Slide Ravine, the sharply cut valley with numerous landslide scars on the SW side of Mount Moosilauke, is one of my favorite off-trail haunts. Over the years I've made seven bushwhacks into the ravine to visit various slides, sometimes with a friend, sometimes solo. I had been to four of the slides previously, including four visits to the largest one, a monster on the SE side of the ravine. But I had yet to get out to a narrow slide farther up the ravine on the south side, seen just to right of center in this recent Google Earth image. A cool, low humidity, partly sunny late summer day was ideal for this eighth journey into the ravine. All of the slides in this ravine are old, most having fallen in the November 1927 storm and the September 1938 hurricane. The most recent is the large slide on the north (left) side, which came down in the late 1950s. Not visible in this image are several slides that have been completely revegetated.
The approach to Slide Ravine is the very pleasant southern section of Tunnel Brook Trail, starting on Long Pond Road.
The four brook crossings on this route, including this one of Jeffers Brook near the start, were easy-peasey with the current low water levels.
Easy to moderate grades and good footing characterize Tunnel Brook Trail.
Crossing a broad height-of-land between Mount Moosilauke and Mount Clough.
The water level was way down at Mud Pond, the largest and southernmost in the chain of beaver ponds in Tunnel Brook Notch. From the shore there is a fine view of Moosilauke's south ridge and South Peak, as well as the biggest slide in Slide Ravine.
From the meadow at the south end of Mud Pond I had a peek at my slide objective, seen as a shadowed cut at left of center.
Moose bed in the meadow.
Looking north into Tunnel Brook Notch.
A ferny hardwood glade at the start of the bushwhack.
Good whackin'.
One of the pleasures of bushwhacking in Slide Ravine is the series of small but attractive cascades on Slide Brook. I expected these to be mere trickles during the current drought, and was amazed that there was a good flow up here in the ravine.
A debris flow levee deposited alongside the brook by one of the many slides that have come crashing down the ravine. Aerial photos from the 1950s and 1960s show an open brookbed far down below the slides. Must have been quite a sight.
One of the taller cascades in the ravine.
This twin fall is one of my favorites.
Side view.
Wild forest deep in the ravine.
Beautiful tumbling stream.
This ferny, weedy swath is the track of an old slide on the north side of the ravine, now completely revegetated.
Looking up the track.
Birch graveyard.
This is the lower end of the slide track that drops off the monster slide on the SE wall of the ravine, which presumably fell during the November 1927 storm.
Asters were blooming in profusion.
Quadruple cascade just above the bottom of the big slide.
The next cascade above, as the bushwhacking gets steeper and thicker.
Yet another cascade down below, but it would take a lot of effort to get there.
A steep and prickly forest.
The rugged central slide track of the ravine, which was fed by slides up on the north wall, suddenly goes dry; the main flow of Slide Brook's headwaters comes from somewhere up on the south wall.
There are some steep ledges on this central track.
I tried to imagine what it was like when one of the slides came rumbling down through here.
After following the central track for some distance, I headed up onto the south wall, climbing steeply through spruce woods on what appeared to be the revegetated lower track of the slide I was aiming for. The open swath of this slide starts ~200 ft. in elevation above the floor of the ravine.
Yup, it's steep.
Getting closer.
Looking more slide-y.
Opening up to the first views. Beauty of a day.
Have to get around this rock.
Into the open!
I immediately came upon a white pine, up here at 3450 ft.
And another.
Views were expanding as I climbed carefully over the loose rock.
Wider view, with a long chain of Green Mountain peaks visible on the horizon.
Mount Clough peeks out behind the slope that forms the north wall of the ravine.
A little vegetated choke point partway up the slide, including more white pines.
Emerging on the upper open swath.
It's a steep slide, with an average slope of ~36 degrees. I believe it came down during the 1938 hurricane.
Side view.
Down-look.
Top o' the slide, at 3680 ft.
Time for a long break to take in the views.
View without the boots.
Sun highlighting Mud Pond.
After an hour's sojourn, heading slowly and carefully back down the slide.
Looking SW to Smarts Mountain, Mount Cube and Piermont Mountain.
Steeply down through the woods after exiting the open slide.
Back down along the central slide track.
Side view of the quadruple cascade.
Such a lovely brook.
What's a bushwhack without a little hobblebush thrashing.
Evening at Mud Pond.
It was satisfying to look up at the slide I had visited - the narrow swath on the left.
Parting shot.
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