Bloomer Mountain(Lake George Wild Forest-Adirondacks)

Headed up into the Lake George region today to check out 1760 foot Bloomer Mountain, a trail-less peak that sits just north of the Tongue Range.  I parked at the trailhead for Deer Leap and the northern section of the Tongue Range from Route 9N(Elevation 1065 feet) and then headed north into the woods to begin my bushwhack.  The woods were pretty open and I quickly came to a couple of small stream crossings, which I easily rock hopped.

After a short distance of level hiking, the terrain turned much steeper, heading straight up Bloomer's southern slopes.

 

After a steep push up, the woods opened up into a small, level clearing with the first good views of the day.  Black Mountain was easily seen to the east, across Lake George.

From the initial clearing, the woods got much steeper and quite rocky once again.

Emerging at a wide open area of ledges just below the east summit bump I found spectacular views towards Black Mountain and a sliver of Lake George.

Wide open view south towards Brown Mountain and the northern Tongue Range.

A fantastic east view across Lake George with Deer Leap in the foregound and Spruce, Hogback, Sugarloaf and Black Mountains on the east side of the lake.

A bit further along the eastern knob, I found this nice view SW with Bloomer's true summit on the right.

Continued west on the ridge  towards the true summit, which was straightforward and easy, with filtered views throughout.

The true 1760 foot summit is wooded, but grassy, with screened views all around.

From the summit I explored some of the steep SW slopes, and found some more views.  The further I dropped the better the views got....and did I mention this area was STEEP.
 

From a perch just below 1500 feet, I found a really nice view SW over an unnamed wetland and to the distant southern Adks, with Gore Mountain's ski slopes on the distant horizon(right).

SW views, with the western edge of Brown Mountain's lower slopes to the left.

To the north , the multiple ridges of Catamount rise impressively above.

From the western edge of the summit area, I headed back east along the ridge to a saddle between the peaks, where I was safely able to descend the steep south slopes back down off the mountain.  From there it was a nice and easy hike back to the car for a total of 3.2 miles RT and 1050 feet of combined ascent.

Map below, with rough route in black.   Red X=True Summit