1 of 46 - Big Slide Mountain

So Katie and I decided to take on Big Slide Mountain for our first of the 46 Adirondack High Peaks today.  This peak is the 27th highest at 4240 feet (according to the ADK 46r website, but a sign at the top has it as 4270 feet and my phone said we were over 4300 feet so who knows).  The trek to Big Slide is no easy task and I had to 'mis-inform' Katie of the total distance of the hike to ensure her that we were fully capable of completing it.  Here's the short (just kidding) story.

We kicked off our day with breakfast at our favorite, Triangle Diner in Saratoga Springs.  After breakfast we immediately hit the road for Keene Valley, NY, home to quite a few of the high peaks.  We found our way to the Garden Parking area and paid the parking fee, and just in time.  There were only 3 remaining parking spots out of the 60 available.  We hit the register and took note of a sign warning us that Black Bears are very prevalent in the Adirondacks and that we should take caution, then started our way up the trail.  We began our hike just after 11am.

There are 2 ways to hike to Big Slide Mountain from the Garden Parking Area.  One is a leisurely stroll past a series of campsites that stays relatively level, but slowly climbs, then crosses a brook 5 or 6 times and intensifies uphill.  This is a little longer, but ultimately an easier hike than the other choice.  We ended up coming back this way, but this was not our choice.  The other choice involves hiking up to the summit of three smaller peaks called the Three Brothers, with some dips in elevation between each, then climbing to the summit of Big Slide.  This, the harder of the two options, was our risky choice.

We set off on the trail for the First Brother and the climb was immediately steep.  Katie led the way at a blistering pace and we were huffing and puffing in no time.  I was dismayed to find that we needed to stop for breathers and water breaks several times during the climb of the First Brother.  We had read online that the climb to the First and Second Brothers were steep and somewhat technically difficult but knowing that we still had a significant amount of ground to cover, it didn't feel like a good sign to need so much early rest.  Two French Canadian girls had started on the trail about 5 minutes before us and we did not feel that we were catching up to them for some time.

A short while before the peak of the First Brother there were some particularly challenging sections involving rock scrambles.  These are areas where you literally need to climb up rocks that are not quite vertical, but very challenging.  They aren't boulders that you hop to or climb up, they are just giant slabs of bedrock with some cuts or cracks in them that give you some hand and foot holds that you must climb.  Often there are tree trunks or branches that one can utilize to help pull yourself off, or you can stand on the roots, but not on all of them.  Either way, these rock scrambles were very demanding as you are basically moving vertically only and they drastically slow down the pace.  Not to mention the fact that when you reach the top of one, you are very winded and sometimes need a rest.

The peak of the First Brother lay just beyond several of these rock scrambles.  At this point, we had caught up to the French Canadian gals because while they may have been quick hikers, they were not quick scramblers.  We actually were not entirely sure that we had made it to the First Brother as there are no clear markings anywhere near the top, and there are several viewing areas that make you feel as though you are at the top just before you actually get there.  In fact, we would not be sure as to the exact location of the first two brothers until we made it to the Third Brother.

After taking a quick break and snapping some photos at what we felt fairly confident was the peak of the First Brother, we moved on.  There was a short descent off the bedrock summit leading down into the woods, but we were mostly just walking the ridge on to the Second Brother.  After descending probably no more than 100 feet, we were climbing again.  Before the summit of the Second Brother there was again several difficult rock scrambles that left us completely out of breath and begging for mercy.  At the summit of the Second Brother, we sat for a slightly longer break.  The gap between the first and second brother seemed so short we were not really sure that we were there, we just knew that we were exhausted.

At this point, I felt quite concerned about our prospects of making it to the top of Big Slide.  We were completely wiped out. The climb to the First Brother was about 1300 feet over 1.3 miles and that's a fairly brutal ascent(to 2800 feet from the base level of 1500).  The Second Brother is not considerably higher than the first at around 3000 feet.  I did not know it at the time, but the Third Brother is around 3500 feet.  We sat and caught our breath at the peak of the Second Brother(not knowing for sure that it was the Second Brother) and the two French Canadian girls passed us again.

