The Adirondacks is a vast a northern wilderness declared by the state of New York to be state parkland. People who live in Upstate New York experience the Adirondacks as a major region of the state, since there are numerous little hamlets and even whole counties lying within its six million acres.
The day before yesterday, I walked up a muddy, rocky little trail through a fantastical autumn forest to ascend to the little elevated view called Good Luck Mountain, which overlooks one of about a dozen small lakes located in close proximity together in the township of Arietta.
Located in Hamilton County, less than an hour’s drive north of the villages and small cities of the Mohawk Valley corridor in eastern and central New York, Arietta is very connected to the everyday life of Upstate New Yorkers. When I was hiking on the Good Luck Cliffs Trail, an off-duty state police officer walked down the trail from the other direction.
The chief complaint about this particular hike is the mud. At numerous points one needs to master the art of jumping from stone to stone or from tree trunk to tree trunk; fortunately, there are numerous stumps and wooden boards placed along the trail. At certain points, tree roots create a natural staircase.
This forestal way brought me past many delightful curiosities, such as a young tree that had been truncated but was re-growing its leaves like a tuft of hair, as well as many interesting varieties of fungi.
About two thirds of the way up toward the cliff overview is a cave in the granite cliff face. Many such massive slabs of granite are to be found everywhere in these woods and in the Adirondacks in general. Here the cave by the trail is exactly the right size for one person to camp in.
Even more discoveries might have awaited me, had I time to explore other destinations where this trail can lead. I had only enough time to see the Good Luck Cliffs overview and then get back out before sunset, but this bridge goes off in a different direction to join with another trail.
Instead of exploring down that way, I followed the Good Luck Cliffs trail as it wound upward, becoming increasingly rocky, until I reached the overview. There are other peaks in these low foothills of the mountains, and I think the other trail goes to a different spot overlooking the lake. There seems to be two different lakes on different sides of this hill.
Good Luck Mountain is a steep but relatively small hill, though from the overview you can see the peaks of the Adirondack Mountains in most directions. It seems a competitive size is not required to invoke good luck, which must indeed be a good thing.
I became muddy and received a beautiful view of the upstate New York autumn foliage while going on the first proper hike that I‘ve done in too long. Go ahead and use my photos published here as stock photography if you'd like; I'll go ahead and tag #hivestockimages and release them using Creative Commons Attribution.
The Good Luck Cliffs trail is one that any adventurer passing through the Adirondacks should take note of, especially when a hike that is not too far off the east-west roadways is desired.
The photography contained in this post is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.