Now that Luke had his own convertible, we'd been trying to plan a weekend of driving and hiking through beautiful fall Adirondack colors.
The fall weather of 2005, however, was having nothing of that!
After many weekend of deferrals and cancellations due to poor weather, we decided to go for it anyway even though the forecast was marginal. We decided on something scenic (in the small hope that we'd actually get some views) and moderate in difficulty: Big Slide via the Brothers, returning in a nice loop via the valley.
We parked our now nearly-identical s2ks in the Garden Parking lot and made our way up towards the Brothers, soon entering the low and dense cloud base.
Well, at least it wasn't raining, and we had the trail mainly to ourselves. Sophie enjoyed the pleasant wanderings of the trail over the Brothers. I assured Jenn, Luke and Sophie that, yes indeed, there was an excellent view behind the blank white walls at which they were staring.
Despite the lack of views, the walk up to Big Slide was pleasant enough (we weren't rained on at all), and it was nice just to be out. We spent a nice relaxing hour on the summit, having lunch, chatting, and watching more white walls go floating by.
Periodic Maintenance, Part II
I had forgotten how many times the trail down to Johns Brook Valley crosses Slide Brook. Lest I seem negligent in my duties, let me inform you now: the trail crosses the brook seven times! Slightly tedious after a while.
We made it down to the bottom of Johns Brook Valley dry, though, and then started out the mostly-flat 5km trek back to the Garden Trailhead. Luke's knees were bugging him quite a bit, and he found this last bit quite uncomfortable as a result.
A parking lot in the forest
All in all, a pleasant outing, and I hope that we haven't scared Luke and Sophie off. It is possible to have views and no sore knees - I promise!
The map below is a fully-interactive google-based map, with the location of our Big Slide loop hike highlighted and the actual GPS tracklog shown in red. If you double-click on the map, you will get a full-size popup that includes the GPS track in 10x higher detail, clickable icons for each picture taken on the hike, and the ability to view all of this on a highway, satellite, or USGS topographic map.
Interactive Trackmap & Photo Points - Click map to expand
Big Slide via the Brothers loop - Hike Data
Start Time:
9:01a.m.
End Time:
4:14p.m.
Duration:
7h13m
Distance:
13.96 km
(8.67 mi)
Average Speed:
1.9 km/hr
(1.2 mph)
Start Elevation:
1540ft
(469m)
*
Max Elevation:
4276ft
(1303m)
*
Min Elevation:
1540ft
(469m)
*
End Elevation:
1584ft
(483m)
*
* : +/- 75 feet
Total Elevation Gain:
2714ft
(827m)
*
Total Elevation Loss:
2753ft
(839m)
*
* : +/- 75 feet
Elevation Graph
Elevation profile over distance
Elevation profile over time
