A short hike to a big view
You can reach the 2,178-foot summit of “Goodman Mountain” by an easy bushwhack. Start at the unpaved parking area for Lumberjack Spring, on the east side of Route 30 a few hundred yards south of the right turn for County Route 421 (the road to Bog River Falls and Horseshoe Lake).
Before the hike, you can fill up your water bottle at Lumberjack Spring. Local residents have been drawing water for decades from this artesian well. Charles Goodman built the concrete shelter protecting the spring in 1937. A plaque on the side of the building pays tribute to the region’s lumberjacks.
From the parking area, head northeast along the old road. After a half-mile or so, turn left and begin bushwhacking up the hill. You’ll pass through an open forest of hardwoods, including beech, sugar maple and yellow birch.
The climbing gets a little steep just below the summit. When you reach the top, you’ll find open bedrock with views of lakes and rolling hills. To the east is the 11,000-acre tract owned by the Litchfield family. If you have good eyesight or a good pair of binoculars, you can see the family’s castle, built in the early 1900s, about three miles away on the southern shore of Lake Madeleine. Far beyond are the western High Peaks.
Other landmarks include nearby Coney Mountain, almost due south; Little Tupper Lake, to the southwest; the Bog River region to the west, including the cliffs overlooking Hitchins Pond, and Mount Arab and Tupper Lake to the northwest. All that for a round-trip of less than 2 miles.
If you still have some energy to expend, you might want to climb Coney as well. It’s slightly taller than Goodman and offers a 360-degree view.
Drive south on Route 30 for a mile from Lumberjack Spring to a pulloff on the west side of the highway just after the Hamilton County line. Walk across the road toward a utility pole with a transformer. Enter the woods and look for a path that follows trees with yellow blazes. Round-trip, it’s less than a mile.
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