prino
New member
After reading various conflicting weather reports I decided to go for Bennies Brook slide up to Lower Wolf Jaw. After 2 of my hiking buddies dropped out Friday night I gave Gail and Freddy a call to see if they wanted to join me.
Freddy was busy but Gail was gung ho for another trip (they did Allen last weekend for Freddys #44)
We passed thru the border around 7-30am without too much hassle and arrived at the garden at 9-03am in 43rd position out of a possible 46 available parking spaces(if cars would park properly they could easily squeeze in 53)
Looking in the register I see a certain Rik guy had gone off "early" to do HaBaSa
apparently chasing after some lady ranger..... no chance of catching him I thought to myself.
We set off at 9-30 on the dot and decided to give the south side trail a miss as it was only a 1/4 mile extra cut back from the ranger station and I know that river crossing can be quite tricky.
After a few pictures and bite to eat at the interior outpost we made the herd path at Bennies Brook around 11-20... thanks to Tim's Picture on his report from 2003 I had no trouble identifying the correct stream and path.
After 20 minutes up the herd path we saw the bottom of the slide opening up with a steady flow of water coming down the side.
The bottom of the slide is quite shallow and a good job it was as the wet sections were quite slick.
We stopped for another bite to eat just past where there is some slide debris on the bottom half at this point we had our second 5 minute shower of the day. Another 15 minutes and we were at the widest point of the slide where it splits into 2 and the rock was dry and steep at this point.... time to have another rest and take in a few rays.... the views over to Big Slide were opening up and knowing the limited views on top of LWJ we decided to take advantage of them.
Continuing on the right hand slide it became much narrower again and also steeper. The top of the slide became a small gully full of loose rocks before finishing at a nice exit to the right with a well defined herd path that 2 minutes later brought us out onto the main trail. We hung a right and finished the final 200ft steep climb to the summit where we saw the first people of the day, three quebeckers with a young guy from Victoria BC on his first trip to the Daks. I took his picture and pointed out all the high peaks and then we headed down.
Gail has become very interested in the geology of the daks recently and we spent a good 20 minutes pottering around in a stream bed looking for "Labrodorite", a subtle bluish rock that sparkles in the sun if you hold it at the right angle. After finding a backpack full we headed off back down the southside trail to try the "crossing". With my long legs I managed to hop over in about 4 minutes. Gail on the other hand wandered up and down for 20 minutes before deciding to wade across at the shallowest point.
We arrived back just before 5-30 to see Rik had already signed out.
We stopped in for a pint at the Ausable pub for a nice Summer Ale before heading back to Montreal for supper with Freddy.
Freddy was busy but Gail was gung ho for another trip (they did Allen last weekend for Freddys #44)
We passed thru the border around 7-30am without too much hassle and arrived at the garden at 9-03am in 43rd position out of a possible 46 available parking spaces(if cars would park properly they could easily squeeze in 53)
Looking in the register I see a certain Rik guy had gone off "early" to do HaBaSa
apparently chasing after some lady ranger..... no chance of catching him I thought to myself.
We set off at 9-30 on the dot and decided to give the south side trail a miss as it was only a 1/4 mile extra cut back from the ranger station and I know that river crossing can be quite tricky.
After a few pictures and bite to eat at the interior outpost we made the herd path at Bennies Brook around 11-20... thanks to Tim's Picture on his report from 2003 I had no trouble identifying the correct stream and path.
After 20 minutes up the herd path we saw the bottom of the slide opening up with a steady flow of water coming down the side.
The bottom of the slide is quite shallow and a good job it was as the wet sections were quite slick.
We stopped for another bite to eat just past where there is some slide debris on the bottom half at this point we had our second 5 minute shower of the day. Another 15 minutes and we were at the widest point of the slide where it splits into 2 and the rock was dry and steep at this point.... time to have another rest and take in a few rays.... the views over to Big Slide were opening up and knowing the limited views on top of LWJ we decided to take advantage of them.
Continuing on the right hand slide it became much narrower again and also steeper. The top of the slide became a small gully full of loose rocks before finishing at a nice exit to the right with a well defined herd path that 2 minutes later brought us out onto the main trail. We hung a right and finished the final 200ft steep climb to the summit where we saw the first people of the day, three quebeckers with a young guy from Victoria BC on his first trip to the Daks. I took his picture and pointed out all the high peaks and then we headed down.
Gail has become very interested in the geology of the daks recently and we spent a good 20 minutes pottering around in a stream bed looking for "Labrodorite", a subtle bluish rock that sparkles in the sun if you hold it at the right angle. After finding a backpack full we headed off back down the southside trail to try the "crossing". With my long legs I managed to hop over in about 4 minutes. Gail on the other hand wandered up and down for 20 minutes before deciding to wade across at the shallowest point.
We arrived back just before 5-30 to see Rik had already signed out.
We stopped in for a pint at the Ausable pub for a nice Summer Ale before heading back to Montreal for supper with Freddy.
