Kid Friendly Hikes

Here is a list of "Family Walks" from the Speculator Region Chamber of Commerce:

• Sacandaga Pathway is a wheelchair/stroller accessible path and boardwalk which winds through a variety of wetland and upland areas along the Kunjamuk River.  Various wildlife and plant species can be found in this complex ecosystem. Interpretive areas, a meditative walk through ferns, and picnic sites are being constructed.  The path begins to the left of the Speculator pavilion.

• Fawn Lake Trail is a relatively flat trail into an uninhabited lake. There is a small sand beach at one end of the lake. From the Chamber take Route 8 west approximately 5 miles. Turn right on Fish Mountain Road. Bear left at the intersection, turn right onto Fawn Lake Rd.  Follow to Fawn Lake trailhead near the end of the road.  Shorter trail is the left fork and the beach is on the right fork.

• Trail to Colonel Peck's Grave is a moderate walk to the grave site of Colonel Loring Peck, Hamilton County's only Revolutionary War officer. From the Chamber go south on Route 30, turn right at Camp of the Woods and go 2.7 miles. The trailhead is on the left at the top of the hill.

• Auger Falls Trail is an easy walk to a narrow gorge of the Sacandaga River.  Be sure to keep children under close supervision, as the edge of the gorge tends to be slippery and drops off quickly into rushing water. From the Chamber go south 8 miles on Rt. 30 to dirt road on the left.  Trailhead is immeadiately right as you pull off the road.  You may have to park ahead in clearing and walk back.  Follow dirt road parallel to Rt. 30 one mile to trailhead. Follow colored DEC trail markers.

• The Nature Trail at the Hamilton County Building Complex in Lake Pleasant is a well maintained trail system.  The shaded trail begins behind the Soil & Water Building (behind the tennis courts) where a sing marks the trail.  The walk is a half mile loop.

• Jockeybush Lake is a 1 mile hike.  It offers a variety of terrain from moderate uphill grade to a rock hop across a small stream.   This popular trail includes a series of small waterfalls and several boulders for picnic areas.  Large granite ledges provide a scenic view of one of our spectacular deep water lakes.  Access to the trailhead is approximately 8 miles south of the intersection of Rt. 8 and Rt. 10. Trail begins scross from Lake Alma on Rt. 10.  Parking is adjacent to yellow and brown trail sign.

• Good Luck Lake offers a nice beach on a secluded, shallow lake.  Follow trail 1/2 mile where the trail forks.  Take the left fork.  The lake can be seen from a ridge at 1 mile. The beach is 1.8 miles from the trailhead on Rt. 10. Terrain is fairly level along a well defined, marked trail.  Adirondack bogs can be seen at the East and West ends of the lake.

• Spectacle Lake Trail is the right fork off the Good Luck Lake Trail. It is approximately 2.5 miles to campsites and warm water fishing.

• Kunjamuk Cave is a one mile walk to a large cave.  Approximately 3 miles form Speculator south on Rt. 30 to Old Rt. 30 to cross iron bridge on the left.  Trail is 100 feet on left.  Do not go straight as this is an old overgrown road.  Follow unmarked footpath approximately one mile to cave on the right.

• Dunning Brook Trail is a 3 mile hike past Dunning Pond, and it follows Dunning Creek to Rt. 30 near Wells.  From Speculator go 4 miles south on Gilmantown Road, one mile south of Gilman Lake. Trailhead is on the left.

• West River Falls is a 2.1 mile hike. Take Rt. 30 south to Wells Bridge.  Go right on Algonquin Drive for approximately 2 miles.  At West River Road go right to end (9 miles to trailhead parking).  Follow trail north.  Within 1/2 mile take first unmarked left trail.  Cross Hamilton Lake Stream on little bridge, continue on foot path past flow area to the falls which are 100 feet high. Flat until last 1/2 mile.

• Murphy Lake Trail is south on Rt. 30 past Wells.  Take Pumpkin Hollow Road on left approximately 3 miles from Speculator.  Trailhead is just before Willis Lake on right.  Murphy Lake is a 3-mile hike which can be a day or overnight.  Trout fishing, camping and a lean-to.

• Griffin Gorge has the largest waterfalls on the East Branch of the Sacandaga River.  Go south on Rt. 30 (approx 9 miles) to Rt. 8 and go left about 2.5 miles to a small gravel road on left, go to bridge and park.  There are several short paths, picnic spots and pools for swimming. Two mile trail along old road lead through hemlock forest to east side of Auger Falls.

• Rock Pond/Long Pond Trail is beautiful trail through evergreen forests passing cascading rapids.  Drive Elm Lake Road to the end. Trailhead is at Cisco Brook. Follow trail 1 mile to for and bear left to Rock Pond.  Continue another 1 1/2 miles to Long Pond (no permit necessary).

