Hiking on a sunny Saturday is novel for this newly retired tramper, but I know a few places where one can avoid the crowds. Once past Sabbaday Falls, the Sabbaday Brook Trail is lightly traveled. Add on a familiar bushwhack to the 2011 slide on West Sleeper, and a quiet day in the woods is almost guaranteed.
Another reason for choosing this hike was to take advantage of the low water levels for the crossings of Sabbaday Brook.
Into the Wilderness.
For a mile and a half the Sabbaday Brook Trail follows a logging tote road used by the Conway Lumber Company's Swift River Railroad in the early 1900s.
Just before the fourth crossing of Sabbaday Brook, the trail passes the site of Monahan Camp, where there are some sled runners in view.
Started the bushwhack to the slide along a branch logging road.
Saw several of these scrape marks on the ground, which I interpreted as rutting behavior from a bull moose. I sure didn't want to have a run-in with this fellow.
This valley is amply supplied with hobblebush.
Passing through an airy hardwood glade.
A burst of hobblebush color.
I dropped down to the bone-dry brook that runs by the slide, and followed it.
The log jam dumped by the slide is going mossy.
The brook becomes an open rocky track near the slide. Here there is a natural rock dam.
Gouging in the brookbank.
Almost there. The steep slope on the left was created when the slide slammed into the opposite bank.
The massive, wedge-shaped slide is always an impressive sight.
Looking back at The Fool Killer.
A bit of red maple color.
A spur ridge of East Sleeper overlooks the thickly revegetated deposit area at the base of the slide.
The steep bottom of the slide.
A white pine just starting out. I found six of this species on the slide. The first time I found a pine here was just a year and a half ago. Blue jays were making a racket most of the time I was at the slide, lending credence to the theory that they are the agents bringing white pine seeds here, far from the parent trees.
West Sleeper halfpipe.
Side view.
Down-look.
Looking up. Many yellow birches have seeded in on this part of the slide.
Some nice foliage along the edge.
I like to climb to some exposed ledges about two-thirds of the way up the slide.
Can enjoy some fun easy scrambling here.
Moose track.
North Moat Mountain in the distance.
Not a bad place to hang out.
Ledges and foliage.
Perhaps the first white pine to seed in on the slide is getting taller.
The best views are from the lower south edge of the slide.
Mt. Tremont/Owl Cliff, Carter Dome, Bartlett Haystack, Baldfaces and Sable Mountain, Potash Mountain, Bear Mountain, South Potash, Big Attitash Mountain, and Kearsarge North.
Falling into shadow. The sun is lower and the days are shorter.
An impenetrable wall of small conifers.
A young hopeful pine.
Another ground scrape.
Homeward bound on Sabbaday Brook Trail.
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