Bradbury Mountain - 484'

Junior needed help moving so we went to Maine to help...taking a pit stop on the way. Our first peak in 25 years! Bradbury Mountain--all 484 feet of it :-)

We stopped off at Bean's for some real shoes and a day pack. Duh's first trip to Bean's in 30 years...even with the changes outside over that time, the inside was strangely familiar.

The blink-and-you-miss-it Summit Trail was straight up which made for a surprising expenditure of energy. (We did feel old when three teenaged girls "from away" blew by us in flip-flops.)

The trail markings were close to non-existent. As a matter of fact they were so bad that we picked a random well-worn return trail that wasn't on our trailmap. (How lost can you get going 484' straight down? :-) A trail map at the trailhead was more current. We had taken the Switchback Trail.

Muh proving that 484' in coastal Maine will get you a rewarding view:



Note the flip-flops! :-)

The Fells

After a trip to the New Hampshire League of Craftsman's fair (which is always fabulous) we were itchy to do something. Enter The Fells Ecology Trail at John Hay National Wildlife Refuge in Newbury, NH.

A pretty stiff "donation" had us looking for change in the car. The modern "art" lining the road to the trailhead just didn't fit. Two strikes should have been a warning!

The trail map was very informative but the rest of the crew was in brisk walk mode which made reading tough.

Thankfully, there's no "art" in this picture:

How did Duh get conned into crawling in there?

Muh-N-Duh:

Muh and Lauren at the edge of Lake Sunapee with Mount Sunapee on the other side of the lake.

Diana's Baths

Where to go for a first excursion? Lenny hooked us up with a "hike" into Diana's Baths. Easy and rewarding.

Indeed it was--easy and rewarding visually.

We proved our "newb" status by not realizing the need for a self-service parking pass until we were leaving.

Beautiful light in the woods with Muh:

Duh at the Baths: