August 30, 2009
Today I parked my truck by Lily Pond on the Kancamagus Highway. I then enjoyed a 3 mile bike ride all downhill. At the Pine Bend Brook Trailhead, I hid my bike in the bushes. I hit the trail at 8:40.
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I went nonstop up to the top of North Tripyramid.
Along the way, I had a nice shot of the light coming through the trees.
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I didn't stop on North Tripyramid, but headed straight over to Middle Tripyramid.
Tecumseh from Middle.
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Here I am on the summit of Middle Tripyramid.
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I headed back over to North where I ran into Ed Hawkins for the 2nd time in as many weeks. We talked about the Grid for a few minutes. We were joined by several other hikers. One had a dog named Madison. Named after Mount Madison, just like my dog. Well it was time for me to hit some new trails. Although I had been on the South Slide a couple of times before, I had never been on the North Slide.
View from the North Slide
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It was really steep. I took a picture looking up the slide, but the picture makes it look flat.
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For a better idea of how steep it was click here for a video.
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Down, down, down I carefully headed. I lost a lot of time here, but this is no place to rush.
I came out at a trail junction which pointed to where I had been.
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I headed up the trail for a while before coming to this intersection.
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Just 3.1 miles to the highway.
I thought I might be in luck when I came across this easy stretch of trail which I jogged.
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But after this sign, things got tough.
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Yuck!
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I was convinced the next mile of trail was built by the Devil himself.
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After going over tons of rocks and roots and stepping through mud and climbing over blowdowns,
I finally reached Livermore Pass.
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I still had two miles to go, but the trail slowly became easier.
A half a mile from the end I went through this field.
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The trail was great after this, and I jogged the rest of the way out.
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Sign at the trailhead.
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I finished about 2:40. As I headed down the highway, I nearly made a critical mistake.
I almost forgot to pick up my bike! That would have been a bummer.
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