Adirondacks - June 6-7-8, 2021

Sunday, June 6 through Tuesday, June 8, 2021 - Going for the first hike of the season, in the Adirondacks, is all about managing the "Mud Season Advisory", in which the DEC (The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation) recommends sticking to elevations below about 2,500 feet until trails have a chance to dry out. The DEC is very good/efficient in letting people know when THEY START THE ADVISORY - unfortunately, THEY ARE VERY BAD AT CALLING THE END (like, they don't). It has been a dry spring, so I'm betting the trails for the High Peaks are fine. So here we go!

I have done 35 of the 46 mountains (4000 footers) in the Adirondacks:

Zoom-in on the 11 remaining:

The plan is to drive to the Adirondacks today, and Monday hike The Great Range: Haystack, Basin and Saddleback:

They look pretty close together. I've read blogs of people that have done it, so let's see what happens.

I left South Hamilton after Church, got a large cup of coffee at Cumberland Farms, went down 1A to Nick's Roast Beef for lunch (Super Beef with cheese and mayo, plus a small fries). Sure was hot on 128: I had a great time driving WITHOUT LOOKING AT MY DIRECTIONS AT ALL!!! 276 miles today, checked in at the Rodeway Inn in Lake Placid about 6 PM - Thank you God for a great drive!

Today's driving music:

ABBA - The Singles: The First Ten Years, 1982 double greatest hits album


Jefferson Airplane - Live at the Fillmore East, 1968 live album


Culture Club - Kissing To Be Clever, 1982 debut album


Elton John - Friends soundtrack, 1971 soundtrack

A very nice little album from Elton, made right around the time of his first 2 albums. Not officially on cd, but only available on his "Rare Masters" (1992) 2-CD set, tracks 10–19 on Disc One.

The Go-Go's - Beauty and the Beat, 1981 debut album

to quote wikipedia: The LP sold in excess of two million copies, and was RIAA-certified double platinum, qualifying it as one of the most successful debut albums of all time.

Creed - Human Clay, 1999 second album

I really like "With Arms Wide Open" on this album, but it all sounds like only-part-of-early-Pearl-Jam. The album's third single, "With Arms Wide Open", won a Grammy Award for Best Rock Song in 2001.

Van Morrison - Inarticulate Speech of the Heart, 1983


Joni Mitchell - Don Juan's Reckless Daughter, 1977 double album


Thank you God for a very nice travel-day!

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Monday hike: This morning, The Garden (trailhead) parking is 30 minutes away:

OK - so as I said to the guy who arrived 10 minutes after me "I guess I really didn't need to get here at 6 AM":

Note for the future: mid-week/weekday parking seems to be ok.

Signed in about 6:20 AM:

I knew I would be going up Phelps Trail for 3.5 miles before I reached the "Johns Brook Lodge", which a number of bloggers stay at before doing the 3 mountains in The Great Range. I figure I'm in great shape (well, for a 68-year-old), so I figure I'll be able to do the 20 miles in 12 hours, starting and finishing in the Garden parking area:

It is a nice morning for a hike (mid-70's) through the woods. At one mile:

At two miles:

After 1:25 I reached Johns Brook:

A few minutes later I was at the bottom of the Slide Mt Brook Trail, which I came down last October:

Nice trail straight-ahead, and at 3.75 miles (and 1 hour 40 minutes hiking), I reached Johns Brook Lodge:

I saw a couple sitting inside having their morning coffee.

You keep going up this trail (alongside, and in, Johns Brook, which makes for slower going), following the signs for Mount Marcy. At 2:25 (5.3 miles) I hit the sign for Bushnell Falls:

The 0.1 miles is basically straight down (which means straight back up to return), but it is totally worth it:

The water is cool and VERY REFRESHING!

You cross over a couple of streams, and at 10:05 AM I reached the big Slant Rock:

Keep going up the trail (do not take the trail-to-the-left for Range Trail), and the hike gets A LOT HARDER:

This is where my times just crashed, down to 48/50 minutes per mile.

And, unfortunately, it gets harder. At 10:55 I was at the trail intersection I wanted (State Range Trail):

Hey, Mt. Haystack is only a mile away - how hard can that be?

