loanshark
Active member
The plan was to meet at Livermore with a maximum wilderness size group to hike up to North and Middle Tripyramid. I was the first to arrive as I gave myself more than enough travel time in case of poor travel conditions. Promptly at 8 A.M. Rocket 21 came rolling in. He informed me it would be just the 2 of us. I guess if you had to have just one hiking partner the day after a 2 foot snow storm I had the right one. The hike started out easy enough. With the exception of two hikers who left just before us, the Livermore trail needed to be broken out. Not too difficult as the lower elevations only had a couple of inches of new snow. As a matter of fact the two earlier hikers almost didn't carry their snow shoes. Only after I suggested there was probably a significnat amout of new snow higher up did they decide to include them. The middle part of the Livermore Trail is absolutely loaded with blowdowns. It will take some doing to clear them all. As you approach the Mt Tripyramid Trail Junction the snow starts to increase but the blowdowns stop. At the junction we noticed the earlier hikers decided to attempt the slide. We opted for Scaur Ridge. Jeremy decided to bushwack from the juntion to the ridge perhaps saving a half mile round trip. It was steep but since we were in hardwoods there were no spruce traps. The bushwack went quickly and in no time we were on the Scaur Ridge Trail headed for Pine Bend. After the gully the trail got a little bit more difficult to follow as it takes a sharp right turn. Eventually we found the right course and reached the junction without much delay. We took a short break here, had a snack, put on another layer and a couple of photos. The snow was above the trail sign, only the top of the post was visable. Pine bend was loaded with lean overs and blowdowns. It made staying exactly on trail difficult. This was my 3rd trip up here, and Jeremy's 10th. He had a very strong knowlege of the trail location. The steep portion of the trail was tough. You would take a step forward and slide back. By the time we reached the North Peak I felt like a climbed it twice. The trip over to Middle peak went smoothly till just before the western outlook. There was a drift here that towered over us. It took me quite a while to clear this section. No views to speak of. One quick summit shot and we were headed back. Half way back to North Peak we ran into the other two hikers. They succeeded in climbing the slide. Nice going. When we started to come back down North Peak we found our trail had been all but covered as it snowed all day. Nice, we had to break trail both ways. It seemed to take no time to reach the bushwack and then back to the Livermore Trail. This hike drained me. I mentioned the Livermore Trail started to resemble a Lincoln Woods Death March. We made it out in pretty good time. What a great Day. Thanks to Jeremy for being such a great trail breaker.
http://outdoors.webshots.com/album/576873722vydygQ?vhost=outdoors
http://outdoors.webshots.com/album/576873722vydygQ?vhost=outdoors
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