Summertime Rambling

A few shots from a pair of recent half-day hikes.

 On a hot humid morning I went up on UNH Trail to see if I could do anything with a big messy blowdown, and found that the Saco Ranger District trail crew had taken it out in the previous couple of days. Big thanks!

The crew also gave the drainages on my section a bonus scouring and backfilling. Thanks again! I was able to spend some time doing brushing up to the summit of Hedgehog.

West view near summit of Hedgehog.

 West Sleeper, Tripyramids, Fool Killer and Scaur Peak.

 The huge Mt. Passaconaway and its eastern spurs.

 A Dark-eyed Junco was singing and keeping a watch on his territorry.

On a less humid morning I wandered around the pleasant five-mile East Ponds loop, one of our favorite half-day hikes. Two pieces of rail remain beside the Little East Pond Trail, reminders of the Woodstock & Thornton Gore logging railroad (1909-1914)

 I did a little bushwhacking to visit the runout from a slide that was freshly fallen in the 1870s. Two AMC explorers ascended this slide to Scar Ridge in 1877, and gave the mountain its name. Last summer I retraced their route up the old slide to the east summit knob of Scar. Only a few open patches are left on the slide.

 Little East Pond opens a nice view of shaggy Scar Ridge peaks.

 Sleepy Mallards.

 Looking good.

 East Pond Loop, which runs 1.5 miles between the two East Ponds, is one of our favorite rambling trails.

 Fern glade.

 East Pond, looking north to the Scar Ridge-Osceola col.

 Looking across the pond to spur ridges of West Osceola.