• G Lake is a short scenic trail to trout fishing, picnicking, and camping.   From Speculator take Rt. 8 west to Arietta/Morehouse Town line (approximately 15 miles).  Turn right on gravel road, drive 3 miles to barrier and park.  Follow foot trail 1/2 mile to G Lake.

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Links:

http://www.adirondack.net/hiking/kid_hiking.cfm

http://www.adk.org/trails/Family_Hikes.aspx

Calling Goreskimom, or anyone else who wants to help...

We are headed back to the mountains in a week or so. Any more recommendations for Kid Hikes in the Central Adks?

We did Sawyer, and Watch Hill last year and they were primo. Neve is 5 now.

Zelda really wants to hike to the Blue Ledge. I'm thinking that's pretty rocky and over 5 miles (?) and might be pushing it. Thoughts on that?

If you are ready to step it up, try Goodnow or Blue Mountain.  They both have the added bonus of a fire tower to climb after you relax and have a picnic at the summit.  My daughter did Blue Mt. as a 5 or 6 year old.

We did Goodnow Mtn with my daughter May, 2010. She is the same age as Neve. It is a great hike with the tower as a reward. Buck Mountain is another good hike. It is on the east side of Lake George a few miles north of Lake George Vil.
You can see Gore from the top.

Sleeping Beauty - similar to Buck Mt., but a little easier IMO...plus your daughter might like the name :)

Not sure if it qualifies, but Natural Stone Bridge and Caves in Pottersville, NY is a good 1+ hour nature walk we did with my and our friends' preschoolers. Fun for kids and adults.

High Falls Gorge (at the base of Whiteface) and Ausable Chasm are nice too.

Goodnow Mountain is great. We did it 2 weeks ago with our 10 year old and 12 year old. It was an easy hike for them.  We saw a lot of little kids during the hike as well, and none of them seemed tired at all.  The views are amazing, and my kids said it was one of the highlights of our trip.  There is a huge rock with a tree growing out of it on the way up:


The views from the fire tower are great, as long as you can stomach the climb up.  I had a little vertigo at the top.


There is a nice little cafe on the road just south of the mountain. We had some great cheeseburgers there after our hike.

Goodnow is getting a lot of votes.  Are there views from the base of the firetower?  Not sure our entire group has the stomach for the climb up.

Thanks for the pics poindexter. Very nice!

About 5 minutes before you reach the top of Goodnow, there is an area to the right of the trail where you can get great views.  You won't miss it if you look for the log bench that's at the entry to the small rock clearing on the right of the trail.  





As for views from the base of the tower... well they aren't as nice as those above.  Still nice though.



It's a bit disconcerting climbing up the tower actually.  It seems about as sturdy as the old rusted gondola towers at Gore. And, the steps are wooden!



All in all, a great hike for families.    

I can vouch for Goodnow too.  We did it a few years back with Daniel (pre-Sylvie) on my back.  He could handle it now. It is a probably a bit long and a bit steep for a kid Neve's age though.

I've never personally been, but my folks have taken our kids to the Stone Bridge caves in Pottersville mentioned above, and they love it.  Another activity that deserves a plug is the Barton Garnet Mine Tour.  We went about a month ago and the kids had a great time.  Tell Bonnie I sent ya.

A few family hike TRs here.  Near you I can definitely recommend Castle Rock (near Blue Mtn Lake) and Thomas Mountain (near Lake George).  If you do Castle Rock, keep a close eye on Neve as there are some cliffs at the summit.  Combo the hike with some time at the Adk Museum - we went there this summer and were suprised at how much kids' stuff has been added since our last visit (maybe 5 yrs ago).

Last comment - Blue Ledges is a great hike.  We've done it with Daniel 2 or 3 times, but with him in a backpack. It's around 6 miles rt, not too much elevation gain/loss, and I don't recall the trail as being overly rocky.  There is a bit of mud at the start as you skirt Huntley Pond.  We intended to get back there with our kids last fall but just didn't make it.  I think Daniel (age 7) can do the hike fine, but it might be a bit long for Neve.

Thanks Jeff for the informative PM on recommended hikes.  

One recommendation - this book by Adk.org, looks like a winner:

Kids on the Trail! Hiking with Children in the Adirondacks
by Rose Rivezzi and David Trithart

Just bought it. Including UPS 2 day charges it was $16 and 40% of that goes to supporting Adk.org.

Thanks again.