Um, since the next 1/2 mile is STRAIGHT UP, the answer is "VERY HARD". No time for pix, since I'm just going up hand-over-hand for 30 minutes, until I get to the ridge-top with nice views:

Now, I left my backpack and hiking poles here, because, without a sign, I just figured that this was "The Range Trail", and that I would scramble over to Little Haystack and Mount Haystack, and then come back. I was pretty tired - the water-weight was getting to me - so I was glad to leave my pack and poles, and go down the trail:

UNTIL I CAME TO THE REAL TRAIL INTERSECTION:

Yellow Marker goes up to the right, Blue Marker goes down to the left. That meant I would have to go back up TO GET MY STUFF! At this point, my pace was one hour per mile.

As opposed to other people, I had a good time going up Little Haystack - just keep following the yellow markings and the cairns:

At 11:45 AM (5:25 into the hike = 9 miles), I was on Little Haystack, looking at Mount Haystack:

Down-and-up, and I was on Mount Haystack at 12:15. After the Summit, Beautiful Views! Looking South:

I turned around to look back up at Mount Haystack:

Looking West at Mount Marcy:

and Looking North at Basin and Saddleback:

I was exhausted and didn't know how I was going to do those other mountains:

I climbed back down, up-and-down Little Haystack and asked 2 guys if they had seen my poles and pack on their way up. We had a good laugh when they said "Yes, and we left them right there." So I went back up there and got them. In hindsight, I figured God wanted me to go back down/home from there, but I retraced my path back down to The Range Trail. The "trail" is INSANE - rock-to-rock, boulder-to-boulder - one mis-step and you break something. More VERY SLOW pace. It took an hour to make my way along The Ridge Trail, and I knew I had to bail out of there.

So I took a left at the Shorey’s Short Cut, which was still an insane "up-and-over the ridge" trail. Google Earth gives you a good idea:

I stopped for a nice view going down the "Short Cut":

Which is also where I patched one of my external batteries to my phone (2:20 PM = 8 hours into the hike). At least it is downhill from here - but be careful, be careful, be careful.

It then took me 50 minutes to go the 0.7 miles down to Phelps Trail:

with 7 miles to go to get back to the Garden Trailhead!

At least the streams are still beautiful:

Those 7 miles took me 3 hours 10 minutes - just putting one foot in front of the other. Finished at 6:20 PM (12 hours hiking), for 18.87 miles hiking. At least I managed my water EXCELLENTLY:

17 oz + 64 oz + 32 oz + 32 oz + 32 oz = 177 ounces = 5.23 liters

A 1/2-hour drive back to the Rodeway Inn. Hot Bath, and Turkey sub for dinner. A nice phone call with Wendy, and then Lights Out - Thank you God for this Great Day!

NOTE: for future hikes (I still want to get Basin and Saddleback), I'm gong to investigate driving out and staying 1st night at the Johns Brook Lodge, hike Day 2, spend 2nd night at Johns Brook Lodge, then hike out and head home on Day 3. That cuts 7 miles off "The Hike".

Monday morning driving music to the trailhead:

Phantom Planet - Raise the Dead, 2008


For hiking, we're going to try the boom cube and my iPod:

Pink Floyd - Pulse, 1995 live double-cd album


Unfortunately, my 1st boom cube died after only 5 minutes, and my 2nd only lasted another hour - I forgot to "top them off" with power, and I didn't bring my boom-cube-recharger-cable (even though I brought 3 auxiliary power packs!!

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Tuesday drive home: I was figuring that there was going to be "NO HIKING" today, and I was right [MY FEET HURT!]. Up after 6 AM, computer work and coffee, and then I headed down the road at 9:30. The weather people said that scattered showers were in the forecast:

and with the mountain peaks in the clouds, driving home seems like a good idea.

Driving was nice, easy, and fuel-efficient, so when I filled-up in Middlebury, Vermont, the Crosstrek thinks it can go 660 miles on a full tank of gas:

In Bethel, Vermont I stopped at "Findley Bridge Road":

to see the Findley Bridge:

as it goes over the White River:

At 3 PM I was on 93 South, going near Andover, Mass. and it was 99 degrees!! Less than 5 minutes later, THE RAINS CAME:

which dropped the temperature 18 degrees down to 81.

Got home at 3:41 PM - 581 miles round-trip driving - Thank you God for all these Wonderful Adventures!

Driving Home - music from my orange nano:

various artists - Happy Hour Jazz, 2006


various artists - Happy Birthday Newport: 50 Swinging Years!, 2004 triple-cd spanning 50 years


Dead and Company - 2017/06/18 Boston, MA, 2017 live triple album

I WAS THERE!