Dennis Dixon is heading North!: Adirondacks, Late Sept. 2019

Thursday, Sept. 26, 2019 - Up to now 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.

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