Big Coolidge Slide

I decided to head out from our condo at the village and check out the slide on east slope of Big Coolidge Sunday. I went in the woods the behind the condo and headed out. I passed a beautiful section of Clear Brook.

From here I started to ascend and slab north towards the the area I felt I would find the slide. I love bushwhacking this time of year as well as late fall do to the fact that the hobble bush and saplings are not foliated. It makes for a much nicer whack when you have a clear line of sight in woods. And since these woods are mostly hard woods down low, it's even more open.

 At around 2200' it started to get pretty steep and rocky. This is only my second time in this area and I noticed the area is littered with glacial boulders of all sizes and shapes.

 I'd been climbing for about an hour and a half and was not seeing any signs of the slide. I was at around 2400' or so when I decided to slab more north to see if I would run into it. It took all of about 5 minutes of doing that when I fially spotted it.

Once at the foot of the slide I gazed up at this gorgeous wide open slide. Roughly 200' X 150' in size and quite steep. Too steep to even consider climbing it.

The only way to get to top for the views would be to go just in woods to the side of it and head up. So that's what I did. This was not all that easy as the spruce along the edge was quite thick and the grade was very steep. To add to difficulty, it was also ledge. I popped out about have way up out to check out the view.

I continued to head up until I got to spot where it looked like I good have a safe place to sit and take some pictures. It wasn't at the very top but close. The views were great. Pretty much just easterly but unique.

After hanging out there I made my way up and over to the other side. I thought I saw spot where I would have a clearer view of Whaleback and it's slides. Again, this was pretty tough going as the spruce was thick and narley. I popped out again on the way to check out the view and found myself at a very steep section of the slide.

But I did find another spot to sit and take some more photos. Whaleback and the slides on it's ridge. This spot was a little safer perch than my first one so I sat there a bit longer and had a snack. What a gorgeous day, not a cloud in the sky.

Heading down the south side of this slide proved to be a little nerve racking. For in the woods I hit a 20' high ledge. I hard to skirt more south to get around it but it was extremely steep there and it gave a literal meaning to the term, "tree hugger". It wasn't long though before I was back in good woods and able almost jog my way out.

I made one last stop at a pretty section of Clear Brook before getting out. This took a little longer than I was planning but all-in-all, a great day in the forest.

ALL THE PHOTOS