Big Slide Mountain – Sat., Sept. 26, 2009
4240 ft. | Ranked 27/46 in height | 10th peak climbed | 36 to go
Route: Trailhead at the Garden to Big Slide summit via the Brothers (blue trail markers, 4.0 mi.). On the descent, followed the blue trail back down to the junction with Slide Mountain Brook trail (0.3 mi.); followed Slide Mountain Brook trail down to John’s Brook (red markers, about 2.5 mi.); turned left at the junction with Phelps Trail back out to the Garden (yellow markers, about 3 miles). Total of about 9.6 miles.
Parking: We’d been warned that parking at the Garden was limited (to 60 cars), and that to park there (for $5), we’d need to be there on the early side. We arrived at the lot at 8:40am — not early enough. The lot was already roped off as full. Mildly irritatingly, we counted at least two places were our car could comfortably fit, and a couple more where it could less comfortably fit, but nevermind that. The keeper of the lot had deemed it full.
Not that it was a huge deal. She directed us to drive the 1.6 mile back to Rt. 73, and down to Marcy Field (about another 2 miles), to wait for the shuttle bus. 13 hours a day, the Town of Keene shuttle bus goes back and forth – roughly every 20 minutes – shuttling hikers for $3/person for a round trip ride. (Last bus leaves the Garden at 7pm sharp. Important to note, per the driver, 7:01pm is NOT good enough!) We parked, shuttled, and were signing into the trail register by 9:20am.
The beginning ascent from the Garden toward the Brothers was through a fairly open wooded area, where we crossed paths with three deer – alas, I was too slow with the camera – but the area was incredibly peaceful. The ascent was steady, but very comfortable. After a mile or so, the trees became thinner,
and the rocks became larger, and we began to see views of the Giant Mountain Wilderness. 1.3 mile in, we reached the first of the three Brothers.
The views from Brothers were, in a word, gorgeous. The second was probably my favorite. It didn’t hurt that fall colors are nearing their peak, but even if they weren’t the views are still amazing. You’ll have to indulge me for a second, here…
Lower Range from the Brothers
Lower Range from the Brothers, part 2
We met Fuzzy The Yellow Caterpillar on the first Brother, in a chance moment in which our heads weren’t swiveling in 360 degrees, trying to take in everything there was to see. He’s kind of cute…
Birch tree seat
Near the top of the third Brother, we found what has apparently served as a campsight, and stopped for a snack. When we headed on our way, we descended down into a col, before reaching the junction with Slide Mountain Brook trail, and continuing up to the summit of Big Slide. The degree of descent and ascent were comfortable through the birch tree filled col. We stopped and admired a few that had grown particularly oddly, including the tree-chair pictured.
Ladder
About 3.7 miles in, the trail junction came up much faster than we expected. We stayed on the blue trail to head toward the summit. This portion of the trail was where climbing got trickier. There were some enormous rock steps – so large that in one place, a log ladder had been built over the rock. In most places, it was just a matter of sticking your feet and scrambling.
0.29 mile later, we were on the summit. What a happenin’ place! To the southeast, it affords fantastic views of the Great Range (predominantly the Lower Range) but the bare area for lunching is not actually very large. There are no good views to the northwest, and in the northeast, Giant and Rocky Ridge are just visible.
I’ve never been on such a busy summit before. Everyone was friendly, but it was tight quarters finding a place to eat lunch! Disappointingly, my Hershey bar had melted in the sun – obviously the wool hat and wool turtleneck sweater in my pack were overkill.
We lingered on the summit for almost 90 minutes, hoping some of the larger groups would start to head back down, so we could take some photos. It only sort of worked. The big groups started down, but more people arrived. It was pretty anyway, of course – although the summit view wasn’t much different from the views we got from the Brothers. We got a slightly better view of Basin, Saddleback, and Haystack from the summit.
As usual, we posed for our summit photos before heading back down:
10 down, 36 to go!
On the way back down, we tried to get a few photos of the mountain’s namesake Slide:
the "Slide" in "Big Slide"
When we got back to the junction, we decided to take Slide Mountain Brook Trail instead of going back out the Brothers. The Brothers were gorgeous, of course, but we wanted a chance to see the Phelps Trail, which goes from the Garden to Johns Brook Lodge, for future trip familiarity/planning. It made for a longer hike (5.6 miles out instead of 4.0), but even after a lazy stay on the summit, we had plenty of time.
The first half of the brook trail was pretty unremarkable, in terms of physical features. Lots of trees, no real views, but an easy enough descent. We were averaging just shy of 2 miles/hour, which for us is a pretty good pace.
The entire length of the mountain brook trail was a really enjoyable stretch for us, though. Apparently everyone we’d shared the summit with, had chosen to descend via the Brothers for the views (we didn’t see anyone choose the Yard Mountain/Klondike Notch descent), which meant that we had the entire trail to ourselves. The past two hiking trips have been with friends and family, which is an awesome opportunity – but a different kind of opportunity than hiking just as a couple. With not a soul around, and no phones, computers, or other distractions, it was really nice to just spend some time together, walking in the woods.
About halfway down, we crossed the Slide Mountain Brook for the first time. The trail crosses the brook, back and forth, several times and it’s a very pretty stretch. I’d imagine the crossings are less fun, though, when the water is higher.
In the warmer months, this portion forms pools deep enough for a chilly bath. If the cairn is knocked over, it means someone picked up a leech in the pool.
As we neared the junction with Phelps Trail, we caught our only real view from the descent down Mountain Brook Trail – but it was a pretty one.
The Slide Mountain Brook Trail comes into Phelps Trail at a t-intersection between Johns Brook Lodge and the DEC Interior Outpost, about 3 miles from the Garden parking lot and the trail head. The 3 miles out was fast and easy — even wider and easier (albeit longer) than the Van Hoevenberg trail from Marcy Dam to Adirondack Loj. It was also pretty – lots of impressive and enormous boulders to look at. We noticed that he leaves there were much greener than at elevation, although the sugar maples have started to turn yellow.
We reached the trail head at about 5:20pm to see the shuttle bus waiting at the end of the parking lot – one of us signed out of the trail register while the other asked it to wait a minute. We rode straight down to the car at Marcy Field, having lost no time to a wait at all.
We both agreed that this was one of our favorite day hikes so far. Challenging near the top, but comfortable (I won’t quite call it easy) most of the rest of the way, a high ratio of view quality to effort expended, and easy to fit into a single day with no dusk concerns. We probably won’t do any redo’s until we finish our 46, but this will be one of the first we come back to.
