This is Pilot Knob take 2. We did this hike in 2015. It was in the fall and the waterfall was dry so we wanted to go in the spring when it would have water in it. My sister and BIL joined us for the hike on Sunday.
The trail head is 15-20 minutes from our house. It was pretty crowded on Sunday, too. We were really lucky to get a parking spot as someone was just leaving when we got there.
My hiking boots are working out really well for me.
The trail was a little muddy in spots, which wasn’t surprising since we have had a lot of rain lately. It wasn’t as bad as I was thinking it would be, though. This is fairly rocky terrain.
One thing that was annoying was loose dogs. I have no problem with dogs on the trails, but they shouldn’t be going free IMHO. That dog in the picture didn’t belong to the people behind it, but way back not even in the picture. I’d be afraid of losing my dog. Anyway, there was other wildlife to be seen as well.
Does a millipede count as wildlife? 😀 The weather was just about perfect for hiking. It wasn’t hot and clouds were around, but it was still sunny. I’m glad we went Sunday because Monday would have been a washout.
If you look really hard, you can see the orange trail marker on the trees about halfway up.
I guess they are up that high because of snow in the winter, but when you are looking down a lot to make sure you don’t trip, it’s easy to miss a marker.
There were some challenging bits:
It’s nice to actually see scale in a picture for a change LOL! Usually when I take incline pictures it just looks flat.
Centipede:
Just about at the top:
Then you hit open field and the gazebo:
We sat and relaxed in the gazebo with some snacks.
The gazebo provides a great view of Lake George.
After a rest, we pushed on to the blue waterfall trail.
This year we were finally rewarded with water! It’s so pretty. This goes on for quite a while downwards behind me as well.
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A couple large groups of people got there after us. Definitely many people had the same idea of it being great weather for a hike! We headed back to the gazebo and went down the other side.
When we did this hike before, we came up this side and down the other. It’s definitely shorter on this side and greener.
This is that time of year where the green is so fresh and vibrant.
It felt like going through the Emerald Forest.
It makes the crappy winters worth it to have this stuff so accessible for us.
We finally got to the connecting part of the loop:
The hike was 4.2 miles (ish). It took us 1-1/2 hours of hike time not including our snack break. This was a good start to the year. My sister has started doing the High Peaks hikes. She wants to be a 46er (there are 46 high peaks). We might do a few, but I’m not sure I want to do 46 of them LOL!
This is a highly recommended hike. Some challenging spots, but it’s very doable. There were lots of kids on the trail, too. And dogs…
Loose dogs is a total pet peeve of mine. It’s really not fair to the dog owners who have their dogs on leashes. Anyway, it looks like a great hike. I LOVE waterfalls.
Oh the green is so lovely!
What a gorgeous hike – so many rewarding aspects of it, with the waterfall, and the greenery, and just getting out and enjoying nature in general!
That’s a gorgeous hike!
I hate it when people have their dogs off leash. Besides the fact that *I* don’t want to be attacked by a loose dog (and I have), and I don’t want them to attack MY dog on a leash (which they ALWAYS DO), it’s just not safe! In the last month we’ve had two incidents where dogs fell off a cliff and died. That’s horrific. And could be avoided by just using a leash. People. 🙁
That’s terrible! Poor dogs.
What a beautiful hike & that view – WOW!!!!!!
Your photos remind me of a place I used to hike at just outside of Pittsburgh. Thanks for sharing. I’m currently recuperating from a total knee replacement revision so it was very nice to look at all your photos and think about being there.
What a gorgeous hike! WOW!!! Thank you for sharing the pics Lori!
Finally time to catch up on blogs. What a wonderful hike. I would have enjoyed coming with you on this hike.
On my hikes I always have Bella on the leash even though there are parts were dogs are allowed without leashes. But since I’m often hiking where I don’t know my way, I am too afraid to lose her so never let her off leash. Even in my own town she’s almost always on a leash even though she’s a good listener but she has a nasty habit of picking up things of the street and on the leash I can control that.