rocksnrolls
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This weekend was my birthday and I decided it looked like a good time to finally climb the Tripyramids. I had not yet climbed them and neither had my friends Jade and Lattinhill. Dugan (2-Legs) LOVES slides so she strongly encouraged us to do the Mt Tripyramid trail slides. I thought it would be good to add the Sleepers to the hike and descend via the wet Downes Brook Tr. Lattinhill wasn't sure he and his peakbaggin' pooch Maya could handle the north slide, so he debated taking Scaur Ridge Tr instead. To get to the north slide we opted to start at the Kanc side of the Livermore Tr - partly due to making for a shorter carspot, partly due to having heard that end of the trail is harder to hike than the end out of Waterville - we love a challenge 
Jade wasn't able to join us due to time constraints and her sense of humor was missed. You can be sure we all tried to compensate, but it still is never the same without her!
Joining us at the start of the day was canadian VFTTer Rejean. Now there's a guy who hikes fast! He waited at the trailhead for awhile for a friend who never showed and then caught up with us most of the way to the start of the slide. He quickly passed by Lattinihill and I while Dugan was able to match his pace until the trail intersection. She then stopped to wait for us slower hikers. That was the last we saw of Rejean - sure hope he had a good day!
The only other hiker we saw before getting to that intersection was a Ranger who powered by us up Livermore.
The hike up Livermore was great. It starts very easy with a somewhat overgrown path through the woods. The cool moisture from the leaves was very pleasent and helped make this a great warm-up trail. It then started to climb, never all that steeply, into Livermore Pass. Some slippery, mossy rocks made for the need for concentration to avoid a nasty slip. A little mud, but nothing like what we've been through in southern VT recently! Descending from the pass was gentle at first, then a tad steeper past Old Skidder Tr. A beautiful walk in the woods. By the way, I was able to read about Livermore in Forest and Crags - the road went from the Waterville area (in the 1850s) all the way to Crawford Notch, and the Livermore Mill was on the side of Carrigain.
After a brief rest at the start of the Mt Tripyramid trail (during which several other hikers - and one guy on a mountain bike - passed by us after heading up from the Waterville side) we started toward one of the toughest climbs I've ever done. At first it's just your average steepish White Mtn trail, reminiscent of say, Kinsman Ridge, Garfield Tr or Liberty Springs. But then you start hitting some rocky debris and you soon come upon the slide itself. The guidebook says that the blazes are faint and sparse and that's an understatement. Maybe we started off in the wrong spot, but we didn't see any blazes for the earliest parts of the slide. Somewhere around a third to halfway up it, we encountered a group of 3 other hikers who had also not seen blazes for quite some time. We finally spotted a blaze about halfway up and from then on we got to play 'spot the blaze' to figure out the recommended way up.
I've only done one slide before, Arrow, and this one seemed a bit easier. More cracks to wedge the side of your boot into, little ledgy bits to grab with your hands, not so much moss making things slippery. We made use of many tree root and branch handholds that were worn smooth by countless hikers before us. Not being in sight of blazes at the beginning made for alot of standing around looking up and trying to figure out where to go from there. Having Maya along made for some interesting problems. While in general she was better able than us to scramble up the slabby sections, or to walk under and through the scrub, there were a few places where she couldn't seem to progress without much encouragement (and the occasional boost or lift).
The views from the slide were all they were cracked up to be. With all the standing around and discussing of the trail, we had plenty of opportunity to enjoy them We had a good time playing 'name-that-peak' when we lunched at the top of the slide. We had a nice chat with another canadian at the top of the slide. Turns out he had followed us for awhile after also not seeing blazes too often. Glad to be of help
Actually hitting the wooded summit of North Tri was pretty much anti-climactic after such a thrilling climb, so after brief summit rituals we headed on over to Middle Tri. Honestly, I don't remember much of that part of the hike. We passed a few other hikers heading the other way (heard later than one group was planning to head down the north slide and wonder what they thought when they got there) and I remember it wasn't too tough. I think I was busy mentally unwinding from the slide and just enjoying walking through the woods.
