Green Mountain seems to be a popular name amongst Adirondack Mountains. The name Green most likely comes from the obvious look it casts over the area. Covered in the deep greens of spruce and balsam, especially on the steep slopes of the south side of the mountain, it sure does make sense that it could be named so.
It’s only a hop, skip, and a jump from Schroon Lake, and we decided to take the approach from state Route 28N. Meeting up with my hiking buddies Melissa and Jarrod at the Stony Pond trailhead, we quickly realized that Microspikes would not be optional. There wasn’t all that much left of the snow, but it had been replaced with several areas of boilerplate ice. What snow was sticking around was also solid and nearly as dicey.
It was difficult to say how much snowmobile traffic this trail gets in the winter, but it was certain that DEC trail crews and operations were helping them out with some rather impressive new bridges. We quickly passed by the short spur trail to Twentyninth Pond, which we could see through the trees. The trail gained us a small bit of elevation fairly quickly before we descended along the slippery slopes to a crossing of Deer Creek. From here it wasn’t too long until we reached the shores of Stony Pond Brook and its lovely cascading waterfalls. It is true, nature is genius. Stony Pond came soon after, with the lean-to located slightly back in the forest.
From here we continued toward Irishtown, the suburbs of Schroon Lake. We didn’t travel much further on the trail before we had to start thinking about exiting into the forest beyond. Man is part of nature; I shall immerse myself in it, once again. My perseverance in my desire to visit these lesser known peaks drives me again and again to seek out adventurous routes in hopes of finding something unique and inspiring. I almost always do.
Once we arrived between Stony Pond and Little Sherman Pond, we had to start looking for an exit strategy — the ridge between the two ponds would be it. This land bridge would gain us the steep slopes of Green Mountain, and hopefully some views along the way. The southern face of the mountain dropped right off from the ridge in a nearly sheer fashion, so we would surely get a treat at some point.
The ridge was not all that steep to climb aside from a couple of short pitches, but the south side of this peak was surely weather beaten, which gave us all of the resistance we needed: The trees were stacked like cordwood. Harsh winters and strong winds surely did its toll on the balsams, and their dead stems and branches made pincushions out of us as we proceeded up the narrow ridgeline. We did manage to find a few observation points while along our course, and even as the small window views they were, it was something. They were actually very lovely, or “cute,” as Melissa would say.
At this point is where I say, “Hey let’s find a different route down.” But nope, Jarrod beat me to it. He suggested we head down the north side of the mountain toward Center Pond. That’s a superb idea if I say so myself. Melissa didn’t get a vote.
We started down, trying to remain on the top of the wide ridge, and even though we got pulled off by thicker spruce and balsam growth we made progress in fine time. We found ourselves standing in clumps of evergreens that were small enough so we could pop out for a breather now and again. That makes it sound much worse than it was, all in all we were back into the open hardwoods in seemingly a flash.
We reached the shore of Center Pond much quicker than I think any of us anticipated, so rather than hike along the shore to the trail we opted to head right over the small knob in front of us to gain the Hewitt Pond Trail on the other side.
The final climb was steep, but it felt great to increase our heart rates, so we pushed through it in a single motion and rapidly found ourselves on the trail, the steepest of the climbing we had all day. This trail in spots was not all that easy to follow, with its sporadic markers and unloved condition. We ended up losing it on a couple of occasions, and on one of those we just gave up and started heading along the shore of Stony Pond toward where we knew the trail was. Eventually we crossed it again and managed to remain on it as it returned us to the lean-to.
We wasted no time at all in our exit from the wild forest we called home for the last 5 hours. I think we were all about ready for some nourishment; even the spine of a deer Jarrod found started to look appetizing. I would of course upscale that need for food by stopping by Paradox Brewing on the way.
