Adventure date - hike up Prospect Mountain

For the past couple years, Brian and I have had "adventure dates". We do them once a year, and instead of a typical date like going to lunch, or seeing a movie, we do something just a little bit out of the ordinary.

The first year we did the crazy ropes course. You can read about that here.

Then, last year we went tubing down a river. You can get that recap right here.

This year, we  decided to do a good old fashioned hike. Back in the good old days (pre-kids) - we used to hike all the time. In fact, we have hiked in some pretty cool places. Yosemite, Lake Tahoe, the Redwoods, and Ireland, are just a few that come to mind. Sigh.

Anyway, now that we have kids, our hiking days have become pretty minimal. So we decided to do one today. Maddie was at camp. Aidan was at Miss Lynne's and Brian gets every other Friday off. So, I took the day off too. We decided to take my friend Kara's advice and hike Prospect Mountain which is in Lake George. It's hard to believe that after living 1 hour from Lake George for most of my life, I have never been to the top of Prospect Mountain. And Brian hadn't either. Well that decided that. We had to do it.

We headed up the Northway and arrived in Lake George at about 10:30. We found the trail start, and headed up the trail. According to the reviews that I read, the hike was considered to be "easy."

Us - at the start of the hike.

Yeah. Let's just say that those reviewers are big fat liars. But - more on that later.

The first part of the hike was fine. We hiked up a trail. Then we had to climb some stairs and cross a bridge that went over the Northway. That was a little scary.

The bridge over the Northway.

Once we crossed the bridge, we were on the trail. It was a nice shaded trail. We had to pay attention to the trail markers or otherwise it was pretty easy to go off course.

Me - on the trail. 

We hiked along for a little while. And then without any warning, it got steep. Right away. And it was super rocky pretty much the whole entire way. And did I mention it was uphill? And steep. Well. Yeah. Duh. We were climbing a mountain after all. So of course it should be steep and uphill. But. Wow. It was hard. Was I that out of shape? And what about those reviewers? How did they consider this easy??? Really?

What I kept asking myself was how could I go and run nine miles last weekend and barely bat an eye? Yet, this 2 mile hike was kicking my butt. How was that even freaken' possible? I am not sure. But my butt was officially being kicked.

Brian on the rocky, steep trail

Anyway, we hiked on. After an hour we finally arrived to the summit. And we were rewarded with this.

The beautiful view at the top

Yeah. All that sweaty, hard, uphill work was worth it. What a stunning view. Amazing. Right?

We hung out at the top for about 20 minutes. Then it was time to head down. The downhill was somewhat easier. It took us 40 minutes to reach the bottom. However, it was hard on the knees. Trying to pay attention to my footing and not slip on the rocks took some focus. On our way down, we passed a fair amount of people. And they all looked like their butts were being kicked too. And we even saw some young kids. Seriously? My kids wouldn't have last 10 minutes on this hike. This was not a trail for kids. Nope. No way.

Us - at the top!

When we reached the bottom, we drove through the village and decided to reward ourselves with some lunch. So we totally blew our no-grains diet. And had some shakes, burgers, and onion rings. Yeah. I know. we are bad. But - it was so, so delicious after that tough hike.

Lunch


After lunch, we headed home. Adventure date #3 was a complete success! Although it was tough, we remembered our love for hiking and it was wonderful to be outside and
enjoy a beautiful August day. Have a great weekend!