Big Slide

Given the uncertain conditions from the previous day, I decided to take Kathy up a familiar summit, Big Slide Mountain. This would be our fifth time making this hike together, and we couldn’t help but think about our first, completely socked in.

Our day was a little, but only a little, better than that. We at least had some pretty yellows from the beeches in the valley and brief windows of views up to about 2,800 feet. Above that, it was white-out clouds all around.

The exciting part for today was the water. The foot of snow had almost all melted. All that melted snow had to go somewhere, and the trail was obviously the path of least resistance. There was so much water pouring down the trail that it was at points truly a stream, with little waterfall cascades and everything.

Luckily, we stayed free from rain, and the summit was calm and even a bit warm. (It was 44°F most of the day.) We saw about a dozen people along the 4-mile (each way) route, but got the summit to ourselves. The hike over the Brothers is a nice hike regardless, and we’ll be back.