Sandwich Range
(Tripyramids: NorthTri.-26, MidTri-27, SouthTri)
May day! May day! It’s Sunday May 1st 2016, and I am making the best of my spring break from the ice-filled whites by continuing the futile attempt at getting caught up on this blog of mine. Let’s see… When we last left our hero, he was finishing up the first half of his journey with a climb up Washington and Monroe. There was a bit of a lay-off after that and I was struggling with being consumed with a longing to return, much like I am now. What is it that makes the mountain’s call so irresistible? I think mostly it’s a return to innocence and simplicity. I am reading a book, “Following Atticus” by Tom Ryan now about a man’s journey in these mountains with his dog, and I can’t get over some of the similarities to my own (minus the canine companion). In the 4th chapter he writes: “Sooner or later we come to a point…when we lose our innocence…all of us want to make our way back home to that time again. But innocence lost is difficult to find… We long for it, dream of it, and are haunted by it. Occasionally we glimpse it again…and then in a flash it vanishes and we miss it all the more…the worst we can do is to give up looking for it.” This is how I feel in the mountains. All of life’s complications melt away and I am left with all that really matters. The bigger and simpler picture. …Anyway this was I time when I was longing to get back to answer the calling of the mountains once again, so much so that I was rearranging my late summer plans to get back to the source of this new found innocence. But I needed a plan and this time a companion to get me back on track.
Well I suppose it hasn’t been that long, but when you’re in love with a place it seems like forever! I last visited the Whites at the beginning of the month to hike Monroe and Washington. Since then I have paused for the halftime intermission. 
The following weekend, I took my 8 year old nephew camping at Myles Standish in Carver Ma, a nice family campground with a lake to swim and fish, and a paved bike path. It was great to have some one on one time with Dylan. He had an awesome time and it brought me back to a time when my son Chad was younger. Kids are awesome at that age, when seeing a fish or a frog is the biggest thrill in the world. I’ll have to make it a point to do more of these; after all they are only young once.
The next weekend was spoken for also, as I had signed up to take that wilderness 1st aid class, a very informative day jam-packed with scenarios we acted out and well worth my time. I had to sacrifice a great weather weekend a great weather weekend of potential hiking, but I made up for it. As soon as class got out that Sunday, I took a drive to visit my sis at the lake house in the southern ADK’s. While I was there I took an easy hike up Peaked Mountain/Lake. 
At the summit, I got a glimpse of the High Peaks off on the horizon, where I will be doing a multi-day backpack trip with Therese. She has been chipping away at the 46ers. I’m looking forward to this trip, coming full circle with my original hiking partner and seeing another mountain range.
The next weekend kinda snuck up on me with the Monday Tuesday trip and a busy shortened workweek. I had originally planned a Greenfield State Park trip with some friends, who wanted to hike Monadnock with me, but they made other plans to go out on their new boat. I decided to catch up on some long neglected yard work and home repairs instead. Suddenly it occurred to me that the following 3 weeks would be White-less too, with a Cape weekend booked, the Labor Day backpack, and a Saturday gig the week after that. 
That would make 6 straight weekends away from my favorite place. This simply will not do! I began thoughts of postponing the Cape. It’s really nice on the National Seashore and I like to go there at least once a year, but the mountains are calling me and I must answer. Then again, my work outing is this Friday lasting the day with the first beer poured at 10:30am, and a Fenway tour mixed in. That night I have a gig way down in Jamestown RI, so that’ll be a pretty long tiring day and it may be that all I have the energy for is a lazy day on the beach…Oh I just don’t know! I flip between these thought all week, and then my other sister Beth informs me that her daughter (my niece) Janelle might be interested in joining me on a hike. She had recently done her first 4k with her boyfriend, a grueling climb up Huntington Ravine to summit Mt Washington! 
Since then, it seems she too is catching the hiking bug. So this was all the inspiration I needed to sway my decision. This could work out perfectly. If she can share some of the driving, that’ll give me a few hours to catch some much needed Z’s. This changes everything!
So a last minute scramble to throw together a hike plan is in order. I had wanted to work in a repeat of some early day hikes as part of this halftime “break”, so my first thought was to hike the Bonds again, and depending how things go we could continue on to Zealand and Zeacliff too with Thoreau Falls as another option. After a few texts back and forth with Janelle it turns out that she feels she isn’t quite ready for an overnight in the woods due to lack of gear and experience, but no shortage of desire. She wants to work up to the point of a multiday trip, but for now I will plan a day hike from some sort of base camp. 
After checking out a few options, I decide the Tripyramid loop would be a perfect fit for this weekend. They are in the southern Whites so that cuts down on some of the driving. Plus, they are fresh off a pretty brutal hike to the Rockpile, and with descriptions like “one of the most exciting and challenging hikes in the whites” in Steve Smith’s “The 4000-Footers of the White Mountains” guide book (my Bible), this hike promises not to disappoint. 
