After hiking around the Elk Lake preserve for 30 years, we decided to make reservations for Sept 2009. Arrived home a little while ago and still in the 'pinch me' frame of mind.
Even though check in is 1pm, ELL encourages guests to arrive early and enjoy the property and stay as late as they want on departure day (before and after checkin/out).
Christine had told us we shouldn't miss the views from Grand Pa Pete Mt - we chose that for a shorty afternoon hike on arrival day. On the way we had a chance to check out how Clear Pond received its name, take in the views from Jones beach, and then get overwhelmed with the views from Grand Pa.
All with plenty of time to watch the Loon on Clear Pond, take photos and get back to ELL in time for more photos, shower and dinner.
Saturday dawned clear with a perfect forecast and was torn between breakfast and shooting photos of the fog with light that was lifting and shifting by the minute. After a wonderful breakfast, we packed the trail lunches the staff made( you select the food, bread, condiments and dessert/fruit and place your order at dinner).
I had a couple of 'in case' routes planned for the two 3k peaks just north of Boreas Mt, but the last 2 times up Sunrise Mt were viewless winter days, so neither of us wanted to miss a sure thing. Much of the lower trail was on old woods roads and we got treated to terrific views from the first 2 lookouts.
And the views from the summit were even better.
I had hopes for the one of the N. Boreas peaks on Sunday, but a cold, soaking rain began during the night so we lingered over breakfast and the fireplace before reluctantly heading home.
Highlights of the weekend: Loons paddling around everywhere, the excellent trails and ELL trailmaps, views from GrandPa Pete and Sunrise, and the foggy ambience of early Saturday on the lake. Our son solo hiked Dix, Hough, Carson and Grace on Saturday, so his showing up at the Lodge to tell us he was out of the woods right after dinner was a highlight as well.
We missed by one day a yearling bull moose swimming from island to island in Elk Lake, but saw moose prints on the trails.
Hope you guys don't mind the detail of the trip report or the large number of photos. This was a long awaited weekend and we had a fabulous time. The staff at ELL were very friendly, from the servers who remembered names to the staff who looked up the Dodger - Bosox - Yankee boxes for me periodically. All the meals were excellent with menu choices for breakfast, traillunches and dinners. We met so many nice people staying there, many of whom go year after year. We're already signed up for next September.
Photos here:
http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLanding.action?c=avk6ugum.3k32fhfu&x=1&y=-sxci2w&localeid=en_US
Even though check in is 1pm, ELL encourages guests to arrive early and enjoy the property and stay as late as they want on departure day (before and after checkin/out).
Christine had told us we shouldn't miss the views from Grand Pa Pete Mt - we chose that for a shorty afternoon hike on arrival day. On the way we had a chance to check out how Clear Pond received its name, take in the views from Jones beach, and then get overwhelmed with the views from Grand Pa.
All with plenty of time to watch the Loon on Clear Pond, take photos and get back to ELL in time for more photos, shower and dinner.
Saturday dawned clear with a perfect forecast and was torn between breakfast and shooting photos of the fog with light that was lifting and shifting by the minute. After a wonderful breakfast, we packed the trail lunches the staff made( you select the food, bread, condiments and dessert/fruit and place your order at dinner).
I had a couple of 'in case' routes planned for the two 3k peaks just north of Boreas Mt, but the last 2 times up Sunrise Mt were viewless winter days, so neither of us wanted to miss a sure thing. Much of the lower trail was on old woods roads and we got treated to terrific views from the first 2 lookouts.
And the views from the summit were even better.
I had hopes for the one of the N. Boreas peaks on Sunday, but a cold, soaking rain began during the night so we lingered over breakfast and the fireplace before reluctantly heading home.
Highlights of the weekend: Loons paddling around everywhere, the excellent trails and ELL trailmaps, views from GrandPa Pete and Sunrise, and the foggy ambience of early Saturday on the lake. Our son solo hiked Dix, Hough, Carson and Grace on Saturday, so his showing up at the Lodge to tell us he was out of the woods right after dinner was a highlight as well.
We missed by one day a yearling bull moose swimming from island to island in Elk Lake, but saw moose prints on the trails.
Hope you guys don't mind the detail of the trip report or the large number of photos. This was a long awaited weekend and we had a fabulous time. The staff at ELL were very friendly, from the servers who remembered names to the staff who looked up the Dodger - Bosox - Yankee boxes for me periodically. All the meals were excellent with menu choices for breakfast, traillunches and dinners. We met so many nice people staying there, many of whom go year after year. We're already signed up for next September.
Photos here:
http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLanding.action?c=avk6ugum.3k32fhfu&x=1&y=-sxci2w&localeid=en_US
