Boulder Loop

Boulder Loop Trail runs off the north side of the Kancamagus Highway's east end. Even though we stopped at the Saco Ranger's Office for a map and annual White Mountain National Forest parking sticker we forgot the blasted interpretive guide to the trail! It must have been informative--there were about 20 viewpoint trail markers.

This was a nice hike. Steady climb up and down. The eastern part of the loop was undergoing some trail maintenance. The footing on the way down that section was a little loose. We almost made the 3.1 mile loop without seeing anyone. We ran into a mother and daughter about 300 yards from the trail head.

Just in case you were wondering why they call it Boulder Loop:

I'm sure kids get from Point A (the little patch of trail visible under the boulder) to the camera's vantage Point B by climbing under the boulder. We acted our age and climbed around.

The trail curls around a huge U-shaped ledge. From the western edge we got a nice glimpse of the Swift River peeking through and (NH) Sugarloaf in the distance.

This is an unusual view of Chocorua from the north with Blue Mt in the foreground, left.

From the eastern edge of the ledge another shot of Chocorua and the sheer western ledge. I have to admit being a bit uncomfortable "au natural" without a safety railing on those ledges.

Mount Major - 1786'

A "Major" step up for us!

Alton is so nice. Not the hustle and bustle of other lake areas. We got some nice deli sandwiches "downtown" at 9am at a delicious country store that had heavenly-smelling freshly baked bread.

We huffed and puffed all the way up the Brook Trail leap-frogging another family. We found this little orange salamander on one break.







What a beautiful 360 degree view from the top! A beautiful blue day, too. The wind at the top had us reaching for the second layer.





A wee bit early for lunch, I broke out the new Garmin GPS and said let's find burried treasure! I think Muh thought I was nuts! As I homed in on our first geochache she started to look like she believed I was actually looking for something and started looking too. Here she is posing with our first cache:



After lunch we went straight down the Main Trail. I guess we're getting old. That was pretty hairy--descending the steep expanses of slab. The old thighs might never be the same :-) I guess we'll be continuing with the "easy" hikes for a while. I thought we were in shape!

Basin-Cascades Trail

As we left the Flume we still had plenty of gas in the tank and I asked a Franconia State Park ranger how rigorous Mt. Pemigewasset (across the street) was. He confided that the place to be on a humid day was the Basin-Cascades Trail a couple miles down the street. Boy was he ever right!

The Basin, a granite pothole 20 feet in diameter, had wonderful light and made for some great photos.

We followed the very rooty Basic-Cascades Trail for a long half mile along Cascade Brook. Lots of ledge and potholes in the brook. We stopped for a few minutes to consider the sanity of a family swimming in the pool at the base of Kinsman Falls. A few minutes later marked our turnaround point--the first crossing of the brook.

On the way down we dropped our feet into the chilly brook while munching down our Big Boy's sandwiches.

A spectacular recommendation for a sticky day--the trail was remarkably cool. We'll be back.

The Flume

What do you do when it's 90 degrees and humid? Go a couple of hours north into the woods...where it's 90 degrees and humid! We didn't think it could possibly be that humid in the White Mountains.

We hadn't been to The Flume since our first family camping adventure about 18 years ago. I'm sure it hasn't changed but we sure didn't remember it. It was a nice easy stroll. We kind of wondered why they had rain shelters until we started getting poured on with no warning. We took a short 5 minute rest in a shelter we happened upon one a few minutes into the storm.

Believe it or not, I didn't notice the waterfall pouring on Muh's head:

The humidity made for some fabulous foggy light:

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: