On a gorgeous sunny day I took an afternoon stroll out to a favorite destination, the South Slides of Mount Tripyramid. After a lot of rock hopping in Ammonoosuc Ravine the day before, the smooth footing of the Livermore Trail and the south side of Mount Tripyramid Trail was a nice change.
A new WMNF sign graced the entrance to the Wilderness just across Avalanche Brook, which was running very low.
Slide Brook is one of my favorites.
A great walking trail.
The sun-dappled glade of mature hardwoods just below the South Slides.
I bushwhacked over to the base of the smaller, third South Slide that fell during Tropical Storm Irene in 2011, sandwiched between the old tracks of the 1869 and 1885 South Slides.
Yellow Hawkweed, a prolific invasive from Europe, was blooming all over the slide.
I've been to this slide several times, and this was as dry as I've ever seen it.
A thin aplite dike cuts across the monzonite bedrock.
I spent an hour lounging here in the strong early summer sun, gazing out at Sandwich Dome and distant peaks as far as Killington in Vermont.
The top and trigger point of the slide, at 3340 ft. The vertical drop on the slide is about 300 ft.
I cut across through the scrub to a strip of the 1869 slide and followed it up...
...gaining a nice framed view back to Sandwich Dome.
I continued a short distance across to the top of the lower open section of the main 1869 South Slide, the route of the trail, at 3430 ft. Here, halfway up the slide, is an excellent view to the SW.
To the south is the wonderful wild area around Lost Pass.
Carefully descending over gravel and loose rock.
Beautiful fern glade on the trail just below the South Slide. From here out - 4.5 miles - I did not see another hiker.
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