Fortunately, the trail seemed to level off for a brief while.  We actually seemed to descend a little and the going felt easy.  It wasn't long though before we were climbing again.  We had to climb another 500 feet or so to summit the Third Brother.  We were chugging down a lot of water and I became a little concerned about our overall supply, especially considering that at the peak of the Second Brother, we were less than a quarter of the way through our hike.  The climb to the Third Brother actually felt a lot more moderate than the first two, which is funny because looking at the MapMyWalk app elevation tracker, it wasn't more moderate at all.  It was nearly the same rate of ascent as hiking to the First Brother.  It's probably because there weren't any rock scrambles along the way so it was mostly just walking, even if it was uphill.

Shortly before we reached the Third Brother, I noticed that I could see my breath.  The temperature on the forecast was a wonderful 72 degrees for most of the day, but at our elevation, it seemed much cooler.  With the amount of effort we were putting into the climb, I was boiling hot and not only could I see my breath, but I could see steam wafting in front of my face that was apparently coming off the top of my head.  Katie didn't notice it at first, but then finally saw hers.  We kept climbing and Katie was again leading the way at this point.  I almost always lead when we hike because I tend to like to hike a little faster and get a little bit ahead, but the Brothers were really taking their toll.

In fact, twice while scrambling rocks to reach the summit of the Second Brother, I had felt painful cramps in my legs.  I carry the pack when we hike and considering that I weigh around 225 on my own, my legs are lifting around 245 pounds with every step.  By the time we reached the Third Brother I had experienced several painful cramps in my legs and they already seemed like they could take no more.  I again felt very nervous about our prospect of reaching the summit.

We sat down for a prolonged break at the Third Brother.  There aren't really great views to speak of at this summit as it has quite a few trees, but if you move out to a rock ledge, you can get a view of our final destination, which we snapped a picture of and will post to Facebook or this blog.  Big Slide is named for a massive rock slide that took off the Eastern section of the peak.  You can definitely see this slide area in the sheer rockface on the Eastern side of the mountain. We ate a bunch of our snacks, and again worried about our total water consumption as we had finished two of our four water bottles and still had a good ways to go to reach the pinnacle.  As I sat and ate, steam poured off my head and back(which had been covered by a backpack to the point).  Katie tried to capture the human steam machine on camera, but I doubt the photo showed much.  Still, I was a sight to behold.

After the Third Brother, there is a considerable descent.  We descended from around 3500 feet to a little over 3200 feet.  After meeting this lower altitude and a good distance, we slowly began to ascend again.  I kept checking my MapMyWalk App in bewilderment.  The website we used said that we would reach the summit after 3.8 miles but we were already at 3.5 miles and I didn't feel like we had climbed much.  Plus, we were supposed to connect to the other trail that comes in from the South.  Finally we reached the crossroads.  From this point, which was 3.7 miles into our trip, a sign indicated that it would be 0.29 miles to the summit of Big Slide.  Since I had assumed that we would arrive at this critical juncture much sooner, I had though that Katie would want to complete the loop and skip the summit.  But seeing that the distance was just another .29 miles, we were empowered.

We enthusiastically began to climb the final ascent.  I don't know the exact elevation from this point but I would estimate that we were somewhere around 3700 feet at this point.  This means that the final .29 miles involves a 500 foot climb to the peak.  That definitely seems about right in retrospect as the last bit was easily the most punishing of the whole hike.  A very steep climb beginning with some large rocky steps smothered in tree branches.  A section of 'ladder's covers an extremely steep area of bedrock.  The angle of the bedrock is too steep to climb with assistance and apparently the trail could not avoid it, so we climbed these ladders.  They were more like wooden staircases(I have a picture of these too), and they were not vertical as they laid on the 60 degree slope.

My legs were feeling pretty rough before we began the final ascent, but the punishment inflicted on them in this last .29 miles was unimaginable.  Each step forward was several feet upward.  and often required taking a very large step(when my legs get tired, I prefer to take many quick small steps rather than fewer slow large steps, this was not an option).  A while before we got to this final section, my legs began cramping upon every large step I took. I would feel a sharp jolt of pain that could only be rectified by taking smaller steps.  Halfway up the final ascent, the pain was unbearable.

At the top of the ladders, we had to keep climbing up very steep bedrock until we made it to a series of large boulders next to a sheer rockface.  I looked around not sure which way we needed to go until I saw a sign posted about 12 feet off the ground pointing the left that said 'Trail'.  It was on top of the rocks...  We scaled the boulders and then climbed up on top of the rocks and followed the sign.  A short distance further we arrived at the rockface where the 'Big Slide' has occurred.  We took some select photos and looked up.  The top was only another 100-150 feet or so.  We were very much almost there.  I had occasionally heard the voices of our French Canadian hiking buddies and knew we weren't far behind them either.

The last 100-150 feet of climbing, however, was possibly the toughest yet.  A lot of this last bit of climbing was open rock scrambling.  Before we went on this hike, I had seen some descriptions of hikes that said it included some rock scrambling and I didn't really know what it meant.  I assumed it was more along the lines of jumping from rock to rock or boulder to boulder.  That's not really it at all.  It's more like coming across a wall that sits vertical in some places and at 50-80 degree angles elsewhere that you must find a way to climb.  After climbing one, then two, then three of these rock scrambles, I was very tired of them.  Imagine my disappointment when the very summit we were working to reach required two last scrambles.

My feelings about the summit of Big Slide Mountain?  The views are nice.  It was not windy at all, like Sleeping Beautfy Summit.  It was not very large.  Thanks to the rock slide, there isn't a lot of area at the top to hang out.  We sat down and gorged ourselves on snacks and tried to replenish our energy.  We snapped as many photos as we could.  You could see plenty of other high peaks from up there.  I couldn't name them because we haven't climbed them but based on where we were, I knew that some of them were Giant Mountain, Roostercomb, Mount Marcy(the highest of all, I could guess which one that was), and several others.  If we finished this crazy journey, and do all 46, we will be at the top of all of them at some point.  It's a daunting challenge, especially looking at the angle of ascent of many of them from this peak.

The way back down felt manageable at this point.  I'd had some time to rest, time to snack and we felt decent about the amount of water we had remaining.  The rest was all downhill anyway!  Again, this was a mistake.  I had convinced Katie that it was wiser to make a loop and head out the other trail so we did not have to summit the Three Brothers again.  The only disadvantage was that this route back adds around 1.8 miles to the trip.  So our 4 mile trip out left us 5.8 miles to get back.  My legs were already completely shot and for a very, very long time, we would be heading downhill.  If my legs weren't already so wobbly, downhill would feel great.  But each big step down threatened to send me tumbling.

After coming down a very long way, we came to a brook.  Our trail took us over this brook several times and the serenity and beauty of it were amazing.  We eventually found our way to some campsites and a sign.  It said 3 miles to Garden Parking. The reason I chose the loop route is that from this point, our terrain was largely flat.  MapMyWalk says it was actually mostly a descent from there, but it didn't feel like it.  That last 3 miles, though, we booked it.  All day long we had been averaging 40+ minutes per mile.  The grueling climbs slowed us down dramatically.  Even the long downhill area we only pulled off a 39 minute mile.  This last stretch we averaged 25 minutes per miles.  Long before the end, my legs were cramping in pain every minute.  I was actually certain they would just give out on me at some point.  But I knew how close we were and it was getting dark out so we did all we could to get out and fast.

We had a quick dinner at the NoonMark Diner before booking it home.  I am so glad to be done with our first high peak and am about to fall asleep.  I hope you enjoyed this ridiculously long entry, I'll try to get some pictures online as soon as possible.