past peak color now, it's that time of year when a lot of my outdoor time is spent doing lawn & garden shut down chores: digging the potatoes, canning tomato and apple sauces, rebuilding compost piles with this years leaves and the last of the grass clippings.
despite all that, pam and i have been hiking at least once a week. two weekends back--right at peak color--pam went solo up to cole pond while i did garden stuff. her account was not as colorful as the pictures, but that might have been hard to match.
the next day, we both went up cardigan along with 'the squirrel', aka sawyer. i was in charge of transporting FOC, friends of cardigan, t-shirts to and from the orange fall festival so we got an early start. that was a good thing as the trails got more and more crowded as we came down.
at the top, i spotted the family we had been criss-crossing with on the way up and asked the kids "would you like to see the carving of the girl who chased her handkerchief over the cliff?" soy thought that was a bit bold, but they seemed game--that and their parents came with!
the family posed above the fading image and 188? date carved into the ledge.
when we got back down and to the upper parking lot, i had my key with me and opened up the cellar where the clivus multrum lives. sawyer was game to see the innards of a composting toilet. it was filling up with tp and would have to raked down soon. i actually biked up there thursday and took a picture of the works after i had consolidated things, but before spreading shavings, and 'watering' with the biological.
it's not too bad of job if folks remember to close the toilet seat lids--that keeps the fly population down. this summer wasn't too bad even with people forgetting.
last weekend pam and i went up the wolfboro road where last fall and again this summer we ran into the granite state offroad groups. we were hoping not to see them again. on the way up, i fixed my stream diversion project from july and built a second one where a good bit of water was flowing right down the trail. it was just us at the south peak. we stopped for water, a snack, and a photo shoot with pam demo-ing her leak picker uppers!
on the way down we didn't cross paths with any hikers, bikers, or four wheeled vehicles. which made for a very relaxed jaunt. we drove an alternative road home to go by the andrew place and see if they had any eggs for sale. about half way out, a half dozen or so jeeps and one truck were popping out of the woods at the top of love joy brook road--the end vehicle in front of us had a granite state offroad sticker on its rear window!
that made us both laugh. we were still smiling, even though there were no eggs in the farm stand fridge. the hike was peaceful and beautiful, despite being past peak--a lovely day to go outside and play!
despite all that, pam and i have been hiking at least once a week. two weekends back--right at peak color--pam went solo up to cole pond while i did garden stuff. her account was not as colorful as the pictures, but that might have been hard to match.
the next day, we both went up cardigan along with 'the squirrel', aka sawyer. i was in charge of transporting FOC, friends of cardigan, t-shirts to and from the orange fall festival so we got an early start. that was a good thing as the trails got more and more crowded as we came down.
at the top, i spotted the family we had been criss-crossing with on the way up and asked the kids "would you like to see the carving of the girl who chased her handkerchief over the cliff?" soy thought that was a bit bold, but they seemed game--that and their parents came with!
the family posed above the fading image and 188? date carved into the ledge.
when we got back down and to the upper parking lot, i had my key with me and opened up the cellar where the clivus multrum lives. sawyer was game to see the innards of a composting toilet. it was filling up with tp and would have to raked down soon. i actually biked up there thursday and took a picture of the works after i had consolidated things, but before spreading shavings, and 'watering' with the biological.
it's not too bad of job if folks remember to close the toilet seat lids--that keeps the fly population down. this summer wasn't too bad even with people forgetting.
last weekend pam and i went up the wolfboro road where last fall and again this summer we ran into the granite state offroad groups. we were hoping not to see them again. on the way up, i fixed my stream diversion project from july and built a second one where a good bit of water was flowing right down the trail. it was just us at the south peak. we stopped for water, a snack, and a photo shoot with pam demo-ing her leak picker uppers!
on the way down we didn't cross paths with any hikers, bikers, or four wheeled vehicles. which made for a very relaxed jaunt. we drove an alternative road home to go by the andrew place and see if they had any eggs for sale. about half way out, a half dozen or so jeeps and one truck were popping out of the woods at the top of love joy brook road--the end vehicle in front of us had a granite state offroad sticker on its rear window!
that made us both laugh. we were still smiling, even though there were no eggs in the farm stand fridge. the hike was peaceful and beautiful, despite being past peak--a lovely day to go outside and play!