At first this was to be just a 2 person trip, but her boyfriend Andrew’s work schedule changed last minute and he too will be able to join us: a trio of hikers for a trio of peaks. The best views are said to be at the North and South slides and the summits themselves will be wooded partial to non-views, but we must tag them anyway, especially since 2 of them are part of “the list”. There is an option to bypass the North slide via Scaur Ridge if anyone (including myself) isn’t up for the scramble but something tells me we will not be taking the easy way out.
After barely getting through my marathon Friday ordeal, I do my zombie walk through the door at 2:30am. No way I’m gonna be able to meet Janelle at 4am like we discussed, so a quick text to delay it til 5:30 and a face-plant into my pillow. Moments later (or so it seems), that god forsaken alarm and the usual question: “why do I do this to myself”, but somehow I make it into the shower and out the door. At my mom’s, the other 2 zombies load their stuff into my little old Rav4 and we are off, this time with Janelle at the wheel (I get to rest my eyes for a change on the ride up). Thanks to her and Andrew and their inside info, we get a nice little bargain roadside site, where we make quick work of camp setup and then make our way down the dusty dirt road toward our trailhead in Waterville Valley. A brief stretch and electrolyte boost and we are off.
The first section of the hike, along Livermore Rd is long and flat but pretty enough. We are crusing through this section to get to the interesting part. After bypassing several side trails we finally make the turn-off to where it feels more like a trail and less like a road. This stretch is a moderate grade travelling along Avalanche Brook, where there are several waterslide and pool sightings (something that could come in handy later). Our pace as a group seems pretty in-sync, all moving at the same stride, as if marching into battle. Before too long we reach a decision making point: Scaur Ridge Trail for a more gradual ascent, or continue on to the North Slide of Mt.Tripyramid Trail. Of course, there is really only one option in this group- the challenging one, after all nothing worth doing is easy, right? And anyway we could use some excitement after that first stretch, and boy did we get it!!
Soon we were at the base of the steep unstable slide and shifted into a more methodical hiking style, me using shorter poles and at times hands, and the other two on all fours more often than not. When several rocks become dislodged and get sent into a roll down the slope behind us, we switch to a staggered diagonal formation, so we are not in the direct path of the hazardous debris.
I remind them to yell “ROCK” when they send one tumbling, and if they are on the receiving end, to turn your back to the oncoming collision so that the impact is absorbed by your backpack and not your head.
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From what I have heard and read, this terrain is similar to that of the Owl’s head slide, so this will be good practice. Speaking of Owlie, I would really prefer not to save that one for the end the way many do. It would be nice to have the last few be Big-Bang hikes, so I’ll try to line it up that way. 
But for now I must concentrate on my footing so as to minimize the potential carnage on the mountain side. So far these two youngsters are doing a fine job on this challenging terrain, and I must say it is nice to have some company today to share stories and banter with. I hope to have many more treks with my niece as she seems to have taken a liking to the whites- and really, how can you not??
Before we know it we are all at the top of the slide, where we take one more peak at the view behind us before slipping back into the trees. Our posture now returns to normal and our shoulders are actually ABOVE our hips. We stroll onto the first of three summits: North Tripyramid. 
The views are well behind us but the feeling of accomplishment is upon us. At this point we are famished and make short work of our lunches then head on our way through a series of ups and downs in the wooded surroundings with scattered glimpses through the trees of the partially obstructed scenes beyond. Andrew is having a tough time with his knee as we approach the viewless Mid-Tripyramid, so I give him a few doses of vitamin- i and the extra brace from my pack and we continue onto South Tripyramid before our descent down yet another sketchy slide. No rest for the weary – he’s young and will bounce back I am sure. 
In the tri-summit area there were a few partial views at some outlooks just off the actual summits that we got to enjoy before hitting the second challenge of our trip.
Once again we find ourselves on loose scree as we ease our way down the South Slide, now with a continuous view, when we are able to look up from the unsteady terrain. This slide is more of a finer gravelly consistency and less chance of larger rocks being dislodged, but still plenty of debris being sent downhill as our feet slip down the shaky ground. 
We are just as deliberate and methodical on our descent if not more so, as fatigue is now settling in. Nobody need to scar this memory with an injury, and luckily we make it down the second slide without one.
Once again as we reenter the woods, and grades return to moderate, and the ground is now firmly intact, we return to normal hiking, albeit fatigued and hungry. As we travel along the brook, we have one thought on our minds: CHEESEBURGER! NO MAKE THAT BACON DOUBLE CHEESEBURGER!!! Occasionally one of us would initiate a conversation with a topic of more substance, and all the remaining group members can retort with is “What the hell does that have to do with a CHEESEBURGER???!!!!!”
After a while, we come upon a dramatic cascade and pool, so of course we stop to cool off and revive. This is just enough to get us through to our finish line! We all pile into the RAV4 to kick up the dusty road again all the way back to our camp and most importantly our BIG GIANT BACON DOUBLE CHEESEBURGER cooked over an open fire! MMMMMMMMMMMMMMM…
click for video of North Slide View
click for video of South Slide View
click for video of Top of North Slide
click for video of Tri-Summit Area
Two more in the books! Thank you Janelle and Andrew!