Soon we started down from South Tripyramid and encountered the top of the South Slide. It is similar in nature to the North Slide's upper reaches: medium-sized bouldery rock with lots of gravel in between. It is steep, but not quite as much as the North Slide, and it is fairly straightforward to descend. There was a small section partway down where the slide closed up into trees for a short bit, and then it opened out again.
As is often the case for us, the sun came out and shone brightly as we descended.
On the way down, we met a pleasant couple hiking up. They were from Nova Scotia, and were hiking in the Whites for a couple of weeks. They had the cutest little dog tucked away in one of their packs, it's furry head the only part sticking out. It seemed quite content to get a first-class ride up the mountain!
Bridge over troubled waters
At the bottom of the slide, the trail soon becomes much less steep, turns right, and starts a long traverse down to rejoin Livermore Road and complete our loop. We had returned to the land of excessively flowing waters, and several of the side brooks that drained across the trail were a little too dicey to cross, and we had to use fallen logs for a couple of them.
I got a couple of nice pictures of Slide Brook at one point along this section of the hike. I'm glad we didn't have to cross it, because it was a raging torrent to our left, all along our hike down. I've never seen so much water flowing around here!
Our trail fortunately crossed Avalanche brook above the point where Slide Brook empties into it (and I'd surveyed this point earlier on our way up, so I wasn't too worried). Jenn chose to find an upstream log to shimmy across, but I figured that it was wide enough that the water was fairly shallow across the entire width at this point. So, I tried wading across in my gortex-lined La Sportiva Mountaineering boots and, sure enough, it never went above my ankles. Warm and dry all the way to the other side!
All that was left now was a straightforward walk down the easy Livermore Road to the car. We finished in good time, arriving back just around lunch time. A very pleasant (if somewhat overly soggy) morning hike in the Whites! Two more down on my 111-er list!
Interactive Trackmap & Photo Points - Tripyramid Loop Hike - Click link below to expand
Hike Data - Tripyramids Loop Hike
Start Time:
5:25a.m.
End Time:
11:40a.m.
Duration:
6h14m
Distance:
17.33 km
(10.77 mi)
Average Speed:
2.8 km/hr
(1.7 mph)
Start Elevation:
1602ft
(488m)
*
Max Elevation:
4169ft
(1271m)
*
Min Elevation:
1597ft
(487m)
*
End Elevation:
1638ft
(499m)
*
* : +/- 75 feet
Total Elevation Gain:
2870ft
(875m)
*
Total Elevation Loss:
2832ft
(863m)
*
* : +/- 75 feet
Elevation Graph
