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At the summit, we stopped and I got ready to
take Muffin's picture. Suddenly, I realized that her backpack was missing.
"Why didn't you say something?!" I complained. Muffin just looked
confused. Grumbling, I retreated back down the steep trail as Muffin
followed behind. I was hoping that it had come off just around the bend.
Several bends, and over 200 vertical feet later, I finally found it next
to the trail where it had fallen off as Muffin made her way around some
rocks. "Next time," I told her as we re-climbed the steep section.
"Bark or whine or something if your pack comes off. Your food is in
there!" I expected her to to look guilty, but she just didn't get it.
Back at the summit cairn, I took her picture
as she sat smiling on a rock. Then we strolled over to the nearby
viewpoint to have a snack and look down at Mt Tecumseh and Waterville
Valley.
After a short rest, we were on our way again,
and we quickly reached the insignificant summit of Middle Tripyramid,
which has restricted views east to Mts Whiteface and Passaconaway. Knowing that we still had quite a ways to go, we stopped
just long enough to take a picture, then headed toward the South Slide, where we planned on
turning onto the Kate Sleeper
Trail.
Along the way, we passed an interesting flat
rock in the middle of the trail, and then a narrow slit between some large
boulders that I had dubbed "fat dog's misery" the last time I was on
Mt Tripyramid. Muffin squeezed carefully through (I checked to make sure she
didn't lose her pack again), but larger dogs would have to go around it.
We passed South Tripyramid, which is not an
official 4000-footer, without stopping. Soon after that, we reached the
top of the South Slide, where there were great views to south and west.
We started down the South Slide diagonally,
crossing over to the left (east) side so we wouldn't miss the Kate Sleeper
Trail junction, carefully picking our way down the loose rocks as we
descended. Once we cleared the trees that bordered the slide on the west,
there were great views back to Waterville Valley and Mt Tecumseh. |
Muffin
on the summit of North Tripyramid. I took this picture after we retrieved
her pack some 200 vertical feet back down the trail. |
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