After a short approach on Old Waterville Road and the Yellow Jacket Trail, I made first tracks through 5" of powder on the meandering "Ledges" mountain bike trail.
The Ledges trail leads through several open hemlock glades.
Turkey track.
The ledges that give the trail its name.
A mottled sky over the lower of the two Black Mountains on the SW ridge of Sandwich Dome.
Starting a bushwhack through a vast hardwood area behind the ledges.
One of the premier pleasures of winter is weaving a fresh snowshoe track through open hardwoods.
Reaching for the sky.
After rounding the corner of a ridge, I entered a beautiful hardwood basin with a small stream running down through it.
Acres of hardwoods, as far as the eye can see.
Sapsucker work on a hemlock.
A natural stone wall.
Looking up at a familiar ledgy ridge.
Boulders galore.
Into the conifers.
More ledges.
A hardwood flat at the base of Bald Knob.
Snowshoe hare.
Pristine snow on the Bald Knob ledges.
Jennings Peak.
Middle & South Tripyramid.
Looking west to Welch and Dickey with Mt. Moosilauke in the distance.
Carr, Kineo and Cone.
South to the Campton Range.
Ledges....
...and more ledges.
Looking to Sandwich Notch.
Heading back up.
Conway Granite.
Sandwich Dome and the higher Black Mountain (traversed by the Algonquin Trail).
Gnarled red pines.
Icy overhang along the descent route.
Bald Knob Cliff, known to climbers.
One of hundreds of boulders on the steep SW slope of Bald Knob.
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