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Big Slide Mountain via Brothers, return JBL trail
(peak 2)

See Macromedia photo album. (Requires Flash)

We started out at the Garden, after riding the shuttle in. We got to the Garden originally at about 830am, but it was already full up, so we headed over to the overflow parking at Marcy airfield.

The path up via the brothers is right there at the garden. We originally thought we had to head down the main trail to JBL and take a turn off, but a quick check of the map, and actually reading the signs posted at the Garden proved us wrong, and we recovered quickly.

The initial approach to the brothers is pretty steep, but shaded and well maintained. We made good time when we weren't busy weazing. We were soon out on open rock and the views were magnificent.

(Mouse over the picture to see the image full size.)

On the brothers, at a relatively easy to find location, we found this cool rock, with a large cutout underneath. Charlie and I think we're going to use this location for a winter snowshoe overnight. Here's a quick movie shot from the open ledges on the brothers. To cross the open rock you follow paint markers - a lot of these are starting to wear away. Also, there are cairns - little rock towers - to guide you. Some are really small, keep your eyes open (see pic 5 in the photo album to understand this comment...).

The trail was pretty easy from the brothers over to big slide. The final approach to the summit has you climb a couple ladders laid out on the rock, to make things a little easier. check out the photo album to see the pics taken at the summit. Here's a movie clip (lo speed / hi speed) taken at the summit.

We refilled water from a small spring on the trail down from the summit, before meeting up with the main JBL trail. It was a thirsty trip. We came down to JBL - John Brook Lodge trail. Played in John's Brook, and hoofed it out quick. This last part of the hike went really fast, I think we made the 3 miles out in a little over an hour.

Heres Charlie's report of the same trip.