i haven't posted in a long while--since may actually, when there was still snow on the ground! it was definitely not for lack of adventures...
pam and i have been hiking pretty much once or twice a week--and given she always has her phone, we've even taken a few pictures:
blueberries and cranberries up on cardigan...
an abandoned boat up in a peaceful cole pond...
a selfie of us smiling with no other hikers to social distance from up on firescrew--and the really cool clouds in the background...
we have also been swimming a good deal, although i couldn't get pam to dip into cole pond with me. it was cool, but she swims in maine in early july. speaking of maine, we got over to popham for the week of the 4th of july--no 'children' this year, but still fun to be on the beach. one evening just before the sun went down a wild storm blew through.
the other end arced over sequin light down to fox island.
before we got back to the bikes, we heard a hooting, snuffing, and snorting a little ways off the trail. it turned out to be a rather large bull moose, looking for a mate i assume. he semi-charged us to about 10 yards. i suggested to olivia she step behind the tree i was headed toward. she was mid-trail, exclaiming, "oh wow! oh my gosh! that's like the third moose i've ever seen." though the ride down was super sweet--fast but never furious--compared to the moose, it was somewhat beaucoup moins dramatique.
besides hiking and swimming, i have been biking quite a bit, trying for a couple hundred every week, with at least one 50+ miler. for some of the shorter 'local' rides i have coaxed along former students from MOC. dirk, justin, olivia, laura, zoey, ryder have all done at least part of my favorite local route, starting right out of our dooryard.
the figure eight-eight is fast becoming a classic, especially if i save the 'woot woot' section for the end. at least that's rowan's opinion. we pedaled out of the dooryard, up townhill, down toward bear pond, over and down to the rail trail, up the x-c trail to south road, over to the snowmobile trail that goes down to mud pond road, back up south road to the top of the x-c trail, down to the rail trail, back over toward bear pond, back up to townhill, and down into the dooryard--the F88.
the proverbial kid in a candy store, rowan was eyeing all the natural elements that he could send some funky trick off of. i got videos of two--going 'up & over' a large~ish rock and a 'smooth' log crossing.
for the last couple of fridays--with fewer tricks involved but just as much fun--olivia and i have been biking-hiking a mtn to catch sunrise. it has been a dark early start, but the payoff has been grand! two fridays ago, we went up cardigan, leaving our bikes off about half way. though it was sort of rainy and cloudy, there was a thin band of clear-ness at the eastern horizon--just so we could see a dramatic sunrise.
before we got back to the bikes, we heard a hooting, snuffing, and snorting a little ways off the trail. it turned out to be a rather large bull moose, looking for a mate i assume. he semi-charged us to about 10 yards. i suggested to olivia she step behind the tree i was headed toward. she was mid-trail, exclaiming, "oh wow! oh my gosh! that's like the third moose i've ever seen." though the ride down was super sweet--fast but never furious--compared to the moose, it was somewhat beaucoup moins dramatique.
last friday, we biked up wolfboro road and turned onto the AT headed toward the south peak of moose mtn.--the name withstanding, we didn't see any large ungulates this time. and when i say 'biked up', that is a relative statement. some of the time we were actually pedaling, but there is a substantial rocky section where we had to dismount and push. there is quite a bit of really fun riding above that, so the push is worth it.
up higher on the AT, where the trail gets fairly 'rooty', we left the bikes and hoofed it to the top where we caught a much clearer, brilliant sunrise than up on cardigan. another pose by olivia sets a precedent and will be repeated...
the summer's hikes, bikes, swims...even garden work and a socially distanced 'nice family yoga' session out in the yard, have been rich. and if these pictures do anything, i hope they inspire your own adventures--'go outside and play!'
olivia had her phone out a couple of times and caught me going up and coming down...
not to be left out of outdoor adventures, pam has been plotting to hike smarts mtn for a while and sunday we finally did it. we both really love the hike and somehow our coronavirus-social distance timing was pretty good for a beautiful sunday on a holiday weekend. (don't forget it's now indigenous people's day!) we made our loop up the AT to the ranger trail and down. that avoided a much crowded summit, at least if the full parking lot at the bottom was any indication.
the AT section is up a fairly steep, spiny mile to a beautiful overlook that gets a lot of attention. if you scroll around goap! you will see this view a good number of times, throughout the seasons.
from the outcrop, you follow a ridge, in and out of softwoods, for more than a mile before dropping down into the hardwoods. climbing out of there you get back into mostly spruce and fir again, where in wetter times you can be wading through standing water. pam even calls it "the marsh".
much to her enjoyment, pam is on instagram and loves to take photos and share them around. down in the dip among the beech on the AT--before the marsh--pam spotted a "cute little nest" tucked into the crook of a small tree, only a couple feet off the ground.
we had just seen a bunch of smaller birds--at least two veeries and several others, mostly warblers of an unknown species. i noted how all of the birds were busy feeding and silent--save for rustling the leaves. i was guessing they would be headed south any day now.
the ranger trail was formerly the AT until some time in the 80s. as we stopped at the slowly decaying garage next to a fairly big creek crossing, even in dry times, three older hikers came past. one of them had thru-hiked the whole AT in '78, walking this section before the switch put it up on the ridge.
this shot was down the final mile or so of the ranger trail. we are past peak leaf, but the light and color makes for a spectacular path.
whenever we hike i try to help with trail maintenance and had been clearing the smaller blowdowns today all along. a good deal of high wind episodes had fell plenty of obstacles. at some point, i remembered the pair of telemark skis i had picked up for pam and thought, "this would be a perfect 'backcountry' first experience. from there on i was removing anything that could distract a skier.
the summer's hikes, bikes, swims...even garden work and a socially distanced 'nice family yoga' session out in the yard, have been rich. and if these pictures do anything, i hope they inspire your own adventures--'go outside and play!'