We stopped at the Middle Tri summit for another snack and rest. We played another round of name-that-peak which was tougher than usual due to the easterly direction of the view point. The sight of the bare-summited Moats was especially impressive. I'm really looking forward to hiking them one day!
After discussing our options, I decided we should head out the Sabbaday Brook Tr. It had taken longer than we had anticipated to get to this point, so I figured adding South Tri and the Sleepers would be too much. Lattinhill had planned to return the way we came from here, using Scaur Ridge instead of the slide, but the slippery rocks on Livermore seemed problematic. It seemed to me we should stick together and Sabbaday seemed a good compromise, leaving us with a road walk just over a mile to get to where my car was parked at Downes Brook.
Heading down Sabbaday we all soon agreed we were glad to be on that trail. It's awesome! Dropping out of the col between North and Middle Tri it loses elevation quickly, plummeting through gorgeous boulder-filled woods. Reading the guidebook had prepared us for the multiple brook crossings, but the anticipated 5 crossings turned out to be more like a dozen - I guess the water levels in the feeders was higher than usual? Most of the crossings were simple rockhops but the lower we went, the deeper and faster the waters got. We had to spend more and more time contemplating the safest route across and our footware was starting to get a little wet.
Reaching what turned out to be the second or third to last crossing we had an adventure. Dugan had started across, followed by Maya when suddenly Maya lost traction and ended up in the brook, clutching onto a partly submerged rock. She was in danger of being swept away as the current was quite fierce in that spot. Lattinhill was able to grab ahold of her collar and kept her in place. Dugan made it to the far side, dropped her pack and headed back to assist the wet, shivering dog. I got into postion slightly downstream, knee-deep in the chilly water, to keep the dog from slipping away. Dugan was able to get ahold of her and then pulled Maya up and onto a dry rock from which she was able to then get across to dry land. With soaked feet, we squished along the last mile or two, splashing through the remaining brook crossings (my boots still haven't dried out).
At the end of the trail we spent some time marvelling at the Sabbaday Falls, one of the nicest falls I've seen.
Dugan then volunteered to do the roadwalk to retrieve my car, doing it in much faster time than Lattinihll or I could have, and we were soon on our ways home.
We were all thrilled by this hike. Tackling and succeeding on the north slide is quite an experience. I felt, as I had on the Arrow Slide on Hancock, that I had truly CLIMBED a mountain this day, instead of the usual WALK UP. I can see why Dugan loves slides so much and I look forward to scakling more with her in the future.
Jade wasn't able to join us due to time constraints and her sense of humor was missed. You can be sure we all tried to compensate, but it still is never the same without her!
Joining us at the start of the day was canadian VFTTer Rejean. Now there's a guy who hikes fast! He waited at the trailhead for awhile for a friend who never showed and then caught up with us most of the way to the start of the slide. He quickly passed by Lattinihill and I while Dugan was able to match his pace until the trail intersection. She then stopped to wait for us slower hikers. That was the last we saw of Rejean - sure hope he had a good day!
The only other hiker we saw before getting to that intersection was a Ranger who powered by us up Livermore.
The hike up Livermore was great. It starts very easy with a somewhat overgrown path through the woods. The cool moisture from the leaves was very pleasent and helped make this a great warm-up trail. It then started to climb, never all that steeply, into Livermore Pass. Some slippery, mossy rocks made for the need for concentration to avoid a nasty slip. A little mud, but nothing like what we've been through in southern VT recently! Descending from the pass was gentle at first, then a tad steeper past Old Skidder Tr. A beautiful walk in the woods. By the way, I was able to read about Livermore in Forest and Crags - the road went from the Waterville area (in the 1850s) all the way to Crawford Notch, and the Livermore Mill was on the side of Carrigain.
After a brief rest at the start of the Mt Tripyramid trail (during which several other hikers - and one guy on a mountain bike - passed by us after heading up from the Waterville side) we started toward one of the toughest climbs I've ever done. At first it's just your average steepish White Mtn trail, reminiscent of say, Kinsman Ridge, Garfield Tr or Liberty Springs. But then you start hitting some rocky debris and you soon come upon the slide itself. The guidebook says that the blazes are faint and sparse and that's an understatement. Maybe we started off in the wrong spot, but we didn't see any blazes for the earliest parts of the slide. Somewhere around a third to halfway up it, we encountered a group of 3 other hikers who had also not seen blazes for quite some time. We finally spotted a blaze about halfway up and from then on we got to play 'spot the blaze' to figure out the recommended way up.
