Bennies Brook Slide - Lower Wolfjaw - Upper Wolfjaw 6/25/2018

Bennies Brook Slide.

Disclaimer: Slide climbing is inherently more dangerous than taking a common trail. Everything that can go wrong on a "normal" trail is quantified by an incredible margin during a slide climb. 

If the weather wants to beat you down... It will. 

If a rock wants to roll... it will roll. 

If the weather wants to beat you down at the same time that a rock decides to roll -Best of luck to you.

Many other things can go wrong during a slide climb. DON'T sit there and think "Well the guy on the internet did it. My kids and I can do it too!"  The author and his daughter hiked hundreds of miles in the Adirondacks before attempting this climb. If you have minimal experience hiking in the ADK , DO NOT let Kailee's age deceive you...  DO NOT attempt this climb until you've gotten some real open rock climbs and serious experience under your belt. Know Your limitations & use your better judgment!!!    

Lower Woljaw & Bennies Brook Slide (Left-Center). Upper Wolfjaw
(Right-Center) from Big Slide Mountain.

Kailee & I have wanted to get a taste of the Great Range for a while. It's something that we've been hoping to sink our teeth in to...  I figured that we could take a bite out of it by climbing Lower Wolfjaw Mountain - the High Peak in the range nearest to civilization.

There's a few trails that one can take up Lower Wolfjaw. I was leaning towards the Roostercomb-Hedgehog route. But, I was also considering the trail out of the AMR.

I decided to message my friend Sam. He's a super experienced Adirondack 46er and all around explorer.

Me: Hey, which is less of a grind to Lower Wolfjaw: Roostercomb or AMR?

Sam: The only enjoyable way up LWJ is Bennies Brook Slide

Me: I freaking knew you were gonna say that!

I was aware of Bennies Brook Slide. My friend Jim and I had complimented it's dominating appearance on our recent hike at Big Slide Mountain...

It's the real deal.

Varied terrain on Bennies Brook Slide
on Lower Wolfjaw Mountain.

Sam: How did she do on Catamount?

Me: Fine.

Sam: Then she'll have no problem with Bennies.

Sam provided me with a ton of extremely beneficial resources to help Kailee & I on our first attempt at a full slide climb. His assistance was invaluable to pulling off this climb.

Kailee and I arrived at the Garden pretty early. After signing in at the trail register, we set out to Learn the Slide.

Garden Register.

We followed the Phelps Trail for the first leg of our approach. This was the same trail that we took on our exit from Big Slide two weeks prior.

Near the two mile mark, we took a left off of the trail and bushwhacked down to Johns Brook. I had studied a number of maps and other trip reports & determined this shortcut could save us some mileage.

Johns Brook.

By total chance of luck, we popped out of the woods and on to the shore of the brook at the Tenderfoot Pool "Water Slide!"

We took a nice break at this point. The scenery was wonderful. The sound and feel of Johns Brook was refreshing.

After rock hopping across the brook, we noticed that someone had arranged some small stones that spelled out "Congratulations 46er!"

Congratulations 46er!

Apparently, someone had taken a celebratory ride down the Tenderfoot "Water Slide" after completing their 46er round.

In a matter of a few steps up the bank of the brook, we linked up with the "abandoned" Southside Trail.

"Abandoned" Southside Trail. 

It's pretty clear from the ATV tracks that DEC uses the Southside Trail as a wilderness access point.

That being said, this short stretch of "abandoned trail" was gorgeous. It followed the shoreline of the shimmering brook for the 10 minutes that it took us to reach the base of Bennies Brook Slide. The slide was marked with a mid-sized cairn... Even without the cairn, the slide was pretty hard to miss.

Bennies Brook Cairn.

We were surrounded by the slide's devastation. Trees, rocks & boulders that once sat high upon Lower Wolfjaw now rest at the base in a jumbled up mess... It's almost like an eerie wilderness graveyard.

"Wilderness Graveyard."

Turning left at the cairn, it was time to officially begin our slide climb. We had to navigate around some small waterfalls at the base. Nothing too hard.

The slide climb begins.

Then, we proceeded over some areas of rubble. This was the first of a number of encounters with rubble for the day. We also hit areas with naturally carved rock formations and there was several long pitches of smooth open rock climbing. The slide has a variety of terrain... Bennie is quite the character!

A smooth spot.

It had rained over the weekend, but there was plenty of dry rock to stick to during our climb. There was two occasions where we stuck to the dry rock a little too long and had to take five or six steps back down and work our way towards the left of the slide to make things considerably easier.

Some dry footing.

Every time that we turned around, we were granted an outstanding view of Big Slide, bright blue skies and huge -yet harmless- puffy clouds which cast their shadow on the mountain and valley below.

