hike last Thursday, specifically Shelving Rock Mountain. It was a quick 1.5 miles to the summit on an old carriage road. Very easy but very icy. The weather was perfect---beautiful blue skies, low 20's, slightly breezy. Nice views looking south from the summit--you can see where the ice is starting to get thin on the Lake.

We decided, democratically this time, to take advantage of the weather and earlier-than-usual start and lengthen the hike just a bit. We scooted back down to the closest intersection and took a connector trail which we thought would put us on the Ridge Trail. Well, we zigged when we should have zagged and ended up on the Lakeshore Trail. No biggie. We walked down the old carriage road to the Red Rock Picnic area. Cute little spot with tons of picnic tables, docks and outhouses---what a pleasant surprise! We stopped to eat lunch and got to sit at a real table--pleasant surprise #2, since we usually stand to eat or sit on a snow covered rock or log. Anyhoo, we finished lunch and headed to the next trail which was an old horse trail that had not been travelled in a while. It seems as though horses do not need DEC markers to guide them. This human does however. We pushed on and finally made it to the Ridge Trail. We saw some tracks---not sure what critter they belonged to...coyote maybe? Not to worry, animals will not bother us as long as I keep feeding Brian foods that disagree with his colon.

We hiked around a small bump where there had been a forest fire, then on to a short spur and again to the main trail back to the TH. I managed to fall on this spur. I didn't quit have my spikes planted and went arse over teakettle. It was kind of comical---I just kept sliding on an icy patch. My rump hit first, then my knee and finally my hand. Nice. The trail in this last spot was groomed thanks to snowmolbilers. Brian fell three times in this section cuz he wasn't wearing his microspikes---tsk tsk tsk!. And we spotted something slinking into the woods. Too black to be a pine marten. Too big to be a mink. We googled it later and decided it was a fisher. Yikes, I would NOT want to meet one of those in a dark alley! Great hike though despite the spills--7.7 miles total in about 5.5 hours.

Nasty looking, ain't he?!------->