Dennis Dixon is heading North!: Adirondacks Sept. 2019

Thursday, Sept. 19, 2019 - Enough about "camping" and "hiking" - its time to do some MOUNTAIN CLIMBING! I'm now into "The Northeast 111". It is supposed to be the 111 mountains in the Northeast (Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont, plus New York) over 4000 feet, but, to quote the amc4000footer.org page: When the list was first compiled there were only 111 peaks. Since then, measurements have gotten better, and there are now actually 115 peaks that comprise the list. Since I did the 2 down in the Catskills last May 2018, that leaves the 46 mountains in the Adirondacks:

This area is TOO FAR to day-trip, so I've been a little worried about how I'm going to handle this: rent a cabin-in-the-woods for a summer and just bang them out day-by-day/week-by-week/month-by-month?

But upon looking at the map, it seems like there are areas-of-mountains (consecutive peaks along ridge lines), and therefore maybe I can bag multiple peaks in single days. Let's see what happens!

I was able to bag 6 of them in 2 days last May:

Let's try to hit 3 pairs of them over the next 3 days:

Today I'll do Cascade Mountain and Porter Mountain:

After my Breakfast in Boston, I hit the Mass Pike at 9 AM. I was able to be at Lower Cascade Lake a little before 2:

and get to the Trailhead a little after 2:

Hey, at least there is a sign - wait until you see tomorrow.

Nice trail going up - up - up:

At 2.1 miles from the start I came to the intersection with the side trail up to Cascade Mountain (what a nice surprise to have the map-milage be exactly correct!):

You go up the trail through woods, then you break out onto the granite top:

Fun seeing someone standing WAY UP THERE:

and then my view back down 5 minutes later from where they were standing:

A few minutes later I was at the summit:

Looking east at Porter Mountain, my next stop:

I headed back down to the intersection

and hiked east through the woods. You come to a big boulder on the right, which has great views south:

10 minutes I came to a clearing, with an old damaged paper sign on a post:

It was about 0.7 miles from the Cascade-Mountain-trail-intersection, so I'm calling it Porter Mountain:

I was feeling good, had plenty of daylight, and was curious about "the rest of the trail" (and also curious/amazed about there being NO SIGNS at the top of these mountains!) - so I continued east on the path. It was a "ridge-trail", so not a lot of up-and-down, and 10 minutes later I hit the clearing with a trail intersection from the southeast, and SOME SIGNS:

Red Trail 16 ("Porter Mt. from the Garden Parking Lot") intersects from the southeast, and is currently closed because the Garden Parking Lot is closed for repairs:

I headed back, picked up my backpack on the Porter Mountain "summit", and was back at the car at 5:40.

Hey - really nice hike! 7.06 miles in 3 hours 38 minutes:

I had an easy drive, and checked into the "Quality Inn on Lake Placid" just after 6:

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

I like starting the morning off listening to books-on-tape. William Gibson (my sci-fi author from last year's trip) wrote another trilogy (known as the Blue Ant trilogy [Hubertus Bigend]): Pattern Recognition (2003), Spook Country (2007), and Zero History (2010). Having finished the first 2, I am now into "Zero History", cd 3:

Then I listened to 3 cds I got through the library:

various artists - 20 Feet from Stardom, 2013

Huey Lewis and The News - Sports "Live", 1983

It is FUN when he runs through his list of cities in "The Heart of Rock and Roll":

DC, San Antone and the Liberty Town, Boston and Baton Rouge
Tulsa, Austin, Oklahoma City, Seattle, San Francisco, too
Everywhere there's music, real live music, bands with a million styles
But It's still that same old rock and roll music
That really, really drives 'em wild

Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit - Live From Alabama, 2012

He was a member of The Drive-By Truckers for six years, from 2001 to 2007, and some of their songs are his songs. Killer version of Neil Young's "Like A Hurricane".

Great line from "Goddamn Lonely Love", which he wrote for the Drive-By Truckers:

Well I ain't really drowning cause I see the beach from here

Lyrics - "The Blue"

There really ain't no difference
In Michigan and Maine
If you ain't here to see this I'm missing just the same

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

Don Henley - Building the Perfect Beast, 1984