Distance: 12.7 mi.
Elevation Gain: 2600 ft.
Due to the closed, washed-out Westside Road to the true trailhead for Gobblers Knob, we parked along the side of the road near the gates closing the road. The road walk portion of this hike, which made up the majority, was actually in pristine condition and if I wasn’t 6 months pregnant I definitely would have brought the mountain bike (and I still kinda regretted leaving it behind). The road climbed gently pretty much the whole way. We left the car around 9:30 AM and reached the actual trailhead at 11:30 AM.
We turned left (west) onto the Lake George trail from Westside Road. The trail was somewhat steep in spots but we soon passed the WTA Trail Crew making this pleasant trail even nicer. We reached Lake George at noon. We continued on toward the summit and began encountering patches of snow almost immediately. There was an easily visible boot track through all the snow sections, but it would be advisable to have at least a phone with a prior GPS track (on the Gaia GPS app for instance) to make sure you don’t lose the trail. There were a couple slightly steeper snow sections but they were all short and it didn’t make sense to pull out the microspikes on the patchy snow. I was glad we had them though, just in case.
There were a couple slightly annoying downed trees after the lake, but they were passable without too much maneuvering. As we approached the summit we could see the lookout perched on the rocky outcrop. It seemed improbable that we could just walk to the top without scrambling, but the trail gently curled clockwise around the summit block until we reached the lookout. We reached the summit at 1:15 PM. We were apparently late that day because we had the lookout to ourselves and didn’t see anyone on our way down until we got back to the lake.
The hike back out was uneventful except that we stopped briefly at Lake George so Craig could do some fly fishing and I could soak my poor preggy legs. Unfortunately there weren’t any great perches to cast into deeper water, so Craig struck out. We headed back down the newly widened trail and trudged through the long, long road walk back out with the aid of some tunes. We reached the car at about 5:30 PM. By the way, there were a few mosquitoes throughout the day but nothing too bad.
(Download the free Gaia GPS app on your phone to view tracks and then get a Gaia GPS membership if you want offline access. Discount below!)
Recommended brew: Born & Raised IPA by No-Li Brewhouse
Gear:
- Aluminum ice axe (brought just in case?? not used)
- Day pack
- GPS
- Microspikes (not used)
- Trail runners
- Trekking poles
- Water drops/filter
Post may contain affiliated links