I knew this would be a splendidly colorful day when I stopped at Beaver Pond in Kinsman Notch, on the way to the Tunnel Brook Trail on the west side of Mt. Moosilauke, one of my favorite foliage hikes.
The road walk on the north end of Tunnel Brook Trail can be humdrum in summer, but it becomes magical in the fall.
I paid a quick visit to a beaver pond hidden off the trail, north of the main string of beaver ponds in Tunnel Brook Notch.
I then embarked on a short but steep bushwhack to one of the nine slides on the eastern face of Mt. Clough - the only one I had not yet visited. The whack started in this gorgeous hardwood glade, then quickly became steeper and thicker.
I emerged at the edge of the slide, partway up. These slabs were a bit steep to go directly up, so I traversed across.
I have only rarely seen a red pine growing on a slide. In his seminal 1958 study of revegetation on White Mountain landslides, Edward Flaccus recorded red pine on only one of 22 slides he surveyed.
Looking up the slide, which likely fell along with several others in a 1942 rainstorm. Eighty years later, its remaining open section rises only 150 feet in elevation, but the average angle is amply steep at 34 degrees.
There was much colorful vegetation on the slide, including mountain ash (left) and rhodora (right).
Looking down the lower part of the slide.
Looking back across to a distant northern view.
Many of the slabs were wet, necessitating a zig-zag route to the top.
Back across to the other side.
Up a safer gravelly section.
A bit of fun scrambling on dry ledges to the top.
I found a nice ledge perch near the upper end, and spent an hour lounging in the sun with the slide dropping away below.
Looking southeast across the notch, the South Peak on Mt. Moosilauke could be seen behind a nearby spur. The wedge of dark spruce on the lower slope marks the outline of a 1927 slide that is completely revegetated. At the time it blocked the trail through the notch and dammed up a pond that became known as Slide Pond. The current version of the pond, maintained by beavers, can be seen below.
A picturesque ledge ramp at the very top of the slide.
Another look to the north. The lofty ridge across the notch is home to the Benton Trail.
Definitely not descending that way.
Time to take to the woods.
To the right of my descent route was a long wall of crags.
Back down to the hardwoods on the floor of the valley.
I continued south on the Tunnel Brook Trail, pausing to admire this view across another beaver pond to foliage and slides on the flank of Mt. Clough.
The most massive of the Clough slides came down in a November 1927 rainstorm.
Looking north up the notch.
A lovely meadowy area at a crossing of Tunnel Brook.
Foliage on a lower slope of Moosilauke, seen from the next beaver pond.
One of the best foliage hikes.
A long ridge descends southwest from South Peak. The Glencliff Trail is up there.
From Mud Pond, the southernmost in the chain of beaver ponds, you look up at the big slide in Slide Ravine.
A closer look. Several smaller slides surround it.
The proverbial peak.
Before heading out, I made a short bushwhack to the gravel/till deposit at the base of one of the other Clough slides.
This afforded another angle on the South Peak and the big slide. Back on the trail, it was a mellow 4 1/4 mile walk back to the trailhead.
No comments:
Post a Comment