A great way to spend a sunny, warm early spring day: I walked in with Waterville tramper Dan Newton (and his canine companion, Friday) to his remote campsite in the woods off Livermore Trail, then visited the South Slides of Mt. Tripyramid for some wide views, bushwhacking through open, bare ground hardwoods along the way.
Dan camps in style, and this was one of several massive, heavy loads he has hauled into his site.
Partway in along Livermore Trail, Dan picked up still more gear from a site he had previously occupied, including a pair of X-C skis. While sojourning at his remote site, he planned to do both alpine touring and cross-country skiing at higher elevations that still held ample snow cover.
Traipsing along the Livermore Trail, which was snow and ice-free after the first mile.
Slide Brook was rocking at White Cascade.
Dan's remote site was set amidst beautiful hardwood forest somewhere off the Livermore Trail, with the Tripyramids in the distance.
En route to the site.
All the comforts of home.
Dan filters water from a nearby spring.
After leaving Dan and Friday, who were planning to spend a leisurely day in camp, I headed in on the south section of the Mount Tripyramid Trail.
In the first mile there were intermittent patches of ice and old hardpacked snow.
But most of this stretch was snow-free.
Slide Brook.
Black Cascade, running strong.
Final stretch of bare ground before the trail heads into a half-mile section of shady softwoods, where I knew there would be plenty of snow and ice.
I bypassed that section with a looping bushwhack through the snowless hardwoods on South Tripyramid's SW slope.
Spring 'whacking doesn't get much better than this.
Lunch break.
Spring perfection.
Yet another birthday balloon to carry out.
The day's ent tree.
An old logging road crossing the slope at 2900 ft.
Back to the trail.
Picturesque trailside glade.
Deeper snow in a flat glade at the base of the South Slides.
Nasty ice where the trail ascends steeply through woods along the lower part of the slide track.
The ice goes away as the trail breaks into the open.
What a day! Looking out towards Sandwich Dome and Lost Pass. Mt. Israel is seen through the pass.
This boulder marks the top of the lower open section of the South Slide, at about 3400 ft. This is actually the oldest of three South Slides on Tripyramid, having fallen during a great rainstorm on October 4, 1869. For years it was known as the "Great Slide." The bright scar of the slide was visible as far away as 50 miles to the south, and immediately attracted the attention of trampers and geologists.
Wide views from the slide, all the way out to Killington and Dorset Peaks in Vermont. I took my longest break of the day here.
I descended partway back down the slide, then bushwhacked across another branch of the 1869 slide.
A view back to Mt. Osceola and the upper part of its Southwest Slide.
Mt. Moosilauke through Thornton Gap.
I continued across to the most recent of the three South Slides, which gouged the lower slopes during Tropical Storm Irene on August 28, 2011.
The ledges on this slide display several thin aplite (a fine-grained igneous rock) dikes cutting across the monzonite bedrock.
Descending the slide.
Side view.
Since it wasn't far away, I pushed through dense scrub with treacherous icy patches underfoot to visit the lowest remaining open patch of the second South Slide, which fell on August 13, 1885 - just to say I'd visited all three slides on one hike. This was the same storm that triggered Tripyramid's huge North Slide. The open patch at the upper end of the second South Slide is traversed by the Kate Sleeper Trail, but the rest of it is almost completely revegetated.
Coming back across, a high bank afforded an excellent view of the third (2011) South Slide.
On the way back down below the slides I took a shorter bushwhack route to avoid the snowy section of the trail. These woods closer to the trail were infested with clinging, head-high hobblebush. I'm not sure this was any easier than sliding and postholing through the snow.
Looking back to Tripyramid from the lower edge of the Wilderness.
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