Harvey, A great little hike i discovered between Long Lake and Tupper Lake on the east side of RT 30 just at the Hamilton/Franklin county line is Coney Mtn. Only about a mile hike, great 360 view from the top. Takes about 20-25 minutes. Park on the west side of rt 20 in the snowplow turnaround and cross over the road. There are actually 2 trails, the old one leads almost straight up the Mtn but the new one, which the DEC just made a few yrs ago winds aroune the base about 270 degrees and you come up on the backside of the Mtn. Well worth it, esp on a clear day, easy hike for kids, mine started hiking it when they were 4 or 5 and we hit it most times we are in the area.

Harvey44 wrote

Thanks Jeff for the informative PM on recommended hikes.    

Here's a cut-and-paste from the email exchange Harv mentioned.  Sorry for the short-hand & abbreviations that I used in the pm...  Maybe this will be useful others.

Jeff:
For Goodnow / Blue Ledges, I mentioned that those might be hard for Neve.  One thing you might do is first do a hike with similar stats (vert & distance) to something she's already done (like Sawyer).  You can use that experience as a benchmark for deciding whether you want to try pulling off Goodnow or Blue Ledges by checking on the vert & distance stats for those.  If she did well on the first hike, go for it.  Just make your decision based on the relative stats for the hikes and Neve's actual observed ability level right now this summer.  One other thought:  the summit isn't the goal (or the river), the goal is the journey.  The summit is a bonus.  Pick a hike that will have interesting features along the way. That's why I pick hikes with water features, caves, etc.  Our kids get more of a kick out of that stuff than the summit view.   Goodnow has the fire tower at the top plus an abandoned barn/cabin thing about half way up, so that might fit the bill.

Harv:
Thanks for the great input on hiking. I also think that Goodnow and BL is too much for Neve.   She can handle the BoG cliffs...any ideas for the next step up?

Jeff:
I know that you did Sawyer with Neve last year, so that’s a good benchmark.  I would call Sawyer a step up from Balm of Gil.  Goodnow is a fairly hefty step up from Sawyer.  My recollection is that Sawyer is around 600’ or 700’ vert and 2 miles RT.  Goodnow is probably double the vert and double the distance.  That’s just from memory, if you have any of the hiking guides it’ll be in there.  If you don’t have those I can look up the exact #s at home.  For BL it’s obviously the distance that’s the issue more than the vert, although there is some (mostly easy) climbing on the return.

Other possibilities near you:  Chimney (maybe you’ve done that with Neve?), Crane (although I’d have to look up the stats).  I’m a big fan of Castle Rock, but it is steep at the top.  If you are willing to travel up to Keene Valley area:  Giant’s Nubble, Hurricane, Owl’s Head, Pitchoff boulders overlook, Baxter, Big Crow.  Snow Mtn / Deer Brook Flume was great but might be a bit much.  The ADK has a “Hikes with Kids” guidebook with probably all of the above hikes in it, we have a copy and I can definitely recommend it.

Probably too far north for most people, but Azure is great. Short and fairly steep with a fire tower and a nice view. I go to St. Lawrence University and it's only about 45 minutes from here. The best part: it's fun to ski in the winter! There's a pretty clear wooded area to ski if you make a 90 degree turn right from the fire tower if you're facing it from the trail approach. It's not super steep but it's got a couple fun 6-8ft drops. It works for me because I can get there and back either in the early morning before class or sneak it in at the end of the day after class.

It's that time of year again.  Lookin for those kid friendly hikes in the Southern Daks.

Still got the feeling that Blue Ledge is pushing it for Neve, she wants cliffs and views but I'm skeptical of her distance persistence. LOL

The Kid Hike guide book is up in the mtns, but as I recall, the best options like Castle Rock, were quite a haul.

As mentioned earlier in the thread - try Buck Mountain on the east side of Lake George just up from LG Village. The hike is pretty moderate and has great views of Lake George and the Adirondacks. The trail sign at the start of the trail says it is 2.1 miles to the summit, not the 3 mentioned in the link.
Buck Mountain

Buck from pilot knob is much harder than from hogtown .have hiked blue ledges many times with kids.fun hike not very steep lots of fun swimming in the pools below the corner.just beware of the bubble coming thru

Southern ADKs.... how about Hackensack Mountain in Warrensburg?  Right off Route 9 on the east side, across from 1st or 2d Avenue.  The trail leaves from the end of Hackensack Ave I think.  I have fond memories of this as it's the first mountain my grandfather took me up.  From the summit, we could see my grandmother waving a sheet in the yard to get our attention.  Maybe 3 or 4 miles round trip.  Mix of steep and easy bits.  Time it with the World's Largest Garage Sale.

Goodnow. Easier than Crane, good view of the high peaks without climbing the fire tower (unless you want to look down onto Rich Lake), and you can go for a swim on the lake when you're done.