Sentinel Mt. - 1680'

Sentinel Mountain

August 30, 2008

After two weeks of shuttling scholars somewhere we were back on the trail. The Ossipee area is getting some buzz now that a good trail map has materialized. 

An overcast day minimized the view from the top. Looking out over Dan Hole Pond toward Camp Sentinel. 

The obligatory call with Canaan Mt. over Muh's shoulder.

Muh checking out our first cache in a long time. A pretty lame one.

The highlight of the day was finding and picking about a pint of delicious blackberries on the way down.

There were even a few wild raspberries...which tasted "interesting."

Arethusa Falls - 2000'

Arethusa Falls

August 10, 2008

Little Missy came home from her summer research and we took the long drive up to Crawford Notch to visit Arethusa Falls. The trail was in miserable shape. Tons of tourists ripping up the muddy trail. Tourists? Yes, the kind who thought we were geniuses for bringing "ski poles" with us.

The babes and the scenery were photogenic today.

Purple fungus!

Falls and Dolls

The whole gang (-1)...

Who's the Mommy and who's the daughter?

The "model" pose...

Duh's getting some sugar...

Sunset Hill - 1800'

August 2, 2008

Muh had an ulterior motive on this one. We had to combine a quick hike with a trip to the spectacular New Hampshire League of Craftsman's Fair. We parked in The Fells parking lot and went across the street to the Sunset Hill trail head. This was pretty much a blind hike. We had no idea what to expect. The view from the top was a bit obscured.



The Fair was across Lake Sunapee at the base of the ski area (of which we had a good view).




A few Indian Pipes casting long shadows.

Greeley Ponds

July 19, 2008

Seeking a cool height-of-the-summer trip we took off for a relatively flat destination hike to the lower and upper Greeley Ponds in Mad River Notch. Seclusion. Beauty.

A nice surprise on the way home was finding Half Baked on Main St. in Lincoln. Duh had a delicious savory rustic torte.

Can you identify these blue berries?




Muh soaking her dogs in Upper Greeley Pond with East Peak watching us. (Also, the obligatory on-call one bar phone call--I remember that Muh was talking to Wilkie that day.)





The reflection of one of Mt. Kancamagus' neighbors/



Duh must have said something...he knows that look :-)




Muh checking out some backwoods handiwork on the Greeley Ponds Trail. We parked at the Kanc trail head and pulled a U-turn at the upper pond.

Charles Ward Reservation

July 12

This was something out of the ordinary--a hike that was more-or-less local. The Charles Ward Reservation is a hidden gem. The most distinctive feature is Pine Hole Bog, a rare quaking bog. Very cool indeed. Mosquitoes cut our walk along the interpretive boardwalk short of our goal to find a pitcher plant.

The incredibly wet weather created ideal fungus fortune. Mushrooms of all sizes,, shapes and colors--including red, mauve, and blue!

Indian pipe

A very cool dew dripper.

Atop Holt Hill, at 420' Essex County's highpoint, is a solstice stone configuration.

The non-ski area side of Boston Hill is crowned with Elephant Rock.

The same wet weather that gave rise to the fungus also filled tire rut pools with juvenile frogs.

Gunstock - 2245'

June 21, 2008

Yard work was calling so we settled for a short jaunt up Gunstock from the end of the carriage road. Not bad when you can drive half way up :-) This was a a good 700' climb. The trail was close to being overgrown a bit in spots. Unfortunately, there was a bit of trash along the way--a good bit of which we packed out. It was very interesting to arrive at the summit to see the chairlift. Weird seeing such an unnatural site.

When you fail to charge the camera battery you don't get to take any photos :-(

Mt. Mexico - 2020'

June 14, 2008

Here is a hike that would be fabulous for kids. Big Rock Cave Trail heading out of Wonolancet was an easy hike with a fun destination. Mt. Mexico has no view from the top, but just a little bit further down the trail is big pile of erratics that kids would love to explore. Our trip had a very large bonus--hundreds of Lady Slippers, both pink and white (which we had never seen).

This toad was fist-sized:




The top side of one of the erratics had plenty of stuff growing out of it:




White Lady Slippers:



And the Pink:



Inside the "cave":



Muh peeking inside:

Alpine Garden

June 7, 2008

Clear at the bottom 50' visibility on top (if that). Mt. Washington--holy smoke! How can you not take great photos here? The drive up the auto road was hairy to say the least. The visibility was nearly 0' even before the fog lines start on the roadway. I was very happy to see the fog lines! Unfortunately, we couldn't see the parking lot for the Alpine Garden on the way up. We got to the top before we figured that out :-)

With the visibility so bad, we actually decided to take a nap in the car at the top waiting for the cloud cover to burn off. Wishful thinking! After an hour we (literally) felt our way to the summit building. Call me paranoid, but I actually got out the GPS and set a waypoint at the car. We literally waled twenty feet and saw nothing in any direction. Pretty scary.

After a brief stay at the top and visiting the museum we headed back down to cut our losses...but not before getting a snap of Muh:

Surprise! We could see the Alpine Garden lot on the way down and quickly turned in and headed down the trail.

Cairns leading up Nelson Crag:

Red-tipped goblet lichen:

Muh checking out the view of Wildcat and its Carter neighbors:

Diapensia aplenty:

Alpine Azalea:

Bearberry Willow:

Deer's-hair Sedge:

Lapland Rosebay:

Adams and Madison with the Auto Road in the foreground:

Wonalancet Range Trail

May 17, 2008

What a downer. Sometimes you're just not into it. The Porta-Potty at the trail head might have been the highlight. It just started off wrong. We're not keen on hiking sideways which is how Wonalancet Range Trail starts off. We turned around just before Short Cut and called it a day. 113A looked a lot different than the last time we were here during/after a foot of snow a couple of months ago! No more 8-10 foot snowbanks...though there still were snowbanks in some shaded areas.









A very cool fungus.



A lone painted trillium.

Lows Bald Spot

May 10, 2008

Oh what a glorious hike this was. My favorite hike...ever. We left the AMC's Joe Dodge Lodge amidst a large flock of spring skiers. It must be nice to be that young. We saw a teenager taking off on his hike up Tuckerman Ravine in jeans. Yikes.

I was afraid that Old Jackson Road would end up being some wide carriage path. Bzzt. I pity the poor folks who used this for a road--if they ever did. Steep. Strewn with large rocks. Beautiful.

Muh's checking out one of many nice cascades and the first load of moose droppings we saw. Once we crossed the auto road onto the Madison Gulf Trail we saw a pile every 5 feet. For us, it was remarkable. (It took a lot of coaxing to get Muh that close! :-)



Muh's usually a good navigator but she was going to go straight here. Another mile or so and we hit a couple hundred yards of snow by the bog bridges...on May 10.



The scramble on Madison Gulf was well-rewarded--as was the decision to continue the final 100 "blind" yards from the "faux" bald spot tot he real McCoy.

Muh-N-Duh enjoying the spectacular view toward Gorham.




360 degree views:
Chocorua



Wildcat



Huntington Ravine



Adams and Madison



Adams made a great backdrop:





A mother and her daughters drove up the Auto Road to the small parking lot where Old Jackson Road intersects and made the 5 minute hike to Lows Bald Spot. Maybe the biggest payoff for a 5 minute hike in US. One of the daughters was kind enough to memorialize our trip with a rare shot of Muh-N-Duh together.



The flowers were just barely starting to poke out. (Trout Lily)