Adirondacks: Big Slide Mountain

Saturday, Oct 17, 2020 - Yesterday I looked at the weather for Lake Placid, NY through the end of October:
All I saw was Rain/maybe rain/snow - EXCEPT for the next 2 days: clear and lovely for both Saturday and Sunday! Wendy said she and Ellie were going down to Falmouth for the day on Saturday, so why don't I go hiking?

I have done 33 of the 46 mountains (4000 footers) in the Adirondacks; today's plan is to drive to the Adirondacks and hike Big Slide Mountain:
I know, I know, I know - I'm breaking one of "My Rules": Do Not Drive And Hike In The Same Day, but this hike is just under 10 miles, so I think I can go for it.

I left the house after my Zoom Bible study (~9:15 AM), in the rain. As I headed northwest on I-89 in New Hampshire, I left the rain behind me and the sun came out. Unfortunately I saw that what was rain in Massachusetts turns into snow in western New Hampshire:
But western Vermont was green and beautiful:

I had a little trouble finding "The Garden" - the parking area for 60 cars at the end of Johns Brook Road. According to blogs I have read, IT IS ALWAYS FULL - but I thought that if I didn't get there until mid-afternoon, there might be some spaces available, even on a Saturday. I WAS CORRECT:

I paid my $10-in-an-envelope and started at 2:52 PM:

The hike I want to do: and The Hike I wound up doing: WHAT A WONDERFUL HIKE - 9.67 miles in 4 hours 14 minutes!

Note To Self - "Beware Of The Signs". There are some nice signs here in the Adirondacks - I just showed you one above. But much more often, there IS NO SIGN, and you have to make a guess: "Going Straight" usually is the correct guess, but once-in-a-while it is wrong, and you wind up doing some bushwacking. Try to remember another one of "My Rules": A Bad Trail Is ALWAYS BETTER Than A Good Bushwack - so try to STAY ON THE TRAIL.

Unfortunately there is something worse than "No Sign" - A BAD/WRONG SIGN. Only 0.2 miles up the trail is this sign:
I spent a couple of minutes looking left, down into the woods, for any-kind-of-trail:
before I "got out the map" and saw that instead of the "trail branching off to the left", it just continues straight ahead (to the "left" of that tree). What frustration! (but at least I didn't go stumbling off through the woods)

After 40 minutes (1.3 miles), you get a super view of Johns Brook Valley and the Great Range:

Sometimes they don't tell you, but just keep going straight over the nice clean rock (which in this moss-laden wilderness means "many people have come this way before"):
and the trail is great along "The Brothers" ridge-line:
with its blue blazes:

I reached the intersection with Trail 13 ("Big Slide Mt. via Slide Mt. Brook Trail") at 4:47 PM:
and I was at the summit of Big Slide at 5:00 PM. There is no sign, not even a USGS Marker; just this brass fitting!
As you can tell, the light is wonderful, but it means the sun is going down.

It was a bit chilly up here:

A fun look at the ladders going back down:

20 minutes later I was crashing down Trail 13 - IT IS A WONDERFUL TRAIL!!! The "main down part" is not bad at all, and as it levels out, it is time to put on my "7 League Boots". Mile 6, going down, only took me 21 minutes 40 seconds - Super Trail, with its red markers:
The blazes were placed often, and the stream crossings were a joy because every time I needed to see a marker, THERE IT WAS!
I got down the Trail (2.4 miles) in 46 minutes!!!!

The Trail back to The Garden (Trail 1 ["Johns Brook Lodge and Mt. Marcy via Phelps Trail"]) is also a WONDERFUL TRAIL:

One wonderful aspect of "Sunset in the Mountains" is that it does not "get dark quickly" - instead, when the sun goes behind a mountain, it still "remains light" for a long time. I was savouring this "gloaming" for about 30 minutes (a mile-and-a-half), and then it quickly crashed, so out came the Head Lamp. It worked great! I was passed by a trail-runner with his head-lamp, and I caught up to a couple with their lamps. We all came out kind-of together, and there were a bunch of people hanging around the parking lot. I said Hi and Goodbye, and drove to the Rodeway Inn in Lake Placid (287 miles driving today). A Hot Bath and my quiche, and "Classic Football Games" (Patriots vs. Packers, Nov. 30, 2014) for this evening's entertainment. Thank you GOD for all these GREAT Adventures!

Google Earth looking down from above Big Slide Mountain:

Tuesday driving "music":

Neal Stephenson (a sci-fi author I really like) wrote his opus Cryptonomicon in 1999, and I'm doing cds 12 + 13 today:

Then, as I hit Exit 3 off I-89 in Vermont:

Suzanne Vega - Days of Open Hand, 1990 third album

Rockapella - Don't Tell Me You Do, 1999

Bob Dylan - The Bootleg Series Vol. 2, 1963-1974 recordings, released 1991

and for my hiking:

Miles Davis - Live in Europe 1967: The Bootleg Series Vol. 1, 1967 (3 cds)

This quintet featured Wayne Shorter (tenor sax), Herbie Hancock (piano), Ron Carter (bass), and Tony Williams (drums) (the same line-up as his Plugged Nickel cds, but 2 years later).