I lead my first ADK hike as a trip leader up Goodnow mountain.  I love this mountain because it has such variety on the trail.  The very initial 100 feet or so is a quick steep up to stairs and a short bridge, and then it levels out for a good long while.  For the entire stretch of the "flat" part of the trail, you can see the reforestation project SUNY ESF is doing on the mountain.  When you leave the flat trail and turn to start heading uphill some more, you cross the study area, and they have a sign explaining what they are doing.  The climbing starts at this point, but the trail overall is in pretty good condition.  With how wet a year we've been having, I was surprised at how little mud there was, and any that we came across was passable via rocks.  There are a few sections where there are slabs, but they're typical in that they're grippy and they are also short as in tens of feet.  Around 2500 feet we observed that the forest changed.  We went from a deciduous forest to a conifer forest.  This was a rather sharp change which is why it was so noticeable.  Over a couple hundred feet of trail we had a mix, and then completely one or the other.  This is also the point where we were mostly to the top, where we were on the short ridge of the mountain.

In the end, lovely hike that we took at a moderate pace.  Even with a nice extended break on the peak, we still had a good overall pace, and my predictions on weather (chance of drizzle which we experienced) and timing (exactly 3 hours without really trying to hit a time) were dead on.  Unfortunately it was cloudy so the views were none other than the obviously previously fed chipmunk that was running around the peak.

Still, 4 miles and 3 hours in the woods is worth it,  Year to date, 190 miles and 131 hours.