Teamed up with Ray "Jazzbo" Caron for a great spring bushwhack in the Smarts Brook area, ascending through a trailless bowl to a view ledge on the steep flank of Black Mountain. Bare ground and open hardwoods were the rule this day - hardly a smidgen of snow up to 2550 ft. of elevation.
The cascade on Smarts Brook is in good flow.
A bed frame is hidden in the brush at a logging camp site near the Smarts Brook Trail.
A brook courses through the large beaver meadow alongside the Smarts Brook Trail. Black Mountain in the distance.
Heading up the brook that drains the big hardwood bowl.
The brook's many cascades are flush with snowmelt and recent spring rains.
Ray admires a sluice-like cascade.
This waterfall is the nameless brook's showpiece.
Side view.
Big leaner.
Fallen giant.
Lightning strike?
I've seen this chaga tree before.
One of many large sugar maples on this slope.
Ray works his way up the headwall of the bowl.
Neighbors.
Jaws.
Near the top, an inviting corridor leads to bluebird skies.
There are many interesting trees to admire up here.
A steep climb through rocky spruce forest leads to the ledge.
A wide view to the south, centered on the trailless, little-known Campton Range.
The sweep of the Squam Range off to the southeast. We lounge here for a long time in the warm spring sun.
Zoom on the east end of Sandwich Notch with Red Hill and the Belknap Range in the distance.
Carefully descending.
Back down to the sun-washed hardwoods.
Heading back down through the bowl.
Afternoon light on the waterfall.
Waterslide.
Ray shows me a huge burl he had spotted on the way up.
Evening at the beaver meadow.
Wow! Biggest burl I've ever seen. My daughter (and hiking partner) Prema is crazy about burls, she'd love to see that one.
ReplyDeleteThat's one of the largest I've ever come across! It's not too far up along this brook from the Smarts Brook Trail.
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