Goodman Mountain

5/29/18

The next stop on my journey was Goodman Mountain. I took my time getting to this trailhead after finishing Mount Arab, deciding to stop for a quick bite to eat in Tupper Lake on the way. I arrived at the trailhead off of Rt. 30 between Tupper Lake and Long Lake at 12:30pm, took my starting photos, and headed off.

When I stopped at the register to sign in, I read about the namesake of this mountain, Andrew Goodman. In 1964, when Goodman was 20 years old, he decided instead of vacationing in the Adirondacks for the summer with his family, he would join the Civil Rights movement in Mississippi, with a group who’s aim was to expand African-American voter registration in the south. However, not long after he arrived, he and two of his fellow contemporaries were murdered by the Ku Klux Klan. Historians consider their deaths to be the turning point in the movement leading to the Voting Rights Act of 1965. This is an excellent reminder not only of how far we’ve come, but of how far we still have yet to go as a nation. And with that in mind, I set off.

The trail started off by crossing a nice wooden bridge over a small creek. For about a mile after that, the trail was PAVED! This trail follows what is left of old highway 10, a route that used to connect Tupper Lake to Long Lake, and is wheelchair accessible for several hundred feet before becoming too steep and eroded to be accommodating any further.

After following the road for about a mile, and considering how great it would be to bring a sled up this hill in the winter, I reached the junction where the trail branches off to climb the mountain.

This time, I did pass one family coming down, but those were the last people to accompany me on this peak. This climb was incredibly easy, easier even than Arab, and in no time at all I was nearing the summit at about 1:10pm, 30 minutes after starting at the trailhead.

It was getting pretty hot out and the sky lacked clouds to shield me from the oppressive sun, so I basically just scampered up to the summit, took a couple of pictures, then scurried back down to the shade.

With the heat and the bugs, I did not stay long; just long enough to enjoy the greatest summer hiking snack of all time: Dole sugar-free fruit in gel! No, I’m not getting paid to say that (though maybe I should be??), I just feel very strongly that everyone should carry one of these on hot summer hikes. So refreshing!

With that, I took my leave, bringing with me the swarm of flies that couldn’t seem to leave me alone. Heads up: these guys don’t care at all how much deet you have on. In fact, I think they may like it.