pilot knob ridge ~ above lake george

I was itching to get out for a quick hike this morning but it didnt appear that it was going to happen as my son had a baseball game scheduled for 3:00pm. However, apparently other families were taking advantage of the three day weekend and there werent enough kids to field the team. Super! At 1:00pm it was clear that a close to home hike was in store. I called my sister and told her that pilot knob ridge would be considered more of a "nature walk" than an actual hike if she would like to go. She agreed without much hesitation, although a little weary that she would once again have to carry the baby on her back.
We signed in at the register on pilot knob road just after Dunham's Bay which is 5 miles from route 9 before lake george village. There is a small parking area. The round trip via the orange trail is 1.3 miles. The first three quarters is pretty steep but not very rocky. It took about an hour to get to the top of the ridge (which is the summit), even with a three year old in tow. It was great to hear her talking of hiking as if she has been doing it for a long time. Her foot came out of her shoe and she said "it always does that everytime i hike". I chuckled to myself thinking that my attempt at getting the little guys into hiking just might be working. There is a gazebo at the top which has kind of seen better days, but it makes for a nice spot to sit and look at the lake. There were lots of boats out there today, probably filled with others like us, trying to soak up whatever warmth, sunshine and fresh air we could as if we could somehow store it up to last through the winter. I make note as we hike that this will be a great trail to snowshoe and with that I relax a little knowing that cold weather and snow no longer means for me that I will be stuck inside. We took pictures of the kids and ate our snacks. There were at least 10 people that we saw coming and going at the gazebo. The kids found milkweeds and had a blast pulling them open and watching the white feathery insides blow in the breeze. None of us wanted to, but eventually we pulled ourselves away from this August like day and headed in the direction that we thought might bring us to the waterfall. We missed the blue trail as my sister's three year old tumbled down the old black top driveway that is the trail for a little way. The driveway is all that hints that there was once a house on this ridge. It was taken over by the authorities after the land had been cleared and built on illegally and was eventually sold to the Lake George Land Conservancy. We'll do the falls another day since the kids were getting tired. We signed out at the register at 5pm and planned for pizza on the way home. There arent many lake george hikes left for me...except, I still want to get to sleeping beauty.