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I left South Hamilton after Church, got a large cup of coffee at Cumberland Farms and hit the road. Stopped at Market Basket in New Hampshire for groceries, and pulled into The Garden parking lot a little after 5. Loaded my big hiking pack, changed clothes, paid the parking fee ($30 for 3 calendar days), signed the register, and headed up the trail at 5:49 PM. 20 minutes later I'm crossing over a nice brook:
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Nice hike up to The Lodge:
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Pictures of Johns Brook Lodge:
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After dinner, a nice view from the outside porch, with the moon rising:
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I had a great time driving WITHOUT LOOKING AT MY DIRECTIONS AT ALL!!! 263 miles driving today - Thank you God for a great drive-and-hike!
Today's driving music, from my orange nano:
David Crosby & Graham Nash - Crosby & Nash, 2004 double album
various artists - 12-12-12: The Concert for Sandy Relief, 2012 double live album
Wow - starts off with Bruce and the E-Street Band doing "Land of Hope and Dreams". wow wow wow. To quote Wikipedia: "On December 12, 2012, Springsteen and the E Street Band opened the 12-12-12: The Concert for Sandy Relief benefit with the same song, presenting what the Associated Press called "a roar and call to arms"."
Zero 7 - Yeah Ghost, 2009
Zero 7 - When It Falls, 2004 second album
The Hiking Music:
Count Basie, Tony Bennett - Basie Swings, Bennett Sings, 1959
india.arie - Voyage to India, 2002 second album
Well, wasn't that a cool day. Thank You God!
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Monday hike: Today's hike looks like only about 10 miles. Up and at em at 6 AM - made my oatmeal-and-fruit:
Headed out at 6:50
Once again, Johns Brook was beautiful:
and there is certainly little-bits-of-beauty to be found along the trail:
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At one section, there is A LOT OF BLOW-DOWN, which the wonderful trail-crews have cleared:
A nice brook-and-pool in the Adirondacks:
I hiked past Bushnell Falls and Slant Rock (see the blog from 2 weeks ago), and after 1 hour 50 minutes I reached Shorey’s Short Cut:
You cross over a brook to take Shorey’s Short Cut:
Not much of a "Trail":
Not much of a "View":
Google Earth really does a great job of showing the terrain, and seeing your path over that terrain. Here I'm looking at coming down the end of Shorey’s Short Cut, and then the beginning of going up Basin Mountain:
The ladder going up Basin Mountain:
and sometimes it is just a really nice hike-through-the-woods, up at 4,000 feet:
Scrambling up to the top of Basin Mountain:
And the summit at 10:34 (after hiking for 3 hours 45 minutes):
The views down the back-side are not any better:
You climb down the backside of Basin, then up through the woods on Saddleback (had my 3rd 1/4 sub), until you break out of the trees:
READ THE BLOGS - they have many descriptions of this section of Saddleback. From here, it took me 16 miuntes to reach the summit. There are places where you are on open rock face, and other places where you are negotiating up a crack (that your boot really does not fit into). For me, it was a very good challenge - I keep thinking of all the 13-year-old girls that have done this before me, and it keeps me humble, and gives me total confidence that I can do this!
Up on the summit, it was windy, with zero views. I think I found the correct "bolt hole", but I did wander around quite a lot:
A nice "Google Earth view" of today's climb up Saddleback, with Gothics in the background (which I did in May 2019):
It took 30 minutes to climb down the back side of Saddleback and to reach the intersection with The Ore Bed Brook Trail (finished my sub). From there it was 14 minutes to THE HUGE ROCKSLIDE:
At least it cleared somewhat, and I got a nice view:
I was finishing today's adventure with a nice hike through sun-dappled woods:
At 1:41 PM I was at the intersection with the final (SHORT) trail back to The Lodge:
Well, after going over a couple of brooks, I was back on the porch of the Johns Brook Lodge, which is exactly when my MapMyWalk lady said "10.0 miles in 7 hours 1 second"!!! I was feeling great, and I realized what I could do - Sleep in MY OWN BED tonight! So I pulled all my stuff together (MapMyWalk got a little funky):
About halfway back, I was going past a hip-high rock and I noticed the USGS MARKER:
Nice fast hike (with my poles) through the woods:
I got back to The Garden parking area right at 4 PM. I had one-boot-off-and-one-Merrell-on when THE RAIN STARTED. I quickly put on the other Merrell and jumped into the driver's seat, and started the engine. THE RAIN WAS BIBLICAL!!! I drove out of there very slowly, and headed home. This is a screenshot I took from Dark Sky showing THE STORM over The Adirondacks:
The rain lasted (on-and-off) until I was in New Hampshire. Home at 9:20 PM - Thank you God for this Super Great Adventure, knocking off 2 more mountains!
For hiking, we're going to try the boom cubes and my purple nano:
(no music for the first hour - just babbling brook noises)
Keith Jarrett - At the Deer Head Inn, live album recorded 1992, released 1994
Michael Moore and Gene Bertoncini - Two in Time, 1995
a quiet jazz album
Pat Metheny, Christian McBride, Antonio Sanchez - Tokyo Day Trip, live album recorded 2004, released 2008
One of the songs is "Traveling Fast (Live)" and I certainly feel like I am.
Scarlet Haven - "3" (also known as The Columbia Sessions), 2000 unreleased
Courtney gave me the 6 mp3s, which I burned onto a cd. I'll have to take a picture of the cd one of these days
Sully Erna - Avalon, 2010
Stray Cats - Rock This Town: Best of …, 1990 greatest hits album
And then because I just wanted to listen to "regular jazz" on the hike back to the parking lot:
Miles Davis Quintet - Miles Davis Quintet, 1965-68 cd1 1965:
Today's driving music, from my orange nano:
Stephen Stills - Live at Shepherd's Bush, live album recorded 2008, released 2009
various artists - Higher Ground: Hurricane Relief Benefit Concert, 2005 live album
Very nice collection, with James Taylor doing an excellent "Never Die Young".
Leonard Cohen - Live at the Isle of Wight 1970, live album recorded 1970, released 2009
Jimmy Buffett - You Had To Be There, 1978 live double album
