Gorge Brook North Slide: 10/5/23

With an afternoon off, I headed up to the Ravine Lodge trailhead at the base of Mount Moosilauke for a hike into the Gorge Brook valley and a short but steep bushwhack to the northernmost slide on the west wall of the ravine. There are six discernible slide tracks on this slope, and in this photo taken from the DOC's John Rand Cabin, the northern slide is on the far right. The prominent slide left of center is the one followed by the long-abandoned DOC Gorge Brook Slide Trail.

View of Moosilauke's South and East Peaks from the stairway leading down to Ravine Lodge.

South Peak from the front of the Lodge.

Bright and cheery on an uncommonly warm October day.

Lower part of Gorge Brook Trail, its rockiness softened by leaf fall.

Gorge Brook at the first crossing.

I've seen this sign a few times.

The 2012 relocation of Gorge Brook Trail on an open woods plateau is always a pleasure to walk.

Time to head off-trail up the valley.

Open woods in the broad, gentle part of the valley.

The small rocky track at the base of the largest Gorge Brook Slide.

The winding runout track from the next slide to the north. Going north, this is Slide #5 out of the 6 on this slope.

A narrow train of boulders known as a debris flow levee, deposited along the edge of the track of Slide #5.

A view of Gorge Brook en route to my objective, Slide #6.

A short, steep climb through pole-size conifers lifted me to the upper end of the lowest open patch on Slide #6. I snowshoed to this point last December but had to turn around here due to limited daylight. First view of Moosilauke's Blue Ridge on the far side of the upper Baker River valley.

Back into the woods and up to the second open patch, on the south side of the slide. Too wet and slippery to climb.

Steep, too.

More steep whacking through prickly conifers.

After maneuvering through some very tight woods, I found an expanded view from the top of this ledge swath.

Looking down the swath.

Climbing towards the open ledges at the top of the slide. Due to the near 80 temperature I had foolishly worn shorts and a short-sleeved shirt. Some blood was drawn in these prickly woods.

Climbing alongside the upper ledges.

A little shelf at the top offered a perch for taking in the views. The East Peak of Moosilauke rises close at hand.

Nice vista across the broad valley where Gorge Brook joins the Baker River. The long Blue Ridge includes Mt. Braley, Mt. Kirkham and Sayre Peak, all named for Dartmouth Outing Club stalwarts of an earlier era. Sandwich Dome peers over in back.

Top of the slide.

Foliage is where you find it, even a red maple sapling at 3600 ft.

Looking down the upper ledges of the slide.

Steep descent back to the floor of the valley. The angle of the slide and adjacent slope is about 34 degrees.

Partway down the slope, and some distance south of Slide #6, I came across what appeared to be an old debris flow levee. I wondered if this could be a relic of one of two older slides shown in a ca. 1870 stereoview by renowned Moosilauke photographer Amos Clough. The current six slide tracks are likely the result of storms in 1927, 1938 and 1942.

Before heading down the valley, I went up to the base of a more northerly lower patch of Slide #6. Back in 2007 I crossed the top of this slab when returning from a bushwhack to the Pleiades Cascades farther up the Gorge Brook ravine. The slab was just as wet then.

I then dropped down to Gorge Brook and followed it past some small cascades, perhaps some of the lower Pleiades, which were also known as the Seven Cascades.

More cascades.

Back down to the gentle open woods en route to the Gorge Brook Trail and home.