Old Gorge Brook Slides: 8/10/20

With a 3:00 pm start I managed to enjoy an interesting exploration visiting two old slides in the Gorge Brook ravine on Mt. Moosilauke. These slides are south of the slide that was the route of the abandoned Gorge Brook Slide Trail.

  

Signs of the times.

The new Ravine Lodge, empty and silent.

New Dartmouth Outing Club signs.

Open woods and good footing on the 2012 relocation of the Gorge Brook Trail.

 

Nice bushwhacking.

 

Fields of ferns.

 

There's an old slide in there somewhere.

 

This slide, which likely fell in the 1940s, is almost fully revegetated.

 

 

Still a little bit of open rock left.

And a nice view across the broad basin where Gorge Brook and the Baker River meet, with Moosilauke's Blue Ridge in the distance. Dartmouth College owns a sizeable chunk of wild land out here.

 

 

Heading across the steep slope to another old slide.

 

Found it. This one may have come down during the 1938 hurricane, or else during a 1942 cloudburst.

 

Looking down.

Looking up to Moosilauke's East Peak

Slimy slab.

Descending through the woods alongside the slide.

 

Moss patterns.

More moss.

Towards the bottom of the slide.

 

Somewhere to the south of this slide I crossed the route of the legendary 1930s DOC ski trail, Hell's Highway, said to be the steepest in the East in its upper section, with a maximum pitch of 38 degrees. I wondered if this corridor was part of the trail's lower section.

DOC bridge over Gorge Brook.

It was eerie taking a break in front of Ravine Lodge at dusk in midsummer, with no voices and clinking of dishes coming from inside.