After a morning of fog and rain showers, it suddenly cleared and segued into a gorgeous spring afternoon. Even with a crack o' noon start, I was able to enjoy a 10-mile round trip ramble out to the South Slide of Mount Tripyramid, featuring bounteous spring wildflowers, a mile of bushwhacking through open hardwoods, and distant views from halfway up the slide.
A beautiful early afternoon for a stroll up the Livermore Trail.
White Cascade on Slide Brook was surging from the previous day's rainfall.
Before heading out to Tripyramid I visited a special sugar maple glade somewhere off the Livermore Trail.
This glade hosts one of the most extensive displays of Dutchman's Breeches I've seen in the Whites.
I hit it just right this spring.
Crossing Avalanche Brook at an off-trail location.
A monster blowdown blocking the lower part of the Mount Tripyramid Trail.
A tumbling section of Slide Brook.
I left the trail below the crossing of Cold Brook and bushwhacked along an old logging road.
In this area Cold Brook is basically one long sliding, mossy cascade.
Getting a grip.
I call this the Drainpipe Tree.
Trout Lilies were starting to pop.
Dreamy hardwood forest out here in the Cold Brook basin.
Like a scene transplanted from the Catskills to the Sandwich Range Wilderness.
Crossing over Cold Brook.
A favorite spring wildflower for many.
Tecumseh and Osceola through the trees.
Pointing the way.
I pushed through a hobblebush barrier to get back to the trail.
At the base of the South Slide was the only significant patch of snow I saw all day, and it was just fifty feet long.
No ice and bone dry heading up to the open slide.
Into the great wide open.
Expansive views from the top of the first of two lower open swaths on the South Slide, at 3250 ft. Sandwich Dome dominates the scene on the left.
Heading up to the next open swath.
Top of the second swath. What a treat to be able to climb to 3400+ ft. with 99.9% bare ground in early May. Distant vistas included Vermont peaks such as Killington, Salt Ash and Dorset. This slide, which fell during an October 1869 rainstorm, is the oldest of the three South Slides on Tripyramid. The others occurred in 1885 and 2011.
Unique to the South Slide is the view of the wild and remote Lost Pass area.
One of three white pines I've found on the South Slide, far removed from its usual haunts.
Evening sun on a high-elevation sugar maple glade beside the trail.
Looking back at Tripyramid through the trees at the gateway to the Wilderness. After chatting with John Sobetzer (and Cayenne) by the trailhead as I started out, I didn't see another soul all day.
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