Adirondacks: Rocky Peak Ridge

Sunday, Oct 18, 2020 - I'm doing a 2-day "Drive-Hike/Hike-Drive" Adventure out here in the Adirondacks (I know, I know, I know - I'm breaking one of "My Rules": Do Not Drive And Hike In The Same Day, but yesterday's hike was just under 10 miles [and worked out great], and today's is about 13 miles, so I think I can go for it.) As of this morning, I have done 34 of the 46 mountains (4000 footers) in the Adirondacks; today's plan is to hike Rocky Peak Ridge and then drive home:

Yes that's FROST on the car - it was cold out here this morning:

The hike I want to do is basically out-and-back. It looks easy, but you go UP-AND-DOWN many (5? 6?) mountains! I'll calculate my "elevation gain/loss" at the end of this blog.
I had attempted this hike in July (read blog here), and got as far as the descent down to Mary Louise Pond (also know as "Lake Mary Louise" or "Lake Marie-Louise", depending on whether you look at the ADK map, the ADK guidebook, or the ADK website):
As a result of my "previously failed attempt", I am taking today's adventure very seriously (water, pacing, stretching, music, etc).

No problem getting to the trailhead. I signed the register, and started at 8:00 AM:

10 minutes later, it is straight through the woods, with the rising sun behind me:

At a mile-and-a-half, just keep going up:

At 1.8 miles, right before Blueberry Cobbles, a side-trail goes off to the right with a nice view northeast:

Next is the intersection, where Blueberry Cobbles goes left and the "Short Cut Trail" goes right:
What the heck - I'll go up Blueberry Cobbles now, and take the short-cut on my way back down.

Up at Blueberry Cobbles I can look northwest and see where I am going:

Going up through the woods:
and looking back down:

With the summit of Rocky Peak Ridge ahead of me:

A beautiful view out to the southeast on this wonderful fall day:

Going up Bald Peak, I looked back and took this picture:
Can you find the hikers?
The distances are pretty awesome out here.

Going up Bald Peak:

Another section of killer downhill:
before getting down into a Beautiful Birch Grove in Dickerson Notch at 10:30 AM:

50 minutes later, its up over the ledge for Rocky Ridge:

With the mountains in the distance, can you see the hikers?

Looking back down the "trail", at Bald Peak and Lake Champlain in the distance:
and yes, there are hikers in this picture too:
I like putting people in my pictures because it gives you a sense of perspective.

At 11:32, right before going down to Lake Mary Louise, the mountains ahead are getting closer:
and I turned around and said HI to the hikers I had passed:

5 minutes later, I was down at BEAUTIFUL Lake Mary Louise:

A few minutes later I can look back down on this wonderful area:

At 11:54, I'm still climbing, but looking back to see if anyone is following me:
Gotcha!!!

I reached the summit at noon:

UM - NO SIGN - NO USGS MARKER - NO NOTHING.

Except GREAT VIEWS:
This guy had just come down-and-up from Giant Mountain, and it was fun seeing him enjoying this as much as me!

The Trail coming back down:

A Cool Fun Guy coming up the trail, under a cool overhang:

And a final picture - of Bald Peak as I got lost coming down (the trail quickly jagged left, with NO SIGN):

All in all, it was another Great Hike in the Adirondacks:
13.12 miles in 7 hours 20 minutes! It's hard to calculate, but the trailhead elevation is 620', and the summit elevation is 4420', so a gain of 3800 feet - but I've seen a blog say "Elevation gain: 4,700 feet via East Trail", so it is a lot of up-and-down!!

And look what's left - 11 mountains:
to be covered next year in 5 hikes:

I hit the road at 3:30, got gas in Vermont, and HOME at 8 PM (279 miles driving today, 564 miles two-day-total). WOW DE WOW DE WOW - Thank you GOD for all these GREAT Adventures!

Tuesday driving "music" to the trailhead:

Joe Cocker - Joe Cocker!, 1969 2nd album

and for my hiking:

Pat Metheny - 80/81, 1980 double album
I got some nice chills listening to the 1st song as I started my hike. Pat Metheny (guitar), Dewey Redman (saxophone), Charlie Haden (bass), Michael Brecker (saxophone), and Jack DeJohnette (drums).

Pat Metheny - Tokyo Day Trip, live album, recorded 2004, released 2008
Pat Metheny with Christian McBride and Antonio Sanchez.

Charles Lloyd - Acoustic Masters I, 1994

And now it is time for some rock-n-roll.

The Allman Brothers Band - Where It All Begins, 1994

This was the last studio album they recorded with Dicky Betts - too bad, because he came up with some really beautiful stuff. On this album, he wrote the "title cut" - "Back Where It All Begins" - a wonderful 9:12 song in the vein of "In Memory of Elizabeth Reed" and "Jessica". This is the 3rd song on the album - the 8th song is "Everybody's Got a Mountain to Climb" (also by Dickey Betts):

Everybody's got a mountain to climb
Don't be discouraged when the sun don't shine
Gotta keep on pulling; you gotta keep on tryin'
Everybody's got a mountain to climb

I saw The Allman Brothers Band (at least) 3 times: on Saturday, June 9, 1973 I was at RFK Stadium in Washington, D.C., where they played with the Grateful Dead; early 1990s when they had just started touring again (AWESOME show at the Beacon Theatre in Boston), and then the next year down at Great Woods. In the Spring of 2016 I was really excited - I bought a ticket to see ZZ Top and Greg Allman at the Blue Hills Pavilion (waterfront concert in Boston); unfortunately Greg was really sick that year, and cancelling left-right-and-center, so he missed Boston in August (he died less than a year later). But back at the ZZ Top concert, I had a GREAT TIME in my "Cheap Sunglasses":
Then for my hike I switched from my purple nano to my green nano:

Jimmy Buffett - Banana Wind, 1996

lyrics to "Holiday":

Take a holiday
you need a holiday
grab a pack and hit the trail
take a sail
and wind up in some moonlight bay

Johnny Cash - American V: A Hundred Highways, 2006
An album of both covers and originals; a KILLER version of "God's Gonna Cut You Down"

various artists - Hed Kandi: Beach House, 2000 double album
As opposed to their "house music" cds (which are too aggressive for my taste), this has more of a "trance" feel, with a great mellow vibe.

Then, back on the road: Neal Stephenson (a sci-fi author I really like) wrote his opus Cryptonomicon in 1999, and I'm doing cds 18, 19 + 20 today: