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Boquet River herd Path (to the great slide) questions

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  • Boquet River herd Path (to the great slide) questions

    I've decided to heed the sage-like wisdom swirling around these parts and begin exploring the herd path to the base of the Great Slide on Grace. I don't plan on climbing it but looking to get the route down and pick a camp spot for an eventual trip.

    There is a bunch of trip reports from this hike (thanks for all the great documentation folks) but I still have a few questions:

    1) It looks to me like the herd path starts on the South Side of the river (and its associated bridge). I often see cars crammed in along the dirt road there. Is this where people commonly park? We are a little apprehensive about being blocked in. I believe there is also a pull off across the road and a dirt road (with a lot of downed trees) on the north bank of the river. My instinct is to park in the pull off but I'm not thrilled about leaving my car so exposed on a busy, twisty, tourist-gaping-ey road.

    So in summary...where do you park?

    2) I couldn't find the right TR but I remember reading there is an older crossing and a newer one. On the ADK map, there are two 'trails' depicted: the first crossed immediately then crosses a tributary. The second follows around a big bend in the river and crosses shortly after the path to Rhododendron Pond.

    So which way is my best bet?

    Any help would be much appreciated and I always love hearing stories from a hike I'm about to do if you've got something you'd like to share.
    Crepuscular Rays: Dissolve into evergreens

    There's always gonna be another mountain
    I'm always gonna wanna make it move
    Always gonna be an uphill battle
    Sometimes I'm gonna have to lose
    Ain't about how fast I get there
    Ain't about what's waitin' on the other side...
    It's the climb
    -Miley Cyrus

  • #2
    I actually got my second question answered a year and a half ago in this thread:


    Great memory Chris!
    Crepuscular Rays: Dissolve into evergreens

    There's always gonna be another mountain
    I'm always gonna wanna make it move
    Always gonna be an uphill battle
    Sometimes I'm gonna have to lose
    Ain't about how fast I get there
    Ain't about what's waitin' on the other side...
    It's the climb
    -Miley Cyrus

    Comment


    • #3
      I always park at the pull-off on the NE side of the bridge. With careful parking, it can hold 6-8 cars. It will be full early on summer weekends with campers/hikers as well as with swimmers. The old road on the N side of the river is closed to cars (rutted out) and leads to a designated campsite. The old road on the S side is rutted but cars can get up it. It also ends at a designated campsite for car camping--not attractive, but legal. The herdpath on the S side leaves from the campsite and also leads to other campsites, some legal, along the S bank of the river.

      As for crossing, I always stay on the S side and cross at the high dike falls about 1/2 mile up. You will know it when you see it. The Boquet can often be stepped over at the top of the falls where the water cascades through the notch in the dike. The plunge pool is a great swimming hole (really deep). Just scramble up the bank and you will find the herdpath on a shelf. From there on, just proceed SW and you will cross a height of land and eventually reach the South Fork.

      Comment


      • #4
        Originally posted by JoeCedar View Post
        I always park at the pull-off on the NE side of the bridge. With careful parking, it can hold 6-8 cars. It will be full early on summer weekends with campers/hikers as well as with swimmers. The old road on the N side of the river is closed to cars (rutted out) and leads to a designated campsite. The old road on the S side is rutted but cars can get up it. It also ends at a designated campsite for car camping--not attractive, but legal. The herdpath on the S side leaves from the campsite and also leads to other campsites, some legal, along the S bank of the river.

        As for crossing, I always stay on the S side and cross at the high dike falls about 1/2 mile up. You will know it when you see it. The Boquet can often be stepped over at the top of the falls where the water cascades through the notch in the dike. The plunge pool is a great swimming hole (really deep). Just scramble up the bank and you will find the herdpath on a shelf. From there on, just proceed SW and you will cross a height of land and eventually reach the South Fork.
        I second a vote for this swimming hole. Phenomenal way to end your hike of the Great Slide. I parked in the same spot as JoeCedar.
        Love all wilderness!
        Trying to hike and XC ski as much as possible.

        ADK 46/46 still not official.
        W 27/46

        Comment


        • #5
          Yes, same for me on the parking. I go through there all the time, and I have never seen a case of a parked car being hit by a passing vehicle - I think it's safe, as long as you are off the road past the white line. If it's busy, there a are a few other spots nearby where you could squeeze in a small car, just be sure to be well past the line.

          Great swimming at the falls as described, with many swimming and sunning spots. (The falls is really a long flattish area of open rock with a few small (3 foot) steps down; don't be looking for a high waterfall.) Very beautiful place!

