Snowshoeing Lake Bonita

I have to work tomorrow, so today had to be our travel day to get us back home.  I had been planning to stop and hike another small mountain on the way home, the way Frankie and I did with Belfry and Mount Arab.  Unfortunately it was snowing pretty hard and Erwin decided he wanted to take the Northway and the Thruway home; he'd driven through some rough conditions on Route 8 on the way up Friday night, and thought the highway would be in better shape.  I had a Plan B for just that circumstance: Severance Hill in the Schroon Lake area -- it's right off the Northway, so I thought it would have easy access.  Wrong!  The parking lot hadn't been plowed, and not just from today's snow.  It didn't look like it had been plowed all winter.  Erwin stopped at Stewart's in Schroon Lake, and we tried to come up with a Plan C, but couldn't think of another option that wouldn't involve back roads.  I was devastated.  Even a milkshake failed to raise me from the depths of despair.  We got back on the highway and kept driving south.  The highway was a mess.

Somewhere around Glens Falls, I pulled out my phone to check the map and realized how close we were to Moreau Lake State Park, which I had read about numerous times and was very interested to visit.  I started rapidly scrolling, and found a short hike that looked like it should be easily accessible.  Recent trip reports seemed to imply the parking lot would be plowed, so I convinced Erwin to exit the highway and we drove to the Lake Bonita trailhead.  We pulled on our snowshoes and set out.  I was over the moon!  I was getting my desired travel day hike, not a mountain, but we were exploring somewhere new and that was good enough for me.

The hike is a lollipop loop, with a short access trail, marked with white blazes, down to the loop around the lake, which is marked with green blazes.  We turned left, or northwest, to make a clockwise loop.  Lake Bonita is surrounded by a gorgeous hemlock forest, and the big trees were splendid in the snow.

running through the deep snow off trail like a crazy person

We stayed on the trail for some time, as it rolled up, down, and around small ravines and drainage above the shoreline.  But when the trail approached the frozen lake, we couldn't resist checking it out.  The dense hemlocks had been protecting us from the heavy snow, but we enjoyed the ferocious reminder, and decided to walk on the ice, following the shoreline in the same direction as the trail.

As we approached the far northern end of the lake, we could see that a stream was draining out along the opposite shore.  Not wanting to risk thin ice near the running water, we returned to the trail and crossed the berm or dam toward the outlet.  Frankie spent quite a bit of time here throwing big chunks of ice and snow into the open water. 

Then we continued on our way, once again on the trail to avoid thin ice near the open water.  More beautiful towering hemlocks. 

But when the trail came back down to the lake shore again, we couldn't resist heading back onto the ice.  It's just such a cool experience.  We could see a bunch of shrubby clumps and decided to go check them out.  They were acidophiles: leatherleaf and laurels.  The lake must be shallow with lots of little islands.  I suspect some interesting herbaceous plants grow here as well.  We took a meandering route to weave amongst all the little islands. 

We became cautious again at the southeast end of the lake, assuming there would be a flowing inlet stream as well, but it was more solid at this end.  We climbed up what looked like a grassy bank to a picnic area, then picked up the trail, crossed the mostly frozen stream, and headed back into the hemlocks. 

I loved this little hike!  It was the perfect little adventure to squeeze into a travel day.  This is an enormous park and the Lake Bonita section a relatively new acquisition set apart from the rest.  The blue and purple trails illustrated on the map below connect to the main part of the park.  I would like to return to Moreau Lake State Park to check out the trails around the main entrance, some of which are much longer, like the Western Ridge Trail.  So many adventures await...

map from New York State Parks