5 Saratoga County Hikes to Take on National Hiking Day
November 17 is right around the corner: It's time to get outside.
A couple of months ago, my boyfriend and I had a revelation: We don’t have to wait for the weekend to go on a hike. The thought came when Pete saw an Instagram photo of a couple celebrating their anniversary with a sunset hike in the Adirondack High Peaks. Our anniversary just so happened to be approaching, and rather than go out to eat at Familiar Creature for the 100th time, we opted to take a different approach to celebrating. On a Thursday after work, we laced up our hiking boots, packed a bottle of wine in a water bottle, grabbed our headlamps, and headed to Spruce Mountain.
Saratoga PLAN Communications Director Anna Gómez Domenech had something of a similar experience. “When I moved back upstate from New York City in 2016, I was really excited to be able to drive less than two hours on a weekend and hike in the High Peaks,” she says. “But there were definitely some weekends where I had obligations that kept me from taking a full day to go up north. That’s when I started looking at nearby trails and found Spruce.”
Located less than 20 minutes from downtown Saratoga in Porters Corners, Spruce Mountain fits almost 1,000 feet of elevation gain in under 1.5 miles. “It’s a pretty nice alternative to a treadmill on a beautiful day when you only have 2–3 hours free,” Anna says. While I wouldn’t recommend hiking Spruce now—the upper portion of the trail is closed through the end of big game hunting season on December 7—Saratoga County is home to plenty of other mountains and trail systems worth checking out this time of year. And, as luck would have it, Monday, November 17 happens to be National Hiking Day. Here are our top local picks for getting outside to celebrate:
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