Some varied terrain on Bennies Brook Slide...
And, a nice view of Big Slide Mountain
behind us.

Bennies wasn't too physically demanding for either of us. A few times, we used all four limbs to climb. At other points, we held hands to make it past certain pitches.
After one somewhat intimidating pitch, I plopped down on a large rock.
Kailee plunked down right next to me. We were both breathing heavy. Neither of us said a word. I'm pretty sure that we could read each other's minds.

"That was kinda intense."

Conversely, there were a number of stretches where it felt like we were walking up a four lane highway. I love when this sort of open rock climbing happens. Walking upwards on smooth rock and finding a flat-enough location to turn around and enjoy the scenery hits the spot every time. Countless times, Bennies provided us with this opportunity.

Bennies Brook Slide's Headwall.

As we neared the headwall of the slide, some scrambling was necessary to our progress. We worked as a team and got through it. I would show Kailee where to step and gave her a hand to grab when she needed it. 

The headwall itself is pretty impressive. We saw it from a distance for a good portion of our climb. As we drew closer, it was clear that there are bigger walls and formations out there. However, the character of Bennies headwall seemed appropriate. It just fits right in with the rest of the slide.

Near this point, I spotted a small cairn. It had some grass and leaves growing over it. But, it was spotted nonetheless. We made our way to it.

Linking up with the Range Trail.

This cairn marked our break from the slide and on to a herd path. The herd path leads one to the Range Trail (which spans the length of the Great Range). After a few hundred feet of walking through ferns, we linked up with the Range Trail and only had to do a short, albeit steep climb to the Summit of Lower Wolfjaw. On this little stretch of trail that we covered, we were offered some really nice views of Giant and Dix (insert your own hiker joke).

Giant from the Range Trail ascending LWJ.

However, we were aware that Lower Wolfjaw's  4175' summit offers limited views. And, it does. We were able to get a few peeps through trees of some cool stuff. And, that was it. I personally don't mind when this happens and I'm fairly sure that Kailee doesn't either. Besides, we were just afforded an amazing view for the vast majority of our climb.

Lower Wolfjaw Summit.

We summited LWJ around 11am. I made sandwiches, distributed snacks and we feasted while sitting atop of our 7th ADK High Peak. We only saw two other hikers during our time on top of Lower Wolfjaw.

As we ate, we discussed the possibility of heading over to Upper Wolfjaw and tagging it as well. UWJ wasn't in our itinerary... However, reaching our goal for the day at such an early hour made this a feasible plan.

We agreed.

A view from LWJ's summit.

After a nice break at the Summit of Lower Wolfjaw, we made our descent into the col between it and Upper Wolf's chin with our teeth set on Upper Wolf.

The descent from LWJ to the col was fairly steep, but never too difficult.

We began our climb of Upper Wolf's chin and it was nothing out of the ordinary for a bit... Then, things got a little more challenging. There were a few scrambles and a crack between two large boulders that we... I... Needed to squeeze through.

Hold your breath!

Then we hit a wall... A wall that was 12-15' high at an 80 degree angle with only a 4 inch crack to "guide" one up . I wish that I had taken a picture of it... But, it was a problem that needed some serious solving and taking a picture was not at the forefront of my problem solving range of thought.

Kailee had little issue solving this problem compared to myself. She's small enough where she was able to find foot and handholds that I wasn't. She's also small enough that a push from my hand was able to get her up.

It took me three attempts to get up the wall over the course of 20 minutes. I got up about 2/3rds of the way before wet hands and sloppy holds got the better of me on the first attempt and I slid down. I scraped up my knees and elbows pretty good.

I took a few minutes to dry my hands of the wet slime that covered them after the first attempt. My second attempt yielded the same result.

I slid down the wall again further scraping my knees and elbows.

Again, it took a few minutes to get my hands dry.

Kailee was just out of my line of view as I stood looking up at the wall

For a moment I thought, "So, Kailee is going to tag Upper Wolfjaw while you're here spending all day trying to figure out if you can get up this thing!?!"

The reality was, Kailee was taking a timeout and resting on a rock as I prepared for my third attempt at the wall. This time, I made it. Using every bit of muscle and Spiderman grip that I could muster... I  pulled myself up the wall.

-I have since read that there is usually a rope at this point to help one up the wall... There was no rope on this day... A ladder or rope would've been more than welcomed.-

After this problem, the problems became easier to deal with. Were there a few scrambles from here on out? Yes. But, they were nothing compared to the wall on the Wolf's Chin.

After a steep incline, we hit an area with some signed trees. We were within the immediate vicinity of the Summit.

After an extremely short climb, we were standing upon Upper Wolfjaw's 4185' summit ledge enjoying an outstanding view. Giant sat to the North, Dix sat in front of us with the Green Mountains of Vermont serving up a heck of a background. To our right (South-Southwest) sat Armstrong. We were both extremely happy to hit our 8th High Peak as a team!