I've only done one slide before, Arrow, and this one seemed a bit easier. More cracks to wedge the side of your boot into, little ledgy bits to grab with your hands, not so much moss making things slippery. We made use of many tree root and branch handholds that were worn smooth by countless hikers before us. Not being in sight of blazes at the beginning made for alot of standing around looking up and trying to figure out where to go from there. Having Maya along made for some interesting problems. While in general she was better able than us to scramble up the slabby sections, or to walk under and through the scrub, there were a few places where she couldn't seem to progress without much encouragement (and the occasional boost or lift).
The views from the slide were all they were cracked up to be. With all the standing around and discussing of the trail, we had plenty of opportunity to enjoy them
We had a good time playing 'name-that-peak' when we lunched at the top of the slide. We had a nice chat with another canadian at the top of the slide. Turns out he had followed us for awhile after also not seeing blazes too often. Glad to be of help Actually hitting the wooded summit of North Tri was pretty much anti-climactic after such a thrilling climb, so after brief summit rituals we headed on over to Middle Tri. Honestly, I don't remember much of that part of the hike. We passed a few other hikers heading the other way (heard later than one group was planning to head down the north slide
and wonder what they thought when they got there) and I remember it wasn't too tough. I think I was busy mentally unwinding from the slide and just enjoying walking through the woods.We stopped at the Middle Tri summit for another snack and rest. We played another round of name-that-peak which was tougher than usual due to the easterly direction of the view point. The sight of the bare-summited Moats was especially impressive. I'm really looking forward to hiking them one day!
After discussing our options, I decided we should head out the Sabbaday Brook Tr. It had taken longer than we had anticipated to get to this point, so I figured adding South Tri and the Sleepers would be too much. Lattinhill had planned to return the way we came from here, using Scaur Ridge instead of the slide, but the slippery rocks on Livermore seemed problematic. It seemed to me we should stick together and Sabbaday seemed a good compromise, leaving us with a road walk just over a mile to get to where my car was parked at Downes Brook.
Heading down Sabbaday we all soon agreed we were glad to be on that trail. It's awesome! Dropping out of the col between North and Middle Tri it loses elevation quickly, plummeting through gorgeous boulder-filled woods. Reading the guidebook had prepared us for the multiple brook crossings, but the anticipated 5 crossings turned out to be more like a dozen - I guess the water levels in the feeders was higher than usual? Most of the crossings were simple rockhops but the lower we went, the deeper and faster the waters got. We had to spend more and more time contemplating the safest route across and our footware was starting to get a little wet.
Reaching what turned out to be the second or third to last crossing we had an adventure. Dugan had started across, followed by Maya when suddenly Maya lost traction and ended up in the brook, clutching onto a partly submerged rock. She was in danger of being swept away as the current was quite fierce in that spot. Lattinhill was able to grab ahold of her collar and kept her in place. Dugan made it to the far side, dropped her pack and headed back to assist the wet, shivering dog. I got into postion slightly downstream, knee-deep in the chilly water, to keep the dog from slipping away. Dugan was able to get ahold of her and then pulled Maya up and onto a dry rock from which she was able to then get across to dry land. With soaked feet, we squished along the last mile or two, splashing through the remaining brook crossings (my boots still haven't dried out).
At the end of the trail we spent some time marvelling at the Sabbaday Falls, one of the nicest falls I've seen.
Dugan then volunteered to do the roadwalk to retrieve my car, doing it in much faster time than Lattinihll or I could have, and we were soon on our ways home.
We were all thrilled by this hike. Tackling and succeeding on the north slide is quite an experience. I felt, as I had on the Arrow Slide on Hancock, that I had truly CLIMBED a mountain this day, instead of the usual WALK UP. I can see why Dugan loves slides so much and I look forward to scakling more with her in the future.
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