Dennis Dixon is heading North!: September 2019

Friday, Sept. 27, 2019 - Up to this weekend I have done 12 of the 46 mountains (4000 footers) in the Adirondacks:

Last Sunday Wendy asked me when I want to go back out here. After a bit of time I came up with the correct answer: "When would you like me to go/When would be a good time for you to have me go?" She said that this coming weekend would work best! I didn't want to be gone too long, so I only planned Thursday and Friday:

Phelps Mountain on Thursday, and Mt. Donaldson, Mt. Emmons, and Seward Mountain on Friday.

It worked - yesterday I did Phelps Mountain! Today = Mt. Donaldson, Mt. Emmons, and Seward Mountain:

I'll get rid of the suspense right now - I SUCCEEDED, and did 17.8 miles in 9 hours 40 minutes, but MapMyWalk broke, so here's my path:

Up and at 'em - left the hotel at 7:30. REALLY BEAUTIFUL out here:

I stopped at the Hannaford on my way out of Lake Placid, and the checkout girl said "Nice breakfast":

Really nice dirt road on the way to the trailhead:

41° as I drive in to the trailhead.

Got to the trailhead at 8:43

looks like space for two dozen cars:

Said Hi to 3 girls who pulled in next to me, then I signed the Register at 8:54

It was a nice easy trail for the first section (0.8 mile), and also for the second section (0.7 mile). And then you pop out onto Calkins Brook Truck Trail (heading south/southwest), which is an old logging road:

In looking at the map, I thought it was going to be 3.5 miles to get to a cairn, with Calkins Brook Trail going off to the left/east - but I misread it. The "3.5" applied to another trail intersection farther down! I was surprised when I had gone about (only) 2 miles and HERE WAS THE CAIRN:

I continued down the "regular trail" for a little bit, but then I was going DOWN with a Major Brook on my left, which I figured must be "Calkins Brook". So I backtracked to the cairn, and headed up into the mountains

Calkins Brook Trail is a very nice trail, even though it is narrower than the one I had just been on:

You hike with Calkins Brook on your right - very lovely. At some point, I just went down to the brook to take some pictures, and there was a cairn and the trail on the other side! (So this is where I crossed) The Brook is beautiful at 10:20

Hiking in my LLBean boots yesterday worked out GREAT - so I'm wearing them again today:

I haven't needed them yet today, but JUST YOU WAIT!!!!

Five minutes later - another beautiful random stream:

Fun "Tree-on-Moss-on-Rock" picture:

This Calkins Brook Trail is a long hike, but since I expect that (from reading blogs), I just keep going, and going up. It is interesting how I am aware that the forest "changes" to "high mountain woods", but unfortunately I get that feeling and I am still at least 20 minutes below the trail's-end. A little after noon, I broke out and saw Seward Mountain to the east/northeast:

I had been on Calkins Brook Trail for a little less than 2 hours. I have to say that these trails in the Adirondacks seem to have been traveled by a lot of people; that means that "official trails" can seem almost worn-out/worn-down (especially when you add in the amount of moisture out here), but it also means that these "herd paths"/"unofficial trails" are actually quite nice and respectable hiking trails. This is opposed to my experience with "herd paths" in Maine, which can be barely-discernible rabbit paths through the woods.

I headed south on the ridge trail, because Mount Donaldson was supposed to be "right there". Well, I walked right by it (THERE ARE NO TRAIL SIGNS UP HERE!), so I just kept heading for Mount Emmons:

(and is that "Long Lake" beyond it?)

Hey, pretty nice day up here on the top of the world!

After going through some insanely wet bogs/areas, I reached the summit just after 1 PM:

I backtracked, and found the Mount Donaldson turnoff 45 minutes later:

Super views from Donaldson:

Back at the Calkins Brook Trail intersection, people had left their backpacks to do just the -out-and-back:

Smart idea.

A nice long hike (50 minutes) up to Seward Mountain, with a nice view back at Donaldson and Emmons:

Going up to Seward I crossed paths with 2 guys who I had passed over by Emmons, and also a girl with her dog. I also crossed paths with the 3 girls who had parked next to me! They had come up the back-side of Seward (which I was planning on going down) and they said it was kind-of gnarlly. JUST YOU WAIT!

I went down the backside/north-side of Seward, and fairly soon LOST THE TRAIL! I bushwacked around, and found the trail, so I headed DOWN. When I say "headed DOWN", I mean the "trail" went right down Ward Brook (hence its name - the "Ward Brook Trail"). Got a great view of Ampersand Lake:

You keep going down, alternating "being in the brook" versus "being right next to the brook". Very muddy on the sides, and at one point I smashed my right foot. Nothing broken, but it hurt, and I still had at least one mile down plus five miles back to the car.

I finished at 6:30

I was worried about anybody after me (they would have to come out with headlamps), but I see that the 3 girls were actually in there for an overnight.

16 down - 30 to go. What an Adventure!

I sent Wendy my selfie, and my "Up and down, safe and sound." text, and got in the car to drive home - 6 hours. Which means home at 12:30. Plus 30 minutes for misc. = 1 AM.