          Comment


          • #6
            Thanks so much everyone! Not surprisingly, I'm using trip reports from joecedar and delawaremike and a ton of info in a trip planning thread from TCD to help plan this trip. You guys are super helpful.
            Crepuscular Rays: Dissolve into evergreens

            There's always gonna be another mountain
            I'm always gonna wanna make it move
            Always gonna be an uphill battle
            Sometimes I'm gonna have to lose
            Ain't about how fast I get there
            Ain't about what's waitin' on the other side...
            It's the climb
            -Miley Cyrus

            Comment


            • #7
              Mr. Twilight,
              The crossing is not where one immediately hits the river, but a very short distance upstream from there—within a stone's throw. It is faintly marked. If one is standing on the bank and looking on a bit of a diagonal upstream and across the water, one sees a mature cedar overshadowing the far bank. There is a square or rectangular blaze directly facing you on its trunk. It is dark red and faint (fading with time) but about four times as large as your average blaze and it was still visible six months ago. If one knows where to look one will find it, if not, one might well miss it. That is where the herd path goes. It pays to follow it.
              Last edited by Gregory Karl; 06-26-2013, 10:48 PM.

              Comment


              • #8
                Re Parking;
                I agree with Joe and TCD, however you can also park just off the highway on the SW side of the bridge, near the entrance to the dirt road, just don't block it. At the top of the dirt road, there appear to be car campers, but there is also a "Don't Camp Here" disk. The is a real campsite a little way up the trail (I think it is designated, although close to the river).
                The herd path is a great hike; I have done many times just to get to the swimming hole, or to a second swimming hole much farther up. If you have the time, explore the area prior to your Grace trip.
                I usually cross at the earlier crossing, as described by Gregory Karl. The herd path gets quite close the river there. If you don't cross there, the HP gets more tenuous (but still followable), but I think crossing there gives you a much more pleasant hike. After you cross the river, the trail proceeds upstream until it crosses the outlet to Round Pond. Shortly after that, it is on a high bank, with the previously mentioned rock ledges and swimming hole below you, down a steep bank. I have made many trips to just that point to enjoy the swimming.
                Mike

                ADK 46r #8003; 6W
                2nd round: 16
                SL6r #596
                Catskill 3500 21/39; 11W

                Comment


                • #9
                  FWIW, Neil and I just came back from a loop of East Dix, via the Great Slide, Spotted, and E-Town 4. Lovely area. We lucked out weather-wise (lots of rain predicted for Friday).

                  We crossed at the point mentioned by Greg and it looks precisely the way he described it. The paint-blaze is very faint. I didn't see it, nor the crossing for that matter, until Neil pointed it out. The southside herd-path is very well-defined and continues past the crossing (thereby making it that much easier to just walk past the crossing which is what I did). Naturally, once you've seen the crossing, it's not easily forgotten. If tomorrow's rain raises the water-level, that crossing will become tricky.

                  I noticed a few spur trails had white birch logs placed across the mouth of each spur (lying on the ground). It's a simple way of indicating what is the main herd-path and what is a spur trail.

                  You'll get to a large camping site located between two brooks. At the back end of the site there's a cairn that probably indicates the continuation of the herd-path. I say "probably" because we took something else that petered out and then chose to bushwhack towards the southern brook where we intersected the herd-path. I think if we entered at the cairn we might have ended up on the correct herd-path without having to do a short bushwhack.

                  We followed the slide from its very start in the woods and, dang, that wet rock is slippery!
                  Looking for Views!

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    The initial crossing of the Boquet is about 10 minutes from the highway. Then you cross it again about 10-15 minutes later and after another 5 minutes or so you cross a sizable tributary.

                    The campsite (sans yellow disc) is between the South Fork of the Boquet and the trib that comes from the Beckhorn) and takes an hour (or more probably) to reach from the highway. It's a cool spot with stereo sound because the two creeks flow nearly parallel to each other for a hundred yards.

                    If the water is high you can skip the first crossing (and thus the next two) and follow the strong herd path from the crossing, which remains on the south bank for quite a ways. This path splits into several and if you stay always close to the river it will peter out just beyond where it turns south for Rhododendron Pond. Stay with the river and you will eventually pick up the main herd path near Lilypad Pond. At one point (due NW from a point mid-way between Cranberry and Rhododendron Ponds) the river makes a big bend so if you want you can leave the river and walk a straighter line over a ridge 3-4 contour lines high and pick it up again. You will see other paths so check your compass before following any.

                    After Lilypad you will eventually leave the North Fork behind and pick up and follow for a long ways the South Fork. The herd path leads to the slide.
                    Last edited by Neil; 06-28-2013, 12:27 PM.

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