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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.
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.
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