peak_bgr
New member
This was quite an adventure that started us at the Elk Lake Trailhead. We followed the trail toward Slide Brook which is also the gateway to eastern approach to the Dix Range. Following the mostly level, hard pack trail we were at the bridge crossing over Slide Brook in what seemed to me like record time, but that’s what being locked in interesting conversation does on a hike: passes time.
We followed the Slide Brook herd path which is well marked with a cairn on the right of the trail, just over the bridge. It quickly passes through a campsite where a once filthy hiker was getting a wash down by his female companion. Luckily for us certain parts must have already been cleaned. The herd path is in much better shape than I remembered it being, but we only needed to follow it for a little over 0.3 miles.
At this point we descended steeply to a split in Slide Brook, which is not very clear from the trail above. We actually needed to bushwhack over a small dividing knoll to reach its shore. The second split is very shortly beyond.
Note; be sure to follow the middle split in Slide Brook to avoid a horrendous bushwhack. We accidentally followed the south branch for a distance before noticing our mistake and had to bushwhack over the hogback between the two splits. This area was leveled years ago by the effects of a hurricane and second growth has made this section almost impassable. We ended up climbing over trees 15 feet off the ground, and pushing through second growth evergreens so thick we couldn’t see 5 feet into the woods. Take a second bearing if need be to avoid the same mistake we did.
Once we were back on the middle fork we still weren’t in the clear. There are several sections of dead fall over the brook and spots where the steep sides started to collapse toward the brook. The slopes along the sides are very steep and trees along the edges have no choice but to fall into the gully. At around 2750 feet in elevation the brook began to clear up a little and more open rock hopping started. The sides we beginning to show signs of mini-slides on sandy slopes, with several very unstable boulders just waiting for the right amount of rain fall to set them free.
At around 2900 feet the first signs of a slide started to appear and we could see opening in the sky. Before we knew it we were on the base of the slide looking up at a steep rock slab, to wet for climbing. We hugged the loose scree slope to the left and made our way to the top of the bottom slope. Above us we were in awe of the slope ahead of us. It’s a steep field of loose rock and sand. The footing was like climbing in snow without crampons. Two steps forward one step back. It’s a very tiring advance that ate up a lot of time. About half way up the slope got much wider and the scree much thicker, it felt like we were walking on the moon-without the aide of negative gravity. So, I would imagine.
The top of the scree slopes brought us to a head wall that was as steep as anything I had free climbed before. But I went for it and ended up dead-ending at a rock face. So we had to down climb slightly to the north and push through some thicker scrub brush to get around the steep rock face. The top of the rock face brought us to just south of south Macomb along the ridge. The views from here beat anything found on Macomb itself. We made way along a faint herd path to the summit of south Macomb which to our surprise had very limited views without pushing out through the trees. The faint herdpath, which was more like semi-open bushwhacking, led us to just below the summit of Macomb meeting up with the 46er herd path. The sights from Macomb always surprise me for a 180 degree view.
We followed the Slide Brook herd path which is well marked with a cairn on the right of the trail, just over the bridge. It quickly passes through a campsite where a once filthy hiker was getting a wash down by his female companion. Luckily for us certain parts must have already been cleaned. The herd path is in much better shape than I remembered it being, but we only needed to follow it for a little over 0.3 miles.
At this point we descended steeply to a split in Slide Brook, which is not very clear from the trail above. We actually needed to bushwhack over a small dividing knoll to reach its shore. The second split is very shortly beyond.
Note; be sure to follow the middle split in Slide Brook to avoid a horrendous bushwhack. We accidentally followed the south branch for a distance before noticing our mistake and had to bushwhack over the hogback between the two splits. This area was leveled years ago by the effects of a hurricane and second growth has made this section almost impassable. We ended up climbing over trees 15 feet off the ground, and pushing through second growth evergreens so thick we couldn’t see 5 feet into the woods. Take a second bearing if need be to avoid the same mistake we did.
Once we were back on the middle fork we still weren’t in the clear. There are several sections of dead fall over the brook and spots where the steep sides started to collapse toward the brook. The slopes along the sides are very steep and trees along the edges have no choice but to fall into the gully. At around 2750 feet in elevation the brook began to clear up a little and more open rock hopping started. The sides we beginning to show signs of mini-slides on sandy slopes, with several very unstable boulders just waiting for the right amount of rain fall to set them free.
At around 2900 feet the first signs of a slide started to appear and we could see opening in the sky. Before we knew it we were on the base of the slide looking up at a steep rock slab, to wet for climbing. We hugged the loose scree slope to the left and made our way to the top of the bottom slope. Above us we were in awe of the slope ahead of us. It’s a steep field of loose rock and sand. The footing was like climbing in snow without crampons. Two steps forward one step back. It’s a very tiring advance that ate up a lot of time. About half way up the slope got much wider and the scree much thicker, it felt like we were walking on the moon-without the aide of negative gravity. So, I would imagine.
The top of the scree slopes brought us to a head wall that was as steep as anything I had free climbed before. But I went for it and ended up dead-ending at a rock face. So we had to down climb slightly to the north and push through some thicker scrub brush to get around the steep rock face. The top of the rock face brought us to just south of south Macomb along the ridge. The views from here beat anything found on Macomb itself. We made way along a faint herd path to the summit of south Macomb which to our surprise had very limited views without pushing out through the trees. The faint herdpath, which was more like semi-open bushwhacking, led us to just below the summit of Macomb meeting up with the 46er herd path. The sights from Macomb always surprise me for a 180 degree view.
