| Hiking Trail Conditions Report |
 | Peaks |
Scaur Peak, Middle Tripyramid, North Tripyramid, Fool Killer, NH |
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 | Trails: |
Pine Bend Brook Trail, herd paths, Mt. Tripyramid Trail, Sabbaday Brook Trail, bushwhack, road walk |
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 | Date of Hike: |
Tuesday, August 24, 2021 |
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 | Parking/Access Road Notes: |
I was the second car to park roadside by the Pine Bend Brook Trail ya 8:30am. When I returned (sometime roughly around 4pm??) there were maybe a half dozen cars parked roadside. |
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 | Surface Conditions: |
Dry Trail, Wet Trail, Wet/Slippery Rock, Standing/Running Water on Trail, Mud - Minor/Avoidable, Mud - Significant |
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 | Recommended Equipment: |
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 | Water Crossing Notes: |
The rocks were wet but mostly above water. The crossings on Pine Bend Brook Trail we’re reading rock hopable. On Sabbaday Brook Trail, no wading was needed but they were harder to rock hop without getting your feet wet in trail runners. I think I had to step on one barely submerged rock. |
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 | Trail Maintenance Notes: |
Not much blaze on this route as so much of it is in the Sandwich Range Wilderness. Before the wilderness boundary, Pine Bend Brook Trail is blazed occasionally in some very old looking yellow paint. Its becoming a bit overgrown at times near its start. Sabbaday Brook Trail has the occasional blaze as well once below the boundary and is also yellow but doesn’t look quite so old. Both are well trodden and easy to follow although it’s easy to get a little tripped up on Sabbaday Brook Trail right before the last crossing of the Brook (if descending) in the area of some campsites; stay to the right of the campsites if descending. Note that the sign for the Mt Tripyramid Trail at its jct with Pine Bend Brook Trail just below the summit of North Tripyramid is off of its post and is sitting on the ground; hopefully someone who knows what they’re doing can fix it. I don’t remember any blowdowns but two days after the hike with a memory like this, that isn’t saying much 😜 Of course there’s mucho erosion at times on the Pine Bend Brook Trail and along the ridgeline. I believe Sabbaday was mostly empty when I drove by around 8:30am in the morning. Much fuller sprung 3:30pm but it still had some spaces I believe. Lots of tourists just going to Sabbaday Falls. |
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 | Dog-Related Notes: |
I think I saw one or two. They seemed to be doing fine. Ample water on these trails. A little bit of scrambling but most hiking dogs could probably handle it. If you trust them on bushwhacks, then I guess go for it. |
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 | Bugs: |
Not bad as I recall. |
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 | Lost and Found: |
I found a set of winter gloves on my descent of Sabbaday Brook Trail. If I recall correctly, they were fairly high up on the trail above where I started by bushwhack to the Fool Killer: probably between 3200 and 3500ft. If they’re yours, let me know :) If not, I can always use an extra set ;) Lucky me, I also found a set of trekking poles right at the summit of the Fool Killer. Looked like they’d been there a little while. Being well known for bending, breaking, and losing my own I took them ;P But, if they’re yours, I’ll gladly give them back! |
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 | Comments: |
My 11th time on the Tripyramids for my grid. My 10th and 11th grid peaks out of 20 needed for this month. My first time on Scaur Peak and on the Fool Killer. A hot and humid day.
Some puddles/pooling of water near the beginning of Pine Bend Brook Trail and some very soft/muddy trail. The vegetation was still wet at 9am which made me realize for the first time that the first part of the trail is becoming a bit overgrown at times. Upon finishing the stiff climb up to the col between North Tripyramid and Scaur Peak, I began looking for a herd path to Scaur Peak as I thought there was a descent chance there’d be some sign of something leading that way to start. Sure enough, in the most likely spot, I found one (there was a bit of evidence of another one shortly before that I didn’t go down as it didn’t look quite as promising and I wasn’t just at the col yet). I followed it toward Scaur Peak and was surprised to find that it more or less took me the entire way there. It is very well defined to start, goes through some brushy areas where it’s understandably less defined, picks up again for a bit but soon enough becomes less easy to follow as it splits off in various directions. It did take me through some hobblebush where it was barely defined about 1/3 of the way there. Nonetheless I felt like I was on some sort of path or another the entire way to the canister which was easy to find.
This was a very easy bushwhack since 1) it follows a ridge, 2) more or less has a herd path the entire way, 3) is short, 4) has descent woods/footing, and 5) isn’t too steep. Nevertheless, keeping in fashion, I had much more trouble following the herd paths back to trail. I even pulled out Gaia once to see if I was on/near a herd path(sure enough I was). Even then, hard to get lost as you just follow the ridge. Definitely not something someone wogg Th our any experience should do but also a good beginner bushwhack.
Back on trail, I made my way up to the north peak of Mount Tripyramid. The ridge starts off gently, then gets steep and a bit scrambly. There are pretty well defined herd paths around the scrambles on the ridge now. On the summit, I began to run into a couple people. I made my way over to Middle Peak where I had a nice long conversation with Stephanie and Kevin. A pleasure to meet you both! I headed back down to Sabbaday Brook Trail and made my way down the steep upper section of trail taking some care on the wet ledge. I only fell once! I hiked down to 3040ft where the trail turns sharply right shortly before its first brook crossing (if descending) and started whacking up to Fool Killer. Now taking a quick look at a map, my linear brain would’ve thought lost people head to the col between either the two peaks of the Fool Killer if not the col between it and North Tripyramid. Upon reading trail reports, I saw that no one seems to do this though and it would have added extra and unnecessary mileage particularly if I aimed for the latter. So I decided not to do that. My feet seemed to be very undecided if they’d take me to the col between the north and south (high point) peaks of the Fool Killer is directly there. I eventually got smart and just aimed straight for it. This is a short but steep whack. The woods were never bad although it looked at times like they could become so, they never did.
I made it to the ridge within the highest contour of the southern (highest) peak and only had to walk a very short distance to the high point and canister. I signed in, attached the poles I found there to my pack, and walked a little further south within the highest contour and saw some views through the trees back to south and middle Tripyramid on my right and out toward Mount Potash and the surrounding area on my left. From there, I made my way back down, actually crossing my track I’d made on the way up and having to correct a bit. I crossed the brook a short ways above where I did coming in and made my way back to the trail. No herd paths on this one except perhaps from where I started to where you cross the mossy brook.
I then made the long way down Sabbaday Brook Trail. I had only been on it once before in winter so it wS nice to revisit it. Lots of people out enjoying the falls down low :) |
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 | Name: |
Liam Cooney |
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 | E-Mail: |
liamcooney96@gmail.com |
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| Date Submitted: |
2021-08-26 |
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 | Link: |
 https:// |
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Disclaimer: Reports are not verified - conditions may vary. Use at own risk. Always be prepared when hiking. Observe all signs. Trail conditions reports are not substitutes for weather reports or common sense. |
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