Sometimes the weather pattern dictates that if you want to hike, you have to hike in the rain. Such was the case with most of this cloudy, cool, showery week. On rainy days I avoid rough, rocky, rooty trails with slippery footing and opt for smoother terrain where I can deploy my umbrella. It may look dorky, but it works for me. On this day I returned to some old standbys, the Livermore Trail and the two lower ends of the Mount Tripyramid Trail. No mountain views on this hike; the woods, flowers and brooks were the stars of the show.
The fringes of the wide Livermore Trail were like a miles-long garden, with a variety of late spring/early summer wildflowers on display. Clintonia, or bluebead lily, a member of the lily family, was abundant in the first mile.
A carpet of Clintonia.
Bunchberry, a dogwood family member, along a spruce-lined section of trail.
False Solomon's seal, farther along the trail.
Smooth sailing through a damp green tunnel.
Another checkmark for my 52-week grid at White Cascade on Slide Brook.
Occasionally a brief spot of sun would brighten the day.
False Solomon's seal erupting from a blanket of bellwort.
Maple haven.
Heading in to the lower part of Avalanche Ravine.
Avalanche Brook at the trail crossing.
Happy place.
The lushness of late spring on display in a glade of old yellow birches.
Walking softly.
Red trillium blooms later on this cool north-facing slope.
Heading off-trail, Avalanche Brook was bone-dry above the base of Tripyramid's North Slide.
Walking up the brookbed through the ravine's inner sanctum.
Like stepping into a painting.
A major outwash had overrun the little meadow below the East Fork of the North Slide, most likely during the big rain event at the end of April..
There was some powerful flow through here.
The water flowing down the East Fork feeds into a dark pool.
Red trilliums overlook the pool.
Scalloped ledge at the base of the East Fork.
I believe this is red baneberry, growing in the gravelly outwash.
On the way back down the ravine, I made a short side trip a little way up the North Slide. The slabs were wet and fairly slippery, so I did not proceed any higher. On the way back down the Mount Traipyramid Trail I ran into a hiker who was thinking of going up the North Slide. I advised him that a wet day was not a good time to try it and that even the lower angle slabs near the bottom were slippery. He planned to test his boots on the first slabs and if they did not grip he would turn back.
I was lucky that the showers were dormant during my trip into Avalanche Ravine. As I headed back down Livermore Trail they returned, giving a good soaking to these trailside foam-flowers.
A protruding artifact from what may be the site of the first of two Avalanche Camps used for logging the slopes of Tripyramid in the early/mid 1900s.
The rain let up again by the time I reached the south end of Mount Tripyramid Trail. It was early afternoon, so I headed up this trail to do some wandering along Slide Brook.
The crossing of Avalanche Brook was shallow and easy.
I call this beautiful spot the "gateway glade" as you head into the upper Slide Brook valley.
I sat on a rock for a while to contemplate this familiar cascade on Slide Brook.
A colony of Clintonia at the edge of Cold Brook.
The top of Black Cascade on Slide Brook, named for its dark gabbro bedrock.
Peering over the plunge of Black Cascade.
Farther up the valley I left the trail and followed the course of Slide Brook. Here the stream is bordered by an attractive fern meadow.
This mossy cleft formerly guided at least half of the main flow of the brook, but today there was hardly a trickle going through.
Nearly the entire brook now comes over this little drop.
I continued upstream to this moss-lined sluice.
Closer look.
Another angle. There are more of these upstream, but the rain was moving back in. Time to return to the trail and head out.
On the way out, I turned around for this trailside view upstream. From here back to the trailhead it rained steadily, giving my umbrella a good workout.
The pot o' gold could be on Snows Mountain, or maybe Flat Mountain. Or perhaps it's hidden somewhere out there in Lost Pass...
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