Summer Morning Hikes

Pre-work morning hikes to beat the heat during a hot, humid spell.

IRENE SLIDE: 7/27/19

A quick morning bushwhack to a Tropical Storm Irene slide that scarred the lower slope of the long northeastern spur of East Osceola.

Bottom up view.

View of Mt. Huntington.

Steep slabs.

 Hazy Franconia Ridge and the Lincoln Slide in the distance.

Not a long slide, but still impressive.

EAST POND: 7/29/19

Nice hike for a sunny, muggy morning. Up East Pond Trail from Tripoli Road to the pond and on to the col between West Osceola and Scar Ridge. Birdsong was strong for this late in July, with 17 species noted.


Morning at East Pond.

 Timbers and dam from the short-lived Tripoli Mill operation (1911-1919), in which diatomaceous earth (aka tripolite, sometimes shortened to tripoli) was dredged from the pond and sent down to the mill in the valley, alongside the Woodstock & Thornton Gore logging railroad. http://whitemountainhistory.org/Livermore_Tripoli_Co.html

Water lobeila along the pond's edge. (Thanks to Rick Barrie for the ID).

East Scar Ridge, not noted as a favorite bushwhack destination by many.

Pleasant stretch of the trail along the west shore.

View from a rock on the north shore.

Bushwhacked a ways along the broad plateau north of the pond.

The East Pond Trail climbs at a comfortable grade to the 3100-ft. height-of-land.

A peek down at the pond from the trail.

The trail in the ferny col.

 This saddle is a lovely place, though the bushwhacking up the ridge on either side is not so alluring.

View from the west shore of East Pond, looking up at the ridge I ascended to West Osceola a week earlier. While I was sitting here, a ruby-throated hummingbird briefly checked me out, perhaps hoping my bright yellow shirt was a giant nectar-filled flower.