I'll be the first to admit that I've been delinquent in posting some of my recent adventures. Call me lazy, lame, or socially conscious about my secret fishing holes. So, lets fix this by posting an old fashion trip report, this time to Inman Pond ledges in the Lake George Wild Forest.
Today, Tredhed and I got an early start to beat the outlet store traffic in Queensbury. We hit the Inman Pond trailhead on Sly Pond Rd. at 9:00.
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We decided to head up the unmarked fisherman's trail to the pond.
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After a ten minute climb on a beautiful path, we hit the red disked Inman Pond trail just below the height of land.
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Another few minutes brought us to the large swamp just southeast of the main pond. A beaver dam across the outlets has caused the water level to rise a significant amount. This is the first time I've seen this area under water.
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Since we were going to the ledges this morning, we took the left fork and soon were at the shore of the small pond at one of the three designated campsites. We could hear people singing at the other campsite across the pond, so we decided to stick to the southwest shore and leave them to their campfire songs.
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From there, it was an easy trek on a herd path to the base of the ledges (more like huge erratics than ledges?)
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A quick scramble up the backside of the ledges/boulder deposited us on top; about 60'-100' above the pond.
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We enjoyed a sip of water and a small snack while watching the resident broad winged hawk soar around in search of chipmunks. After a nice long break in the cool breeze and bright sunshine, we cleaned up some garbage and moved some recently cut green wood before heading back down the path.
Since we came up the fisherman's path, we decided to return on the slightly longer marked path. As this is an old carriage road, it's an easy walk despite some downed beech trees that crossed the wide trail.
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Near the trailhead, we noticed the woods had a funky feel to them. This was a forest of young oak and maple where the leaves seemed to be just sprouting. No doubt after the spongy (gypsy) moth irruption of earlier this month. The leaves were small and had that bright green color that we're used to seeing in early May. It was a strange sight that we noticed more as we drove down the hill.
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Just before the register. we passed a family of seven from Kentucky that was out for a walk to the pond. It was cool to see Dad pointing out some spider webs to the kids as they climbed the hill. It was nice to see some other people using the area weather it be at the lakeside campsite or just taking a short hike to the pond like we did. On the way back down Sly Pond Rd. we encountered a steady stream of vehicles headed up the hill to the more popular spots, but my money was on Inman Pond ledges today and it paid off for us.
