Old King Ravine Slide: 8/2/24

Continuing a series of wanderings in the Northern Presidentials, I aimed to explore the location of a huge slide that fell during Hurricane Carol in 1954 on the west wall of King Ravine. This slide looks massive on a 1955 aerial photo, but today it is fully revegetated except for some very steep ledge outcroppings. I hoped to find evidence of the slide in the form of tracks and debris flow levees, and if feasible, I would try to access one of the ledges for a view into King Ravine from an unusual angle. A close-in view would be the best bet on this very hot, humid and hazy day.

The parking at Appalachia was overflowing, but as soon as I turned off onto The Link I left the crowds behind. In fact, I encountered only two other hikers all day.

 

At its eastern end, The Link shows its softer side.

Land of many uses.

Sap lines in the woods.

Important notice.

Memorial Bridge over Cold Brook, dedicated to the early Randolph pathmakers.

 

The Amphibrach is a quiet and pleasant route up the lower slopes of Mt. Adams.

Cold Brook Fall, one of the finest cascades in Randolph.

One of several nameless off-trail cascades found farther up the brook.

The lower half of Amphibrach has exceptionally good footing for a Northern Presidentials trail.

 

At the junction with Monaway, a spur path leads left to cascades known as Coldspur Ledges.

A cascade on Spur Brook, just upstream from the trail crossing.

The RMC's Randolph Paths guidebook notes that "Pentadoi" is the "Greek name given to the five-way intersection of the Randolph Path, King Ravine Trail and Amphibrach, 2.5 mi. from Appalachia."

 

Turning onto a lightly-used section of the King Ravine Trail.

Nice walking here.

Rougher footing as the trail curves into the lower part of King Ravine.

The track of the slide can be discerned in this photo (taken years ago from Chemin des Dames) by the cluster of exposed whitish ledges to the left of center. I targeted the lower large ledge as a potential viewspot, if it turned out to be accessible.

 

 

Studying the vegetation pattern on satellite photos, I could tell where the track of the 1954 slide came down to the trail. It is cloaked in a somewhat scruffy growth of birch and fir.

Not far up I came to a train of boulders that appeared to be a "debris flow levee" deposited by the slide.

This appears to be one of the tracks of the slide. As noted above, the crescent-shaped slide is very prominent in a 1955 aerial photo, but it apparently revegetated quickly and is barely visible in aerials from the 1990s. As noted by RMC Crag Camp caretaker Brian Underhill in the June 1958 Appalachia, the slide provided “a quick route up the wall of King Ravine,” with the top of the slide ending just a few hundred feet from the camp. Underhill described two routes from Crag Camp down to the top of the slide: the “Scenic Route,” which led through caves and thick scrub, and the “Truck Route,” used by hikers wearing packs. Added Underhill, ”It does get pretty steep near the top of the slide, steep gravel and dirt that you almost have to cut steps in.”

As the terrain steepened, I spotted the first ledge outcrop.

Only a limited view of Durand Ridge from this ledge.

The ledges and boulders along the slide track were generally damp and slippery. Rough and slow going.

It took a while to get up to the ledge I was looking for. Yikes! Guess I won't be going that way.

Another wall around the corner.

Looks like there is a passage along the base - what's at the end?

 

I scrambled up to a ledge with a dropoff to a densely revegetated portion of the slide track below. In researching for his 1958 dissertation on revegetation of White Mountain landslides,  Edward Flaccus visited this slide. He gave it a length of 594 yards with an average width of 60 yards. It was one of the steepest slides that he measured, with an average slope of 35 degrees and a maximum slope of 49 degrees. There are two photos of the slide in his dissertation. Though they are muddy in the pdf I have, I can clearly see the outline of the ledge I was standing at the base of here.

From here I could look up along this wild exposed outcrop. Just a few feet above was a scrubby white pine that seeded in on the slide, miles from its nearest relatives.

Too steep to scramble any higher.

But from the base I had a view across the valley to Durand Ridge.

And best of all, a partial view into King Ravine, including the "rock glacier" on the floor, the "Knife Edge" on Durand Ridge, and the "Gateway" on the headwall.

Satisfied that I had found a ravine view, I dropped back down off my perch and started descending carefully back to the trail. A short way down another huge ledge loomed through the trees, I had noted this on satellite imagery and the Lidar contour map as a secondary objective.

Peering up, I saw a possible route that might bring me up to the left of it.

 

To my surprise and delight, it was accessible and flat on top.

Plus, it was in the shade with a slight breeze.

 

Quite the dropoff below.

Oh my, what a view of the ravine! Maybe the best I've seen.

A closer look. The route of the King Ravine Trail can be seen as a string of boulders left of center, leading up to the smooth slabs of the Gateway. The ravine was first ascended in 1857 by a party led by Gorham guide James Gordon and the Rev. Thomas Starr King, who vividly described the adventure in his classic The White Hills: Their Legends, Landscape and Poetry. The ravine was subsequently named in King's honor. The King Ravine Trail was opened by Randolph guide Charles E. Lowe in 1876.

Looking down to the floor of the valley. This was such a nifty perch that I abandoned my plan to head up onto the floor of the ravine after returning to the trail. I figured the boulder scrambles on the trail would be slick with moisture anyway, so instead I lounged up here for two hours.

The first drop back down off my perch, where the butt came into play.

This huge ledge was split by an impressive crevice.

Land of giants.

On the way back down to the trail, I came across another "slide-y" strip.

It was now officially a bushwhack.

Another debris flow levee.

A messy part of the track.

Back on the King Ravine Trail, I made the short climb up to Mossy Fall.

You have to step out onto Cold Brook to get a clear look at the fall.

It is a pretty spot, its coolness welcome on this muggy day.

The Short Line, built by J. Rayner Edmands in 1899-1900, is the most direct route in and out of King Ravine.

Parts of it have lousy footing.

And parts of it are pretty nice.

The RMC trail crew has been doing some good work on Short Line, partly funded by a contribution from the AMC Four Thousand Footer Club. As I continued down, I felt it was a day well spent exploring the lower part of the ravine.