Big Slide via the Brothers

We arrived at the garden around 7:00am, paid for our parking, did our stretches and signed in; it was my son Derek, and I. We were on the trail for Big Slide by 7:15am. We took the trail over the Brothers; I really liked this approach, with the many outlooks along the way it gave a lot of inspiration. We arrived the first Brother around 8:50am I was surprised at all the nooks and crannies along the way, we passed a huge outcropping that looks as if people use it as a shelter. The one thing I did notice was this trail seemed to be in the sun a lot along the way, this would be a big problem for someone who may not have taken enough water, albeit there were several areas to get water along the way once you crossed over the last brother. Another really neat area was the col between the last brother and the ascent of Big Slide, it was like out of the movies, and all I could think of was the scene from The Never Ending Story, with all the thick densely packed trees, and the canopy, very neat. The trail really did not get steep until the junction to JBL; from then on it was the steepest it's been. The last obstacle was the huge slippery rock just before the summit, this provided a lot of entertainment watching people trying to hurdle this to get to the summit, some would go straight up it only to slide back down, the smart ones went to the left. Once we got over it we officially arrived at the summit of Big Slide at 11:15, enjoyed our lunch and took some pictures before the clouds rolled in, there was a fair amount of fog or clouds rolling by that day. We left for the Garden around 12:00, this time we went straight down to JBL and then to the trail out to the Garden, we met a lot of people on this trail. I preferred the trail via the Brothers, a lot more views, this was a nice hike. While I couldn't find pictures of my initial visit to Big Slide, I did have some from a return visit with great friends.