Wolf Jaws via Bennies

Jun 23, 2018

Maybe it was the threat of rain, maybe it was my insitence on a sub-alpine start to beat the forecasted rain, or maybe it was that there were two other slide climb options available, but only three people wanted to join me on my scramble up Bennies Brook on this day for the fifth incarnation of Ottawa ACC Hike-a-Palooza event. The hearty souls of Katharina, Sara, and Ivan joined me for an early 06:15 departure from the Keene Farm fire pit. Ivan was fairly new to hiking and had never scrambled, so I threw a rope in my pack at the last minute as a just-in-case, figuring I could use the extra training weight. Ivan ended up making me carry it the whole way as he turned out to be a very strong climber. We arrived at the Garden and actually managed to get a parking spot despite the "lot full" sign, and received a (well deserved) lecture about stopping for stop signs by the parking attendant. We paid our parking fee, signed in at the register and got moving down the trail. At the boulder benchmark we set a south-easterly bearing and descended down to Johns Brook, where we hit just below the pretty pool that I was aiming for. Crossing looked a little sketchy here, so we scrambled up along the banks to the top of the pool, where we easily rock hopped across to the south side trail. Another kilometer of well maintained abandoned trail brought us to the base of Bennies. Slight drizzle kept us a little damp, but our spirits were high as hiking the bottom sections of the slide is very pretty. I figured we could easily turn around on this slide at any time, so we continued on upwards even though it sometimes was fairly slippery. It turned out that the lower angled sections were more difficult than the steeper parts as the wet slimy rock was fairly slick in the rain, but the higher slabs were nice and grippy, despite being wet. The constant threat of hidden slippery slime though kept us on our guards, especially for some of the spots with a little more exposure. The top of the slide provided for some fun 3rd class ledgy scrambling and we arrived safely at the headwall, even though it was raining a little more substantially at this point. We admired the headwall, and some day I'll have to haul a rack up here and climb that final great looking 5th class crack pitch into the jumbled forest mess at the top. We scooted out the herd path to the main hiking trail and climbed the eroded mess to the summit. We sat down for an early lunch and met a few other people here as we ate and rested. Despite the rain, we had a decent view, taking in both Whiteface and Marcy peaks in the distance. A quick descent brought us to Wolf Jaw notch by 11:00, and no one objected when I suggested that we might as well throw in Upper Wolf Jaw as the day was still early. Some fun scrambling up this trail brought us to the summit where we again were treated to some nice views, though the Upper Range was starting to fog in. After a long break here, we made our descent down to JBL where we stopped for another long break in the porch shelter to escape the drizzle, and enjoy some coffee. Here we chatted with a family who had also climbed Bennies this morning with an eight and ten year old. They had followed shortly behind us, but we only first crossed tracks on Upper Wolf Jaw. It also turned out that they live in the same neighbourhood in Ottawa as us. Small world! We finally said goodbye and scooted, or maybe I should say trudged, down the Johns Brook valley back to the Garden. The troops were getting tired, but mercifully the lot appeared and we shook hands after a 9.5 hour day, returning back to the farm for a big chilli supper with the rest of the hike-a-pallooza crowd.

Preparing for the bushwhack.

I love this part of Johns Brook.

Easy river crossing today. Makes up for last year.

Lower section of the slide. Pretty but a little slick.

The rock slabs get nicer as we work our way higher.

Ok, now its raining for real.

Sara showing us how to scramble with hands in pocket.

Looking down from the top.

Summit of UWJ.

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