Hiking NY: Big Slide 2.0

Last week I finally got out to the Adirondacks for the first hiking/camping trip of the season! I met my buddy Ken at the South Meadow primitive camp site where he was already set up with his tent. I set mine up and realized I forgot my camp chair! I made due with a blanket and cushion. We were only there 1 night so it wasn't a big deal.

He got out his trusty Coleman stove and cooked us up his fave hamburgers. They were delish! After that we hung for a bit but then it started to rain so we put away our things and called it a night around 9pm. The alarms were set for 4am!

This little guy really wanted a piece of our dinner. 

The alarms went off before sunrise, and we hit the trail by 5am. We took the Klondike trail and right off we ran into this area where the bridge is out. Thankfully we were pretty easily able to rock hop over and were on our way.

The trail was actually quite enjoyable by ADK standards!

We passed a very nice lean to site about 3.5 miles in. It was right by the water. I went ahead and topped up my supply as we took a short break.

Finally we got to the junction for Yard mountain! This one is right around 4000' (depending on which map you look at) but does not count toward the 46. However you have to go up and over it to get to Big Slide which was our destination.

The trail got more rocky with scrambles as we summited but there was still patches of nice mostly level trail as well. Our goal was to beat the rain that was due to move in around noon.

We summited Yard around 9am. There wasn't much of a view, but there was this little lookout to enjoy. After a short snack we were on our way to Big Slide.

We got to Big Slide after about an hour from Yard at 10am! There were a few others already there as well so we found a spot to rest and have lunch.

My second time here, his first!

By 1030 we hit the trail to make our way down, and it only took about 30 min to hit Yard again.

We did lose the trail at one point coming down Yard. We were watching our footing and not the trail markers so we missed where it curved. We followed a well defined herd path for about 15 min before we realized that it was not the trail! Obviously many others had done that as well. I used GPS and we back tracked until we found the right trail and continued on!

Our feet were getting sore by the end but we were blessed that the rain held out! We made it back to our cars right at 230pm and only took a moment to throw my tent into my car before the rain started. Perfect timing! I began the 6hr drive home and made it home around 830pm.

Distance: 14 miles out and back

Elevation gain: Approx 2900'