Upper Wolfjaw. Number 8!

We didn't come across many hikers on Lower Wolfjaw's Summit... Upper Wolfjaw was a different story.

We had a few moments of solitude, but we also met a bunch of people working their way North on Great Range traverses... Many of them were Quebecois.

When Kailee & I are hanging out around 4000', most people that we come across are surprised & impressed to see her in such a location.

Making silly faces on Upper Wolfjaw.

The majority of  hikers that we ran into on UWJ were curious as to how we achieved such an altitude.

"We took the Bennies Brook Slide," I answered.

Immediately, they pulled their maps out of their pockets.

"I don't uhhhh... see that trail on here..." they replied.

"Yeah, it's not a trail. It's a slide climb," I replied.

"What do you mean?  You went off the trails?"

"Yeah. It's a slide climb... We climbed a landslide..."

"Ahhh, OK," they replied without a fiber of a clue...

Check those cloud shadows!

In between the traffic at Upper Wolfjaw's Summit, we ate, rested, and enjoyed the scenery.

"I think we can get Armstrong," Kailee said looking towards the mountain.

Talk about a 7 year-old with some drive! Trust me, I didn't want to descend the Wolf's Chin... But, I knew it was our only way out. If there had been a bail-trail to Johns Brook in between UWJ and Armstrong... I would've said "Let's try it."

I pulled out my map. It confirmed what I already knew. There was no bail-trail to Johns Brook.

I expressed this to Kailee.

"I'm calling it," I said, "We're not going to Armstrong. I'd love to go from here to there. But, there's no bail-outs in between. We've already surpassed our goal for the day."

Armstrong from Upper Wolfjaw.

"I was hoping we could hit our 9th High Peak," Kailee stated.

"Dude, I love that thought. You've kicked a lot of butt today.
We need to head down now," I replied, "If there was a bail-trail between here and Armstrong... I'd be with you on that it."

Kailee's determination to head over to Armstrong was beyond admirable. 

Heading back down via the Wolf's Chin was our only option. In doing so, we ran into little issue with the scrambles en route to the wall.

When we arrived there, two Quebecois ladies were trying to ascend. The first lady made it look so easy! Her friend... Not so much... She looked like me on her first try... Climb & crash... On her second attempt, I held out a trekking pole for her to grab and offered a hand when within arm's reach. With my help, the woman got up under much easier circumstances.

Descending the wall was a little tricky. But, we made it down unscathed. Kailee and I walked to the col and took the Wolfjaw Brook Trail towards Johns Brook Valley.

I saw a marten! He was too fast from my camera. He was only a few feet away from me. But, within a matter of seconds he scaled some ledges and was 20' above me!

Wolf's Brook.

The Wolfjaw Brook Trail seemed to drag for quite a while until hit the point where the brook parallels the trail. A little further on, there was a slide stretching down UWJ. It's devastating path was fascinating... But, compared to Bennies, it didn't look like a fun climb in my opinion (I realize the possibility that I could be totally wrong on that notion)...  

A slide on Upper Wolfjaw.

Upon arriving at flat land, we crossed a cable bridge over the shimmering Johns Brook and walked to the Interior Ranger Station.

I'm beginning to think that Kailee and I will see a moose before we see a Forest Ranger. We walked right up to their den. But, there were no Rangers to be found.

Interior Outpost.

The Ranger Station is a nice rustic cabin that sits in a small field of wildflowers and grass.
As I had hoped, there was a picnic table there. It was on the porch. A whiteboard provided emergency phone numbers, indicated some recent bear activity and provided future weather forecasts.

Wildflowers near the Ranger's Outpost.

We sat at the table and munched on some sandwiches and snacks while cracking random jokes.

After finishing our meal, it was time to head back towards the Garden. We linked back up with the Phelps Trail and hopped on it. Over this portion of the hike, we passed -and- were passed by the most people that we had seen all day. Yeah, we saw about 15 people at the Summit of Upper Wolfjaw... But, we were relaxing when we met them. In terms of moving along on the trails, we ran into the most people (20-25) during our hike out on the Phelps trail... Many of them were en route to Johns Brook Lodge.  

We also "bumped into" our friend! The raging boulder that came crashing down Big Slide and smashed into the trail from two weeks prior!

Hello Rocky, our old "friend."

It's always nice seeing "friends."

We reached the Garden around 7:30PM. This was one of our longer days and one of our more challenging treks in through the woods. We earned some stripes on this one. Tired, yet pleased, Kailee and I agreed that taking a bite out of the Wolfjaws was an incredibly rewarding experience!

Lower Wolfjaw from Upper Wolfjaw.