Friday, October 4, 2024

Foliage & Tripyramid South Slides: 10/3/24


The walk out to the South Slides of Mount Tripyramid is a favorite of mine at any time of year. It's especially rewarding during foliage season since most of the approach is through a glowing hardwood forest, as seen here on the smooth and easy Livermore Trail.




White Cascade on Slide Brook.



Above the cascade.





Best time of the year on Livermore Trail.





One of the best trails.




Into the Wilderness.




Gateway glade.




Slide Brook.




Big sugar maples.




Gazing upward.




I made a short foray off-trail to admire this glade.



The trail climbs through a magnificent sugar maple glade at the 2700-2900 foot elevation.



At the point where the trail turns up to climb the first (1869) South Slide, I bushwhacked across to the smaller third (2011, Tropical Storm Irene) South Slide.




Emerging on the runout of the 2011 slide.




It made quite a gouge in the mountainside.




Looking back at a spur ridge of West Sleeper and Sandwich Dome beyond.




I checked in on the first and so far only pioneering white pine I've found on this slide, discovered this past June. It didn't grow much over the summer.





The ledges on the slide display a number of tan-colored aplite dikes - intrusions of fine-grained granite that cut across the monzonite bedrock.





View down the main part of the slide. Its track is partly overlain on the course of the second (1885) South Slide.



Looking across to Mount Tecumseh.



A short, thick bushwhack led across to a big gouge that could be part of either the first or second South Slide - it's hard to tell for sure.



 
A broad and colorful view here.





Looking down to the upper elevation maple glade.




Adding Mount Moosilauke (through Thornton Gap) and Mount Osceola to the view.




The conifers are thick and prickly in between the slide swaths.




Looking back while climbing another slide swath.




At 3400 ft. is one of my favorite slide dwelling white pines.




Emerging on the Mount Tripyramid Trail halfway up the 1869 South Slide, with a fine view over the Lost Pass region.



A wide view out to the southwest, with Vermont peaks such as Killington, Salt Ash, Dorset and Ascutney in sight.




Late afternoon in the upper elevation hardwoods.



 

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