Autumn colors came late to the Adirondack Mountains. When the Boys decided to hike some weeks ago, they thought the woods would be bare of leaves and likely require snowshoes - or at least, crampons. Sandwiched between days of rain, and after a moderately sour breakfast in Pottersville, the Hat, AXE and "g" headed up the trail to Giant Mt, veered east just below the summit, and trekked down and up the saddle to Rocky Ridge Mt.

Initially, the Boys planned to climb Big Slide. But, AXE's anxiety about no parking at a busy trail head prevailed. In light of the fact that the Hat had already climbed Big Slide, they agreed to activate the backup plan and hiked Rocky Ridge. Besides... with Rocky Ridge under their soles, they could each cross off another high peak as they gradually inched towards becoming an Adirondack peak 46-er.

The trail was packed with hikers from Canada. There was even a group of about 30 students from Ottawa. The going got a little sketchy and mildly reminiscent of their ice laden trip up Gothic the previous year. And, yes... "g" again left his crampons in the car! Dang!

There was also the usual bickering. The Hat needed to be back at the car by 1530 hours to get home by 1700 hours to carve pumpkins with his 3 year old, Shasha. ("g's" Garmin predicted they would hike out at about 1600 hours.) AXE was committed to influencing an extended departure time by whining about wanting pie in Keene before heading home. As for "g", he was using this 8-mile hike as his last short run before the Marine Corps Marathon the following weekend in DC. This proved to be a mistake.