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LWJ via Bennies Brook Slide

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  • LWJ via Bennies Brook Slide

    pics at https://picasaweb.google.com/1041233...eat=directlink

    Got a late start arriving at the Garden around 9:15 to a full lot. We had to park at Marcy Field and take the shuttle for the first time. We ended up hitting the trail at about 9:45 and were at the intersection with the Southside in no time. It would be my first time on the Southside, the low water conditions made the first crossing of John's Brook very easy. I am sure it could be more challenging during high water times. The trail from there is in fine shape with easy grades making for good time, I enjoyed it much more than the Northside trail. Again high water may change that opinion since we did a lot of rock hopping at the damage section of the trail. We hit the intersection of the trail with the slide after about 1:15 of hiking. A quick check of my GPS gave me a direct distance of 1.22 miles to the summit, awesome I thought, over a mile of slide climbing! So at 11:00 we started up, the first section is at easy grades with a few scrambles here and there. As the slide turns and bends I first caught a glimpse of the green middle fork and then the impressive wide bright white new fork. After the slide straightens out there is a long stretch of smooth slab to climb and the heat of the day began to drain our energy. Just below the intersection of the forks I checked the GPS again, only 0.53 miles to go! but still just over 1000 feet in vertical, its gonna get steep. After the fork intersection it gets steep and the footing is not as good. You still have slab rock but it is mixed with loose stone, gravel and sand, so the last section you just need to take your time. The herd path exits the slide on the left and is easy to follow, it appears to wrap along a contour line with not much climbing from the slide until you hit the trail. It is only a minute or two before you hit the trail and then one final steep climb up the trail to the summit. After all the time out on the slide the summit was anti-climatic, its hard to know where the actual summit is located. We only stopped to take our summit photos and headed down. All I had in mind at that point was how good a swim in John's Brook would feel. We descended the ADK range trail to the Southside with no issues and found a great spot for a swim in the Brook. A 15 minute soak was a great refreshing break and made the last 2 miles out a breeze, not like my normal death march.

  • #2
    Sounds like a great trip. I haven't done Bennie's yet, but it's on my short list. Swimming holes are great to find this time of year and help make the end of any hike great. Nice pics.
    offonadventure.com

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    • #3
      heard this is an amazing slide, need to do this soon.

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      • #4
        I want to go back to LWJ just to do Bennies Slide in the future as well. I agree the summit isn't the greatest, but I don't think it's the worst either. It is a bit confusing attempting to figure out where the actual summit is though.

        Steve
        46/46 - #9464
        7/46 "W"
        NE115 - 53/115

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        • #5
          Originally posted by NorthBay View Post
          I want to go back to LWJ just to do Bennies Slide in the future as well. I agree the summit isn't the greatest, but I don't think it's the worst either. It is a bit confusing attempting to figure out where the actual summit is though.

          Steve
          Are there any trail signs at the summit or is it known just by the trail starting to descend on the north side?
          http://www.adkhighpeaksforheroes.com

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          • #6
            There is this one and I believe one other that I don't have a picture handy for. They are relatively close together though from what I recall. Nothing that specifically calls out the summit of LWJ...just distances to other peaks / trailheads.

            46/46 - #9464
            7/46 "W"
            NE115 - 53/115

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            • #7
              Originally posted by JW1069 View Post
              Are there any trail signs at the summit or is it known just by the trail starting to descend on the north side?


              I didn't see a summit marker. The herd path from the slide hits the trail just north of the summit. From there it is a short steep climb to the summit ridge. At the top of the summit ridge I checked my GPS and it said 250 feet to the summit coord's I had. Minutes later I checked again and it said go back 150 feet so we didn't see anything the stood out as the summit. We continued south past a small rock outcrop, summit? Soon after the rock outcrop the trail starts to descend. I was glad we went up Bennie's Slide the views from there are awesome and much better than the summit

              23/46

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