North Tripyramid In A Rush

Winter has finally arrived here in the north country. I had yet to hit the ground hiking for the winter season, so my thoughts were focused on getting that "first winter hike" of the season done. Hiking in the winter is such a different experience than in the summer, and sometimes requires way more planning and effort into packing  your bag the night before. Motivation was all I needed.

When Josh and I have a day off together, it is never a full day. We have his daughter that we drive and pick up from school, which is about a half hour away from where we live. Our plans have to be very short and fast. So, taking a look at the map and debating on what would be the best plan for the 4 hours we had, we both settled on another 4k for him and a winter one for me. We chose to hit North Tripyramid, being that the trail head is only 20 minutes from home for us.

We decided to take Pine Bend Brook Trail. I also wanted to get this trail to mark off some of my red lines. Being unfamiliar with the trail the two of us decided what our turn around time would be in case we didn't think we could summit in time. I started with my micro spikes on and just my Vasque Pow Pow winter boots. Temps were in the teens and the sun was shining.

It would be an 8 mile round trip hike, which meant we had to average about 2mph in order to make our time of 4 hours back to the car. Luckily the trail conditions were completely packed out, and very crunchy or hard packed. Micro spikes did the job the entire way to the summit. Snowshoes would have been a  bit of overkill, considering some parts of the trail were so thin, my two feet could barely fit side by side in some spots.

This past summer was my first summer really trying to hike with minimal and lighter gear than what I have been used to for the last 4 years. I trained myself all summer to carry very little weight, but still have everything I would need in case of an emergency. Including switching out my heavy leather hiking boots for a light weight trail runner. Not realizing, I would be paying for it come winter.

The start of the hike was a nice easy grade, and as much as it didn't bother me, I knew the weight of my pack was slowing me down as well as my heavy winter boots and micro spikes on my feet. I just simply wasn't used to carrying the weight anymore. One of the biggest down falls in winter versus summer is how much water I now have to carry. Since I have invested in a sawyer mini, I have spent my summers with a small Nalgene of water and the filter as a back up when I will be hiker near water sources to replenish my supply as needed. Which in return keep my pack extra light.

Josh was nursing a cold and I am not sure he was really feeling 100% on this hike either, but we both continued to push forward and upward as quickly as we could. I have heard stories from others who say that going up the Tri's from the Kanc is brutal. Is a nice smooth flat approach and then a very quick steep ascent to the summit. They were all correct in that very description.

We continued pushing upwards and at times I was just about ready to quit, but I just stopped and took it all in. What felt like a never ending trail, I knew was coming slowly to an end. We finally made it to the summit with just enough time to take a few photos, eat quickly and grab a drink. Then we quickly descend back to the car, only to pass one single woman headed upwards.

Overall, it was a beautiful day and as much as we both wanted to give up so many times throughout, we managed to push ourselves to summit, and get back to the car with plenty of time to get home and shower before picking up Harper.

I have decided that, for the year of 2016 I am going to attempt hiking 2016 miles through out the year. This sure will be a huge task, but I will try my hardest to accomplish it. This was the start to checking those miles off.

8 miles down 2008miles to go.