Mt. Tripyramid (North Peak)

With a free Saturday to myself and no real plan in place, I once again found myself making the drive up to the Kancamagus Highway for a short day hike.  I choose Mt. Tripyramid's North Peak.  The trail was the Pine Bend Brooke trail.  The trailhead was directly off of the road, no pull in parking area, which left me a bit nervous about leaving my car in this position.  I was assured that this is common practice up on the Kancamagus by a hiker I encountered on the way down the mountain. The first two miles of the trail were extremely well blazed in yellow and relatively flat and moderate.

At about 2 miles in, the trail took a turn directly up the stream bed and the slope of the mountain.  I've never encountered this before. Unfortunetly, the pic above dosen't illustrate that very well.  It turned out to be pretty steep the rest of the way up.  Again, much like Chocorua, the upper sections of the trail were very snowy and icy, causing me to go to my crampons for the rest of the trip up the mountain.  I could have used snow shoes in some sections, and I even saw a couple hikers with them on.

Although the Pine Bend Brooke trail is beautiful and challenging, it doesn't offer many views at all.  One doesn't even catch a glimpse of North Tripyramid until you hit the top of the ridge running from Scaur Peak up to the north peak.  I did manage, however, to snap this particularly nice shot of Mt. Washington that closely resembles a painting with the many shades of colors visible in the clouds and haze.  Many 4,000ft's in the White Mountains do not have great views if any at all. Many, like North Tripyramid, are wooded summits.  This makes for some great quiet and serene hiking which I love.  I did see a few folks, but compared to Mt. Chocorua it is much less hiked.


The wooded summit of Mt. Tripyramid's north peak...

  










Trails off of the Kancamagus Highway are going to be somewhat popular, but I do have the feeling that this particular section is not.  It's such a great little section to hike.  For the hardcore day hiker Mt. Tripyramid has two other peaks, South and Middle that can be obtained easily in one day.  I was told that the col between North and Middle peaks was in especially bad condition due to the soft snow and ice.  An interesting fact is that although the South Peak stands at 4,100ft it is not listed on New Hampshire's 4,000 footer list because of the technicality that distinguishes whether a 4,000 footer is a true summit.  That being that it is less than 200ft above the col on the ridge from Middle Tripyramid.  The Middle peak is listed on the 4,000 footer list at 4,140ft.

For some reason I'm obsessed with photographing trail signs....

Again, the beautiful Sandwich Range Wilderness.  It features a handful of rugged steep peaks barely over 4,000ft, great history, accessibility via main routes, and it less hiked than most regions in the White Mountains. It makes for some great hiking for folks who like to be alone.  Like me.

Of course no good day hike is complete without stopping for a few frosty ones right off of rt.16 at the Whittier House in West Ossipee. This place has kick ass food, good beer and a wooden bear.