What a beautiful day to hike Mt. Eisenhower! One challenging water crossing but well worth the terrific views of the mountains covered with newly fallen snow!
Steve VanSeters prepared an amazing video of our hiking over the past year (Oct 2022-Oct 2023). The intention was to debut the video at our end of year celebration, which was cancelled due to concern of the recent rise in Covid for our area. The video is just wonderful to watch... A lovely reflection of so many trails, vistas and good times with friends and fellow Over the Hill Hikers.
Many thanks to Steve for this video, and to all who help keep the OTHH going strong. To each of you who led a hike, a walk, or hosted a soup and snowshoe, THANK YOU! To all of you that drove us to trailheads and returned us safely to our parked cars afterwards, Thank you! And of course, to each of you who keep the A, B's, Turtles, Walkers, Snowshoers, Blog, Cookies, Cakes, and bubbly going, a very special thanks. It certainly takes a village... and we have a great one that we continue to celebrate since 1979.
On Oct. 17, a group of Turtle hikers climbed North and Middle Sugarloaf. They had a great time and saw some nice color between the clouds and the interesting boulders.
It was a cool but mostly cloudy fall day for a hike up the Blueberry Ledge Trail to Mt Whiteface. We went the 0.3 mile extra past the open ledge spot "up top" (which many have mistaken as the summit) to the very small summit cairn of Whiteface. There Dick and Katherine had a quick lunch, surrounded by trees (no view at the actual summit), then retraced back to the viewpoint and on down. Meanwhile, Pam and Laura, who had gone on ahead, finished the trip over the Rollins Trail to Dicey's Mill Trail, up to Passaconaway, and down DM to the cars (and beat Dick & Katherine there!).
Below is an interesting shot looking out from one of the open ledge areas below the "top" one. The Ossipee Range can be seen in the distance poking up above the clouds.
As you know, the Over the Hill Hikers was established in Sandwich, NH in 1979. Many of the local friends and neighbors of the time started marching in the Sandwich Fair Parade each year. It became tradition, and not only is winning a prize for best in our category (walking adults group) fun, the crowd loves us and cheers for us as we march behind the band doing a stick routine with our hiking poles.
Many years have passed since 1979, and we are the second and third (when the grandchildren are in town) generation of Over the Hill Hikers. Our footprint now has expanded outside Sandwich, to include our neighboring communities of Moultonborough, Center Harbor, Meredith, etc. Our routine is still entertaining, and our spirit and enthusiasm is going strong. It's a fun tradition, just like the comfort of fried dough and Italian sausage rolls.
Ten of us made the trek to Brenton to hike the beautiful Black Mtn. Scenic views of Vermont, Moosilauke Mountain, and as far over to Cannon, Lincoln and Lafayette. The fall colors were gorgeous, and a peaceful stop to see the Kilns added to the trip.
A large group of Turtle hikers returned to Hamlin-Eames-Smyth conservation area in Meredith. This time, we again hiked the yellow trail to Crockett's Ledge, but we then continued on the red trail, making a loop that included walking along the shore of Lake Wicwas.
.jpg)
Ann, Christine, Nancy, Monty, Peter, Robyn, Mary, Tracy, Lin, Doug, Paul, John, Ricky
Seven of the OTHH made the long hike in to the aptly named Mt Isolation on a beautiful, clear, but somewhat warm October day. A good part of the Rocky Branch Trail is quite wet, making for a prolonged rock-hop with water running down between. Two short bushwhacks let us skip the first four of the river crossings, but higher up we encountered a lot more wet trail. But after five hours of this we got to the clear, dry summit, with wonderful views all around, particularly to the north to Mt Washington and the southern presidential and NE to the Carters. Below, at the summit, are Larry, Marie, Dick, Pat, Pam, and Deb (pic by Andy). In the background, above Pat's white hat, is Mt Washington, with Mt Monroe to the left of Larry.
Then it was time to follow the same route back out. By the time we were back at the cars, we had covered perhaps 13 miles, over ten hours, and all of us were more than ready to get off our sore feet and on the road home.