I had had a lot of water, and a power bar, and a couple of Snickers bars, so I was doing ok. I was driving in the dark listening to some great music, and made my way over to I-87 South, when Wendy sent me a text: "Think you'll spend the night?"

Right then I got kind-of tired, so that seemed like a good idea. After filling up with gas I checked into the Home2 Suites by Hilton in Malta, NY:

Yes, that was a good idea. - Thank you God for this Great Day!

Staying in one of my mp3 cds that I burned back in June 2000:

the Michael Stanley Band - Stagepass, 1977 double live album

the opening cut - "Midwest Midnight" - is an Excellent way to start the day!

The Supremes: Greatest Hits, 1967 double album

Greatest Hits includes fifteen Supremes singles, 10 of which went to number-one.

Van Halen - 1984, 1984

back-to-back songs "Jump" and "Panama" make a GREAT pair!

The Waitresses - I Could Rule the World If I Could Only Get the Parts, 1982 5-song EP

With "Christmas Wrapping" and "Square Pegs", pout-rock is alive and well

Yes - 90125, 1983

And then on my drive home Saturday morning:

Morning on the Mass Pike, I rolled up the windows and listened to "Zero History", cd 6:

Van Morrison - Astral Weeks, 1968

Van Morrison - His Band and the Street Choir, 1970

Jimmy Buffett - Barometer Soup, 1995

Thursday, Sept. 26, 2019 - Up to now I have done 12 of the 46 mountains (4000 footers) in the Adirondacks:

Phelps Mountain on Thursday, and Mt. Donaldson, Mt. Emmons, and Seward Mountain on Friday.

Today I'll do Phelps Mountain:

After my Breakfast in Boston, I hit the Mass Pike at 9 AM. Beautiful sunny day in Massachusetts. 20 miles east of the NY State line - Not going to South Dakota this trip:

instead, I'm heading up to 4161 feet (Phelps Mountain).

I was able to be at the Adirondak Loj at 2 PM. Wikipedia: (pronounced "Adirondack Lodge") is a historic lodge in North Elba, Essex County, New York. It is near Lake Placid in the Adirondack Mountains. ... The Loj sits on a private protected area of 706 acres that includes Heart Lake and Mount Jo; the preserve is owned and managed by ADK.

Don't forget to Register:

um, it is kind-of hard to miss.

Nice walk on a boardwalk in the 1st mile:

Nice wet walk through the woods:

Until you get to Marcy Dam:

Um, Martha, I think the bridge is out.

From that spot, a real pretty view upstream:

You then go downstream, on a bridge over Marcy Brook, and up the other side to continue on the trail. Marcy Brook looks great - downstream:

and upstream:

A little while later you cross over Phelps Brook on the High Water Bridge - downstream:

and upstream:

The rain has stopped, and the sun is shining "up there".

After crossing the High Water Bridge, continue up the trail. DO NOT TAKE A LEFT INTO THE CAMPING AREA:

Unfortunately, I saw that someone scratched "PHELPS" on the sign, took the left, and spent 20 minutes wandering around in the woods:

Back on the trail, about another 0.3 miles takes you to the left-pointing sign for Phelps Mountain:

The trail took about an hour to climb (one mile). Pretty steep, with a lot of hand-over-hand stuff:

At 5 PM I hit the open granite slab area, with GREAT VIEWS south:

I don't know the names of these peaks, but I'm sure I will be meeting them in the future.

There was NO SIGN, so I spent some time wandering around:

I eventually found a hole-in-the-rock, and put one of my hiking poles in it. It turns out that one of the blogs out there says "Off to the left, there's a hole up on the rock and that signifies the summit." So that's where I took my selfie:

When I paid for parking ($5 because I joined the Adirondack Mountain Club last March), the Ranger said that sunset was 6:35. I don't know if that is when it gets DARK, or if there is an extra 30 minutes of twilight. But that was in a hour-and-a-half, and I didn't like what I was seeing off to the west:

4.4 miles to go.

An hour later I took my last look at the Marcy Dam area:

I finished in the dark and rain, but I finished at 6:45, which means I did the last 2.33 miles in 42 minutes!

Hey - really nice hike! 9.87 miles in 4 hours 26 minutes (the yellow is last week's Nye/Street hike):

It should have been less, but I think the fooling-around-in-the-woods was God's way of keeping me from getting myself into trouble by trying to also climb Table Top Mountain. There's always another day.

I had an easy drive, bought a small pepperoni-and-green-pepper pizza, and checked into the "Quality Inn on Lake Placid". They even gave me the same room I had last weekend!

Pizza and Thursday Night Football - Thank you God for this Great Day!

Staying in one of my mp3 cds that I burned back in June 2000:

Pete Townshend - Deep End Live!, 1986 live album

"After the Fire" is a Great Song!

Phil Collins - Face Value, 1981 debut solo album

The first song - "In The Air Tonight" - was featured on the first episode of Miami Vice Sept. 16, 1984. Being used to hearing on tv "hit songs performed by other artists", I was shocked when the real song came on the tv - It was AWESOME how you could hear real rock music on a cool tv show (and one of the major things that made "Miami Vice" a cool tv show).

Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes - Hearts of Stone, 1978