As a result of a cancellation due to rain, the Turtles scheduled hike of the Brooks Fisher trail, with an optional extension to Mt. Webster, occurred on two different days. On June 24, a group hiked to Mt. Webster, with a stop to admire the view:
On July 7, the same hike was offered again.
Mary, Karen, Irena, Lea, Ann
Nine from the B Group hiked Mt Roberts on a warm, but not too hot day. We saw a handful of other hikers including a group of 5-9 year-olds and their adult on some sort of outdoor adventure. The kids were having a great time and were focused on the outdoors, which was great to see.
After a hot, humid stretch to end the previous week, we had a very nice, sunny, tee-shirts & shorts kind of day for a walk up to Mt Moriah. This peak is the northern most one on the east side of Pinkham Notch. We took the Stony Brook trail up from rte 16 to its upper end at the Carter-Moriah trail, which runs up from Carter Dome and the Carters to Moriah. Continuing on the C-M trail, we passed over numerous open ledges, with great views to the east and southeast. Just before the trail peaks at the tiny side spur to the actual summit, there is a steep hands-on climb. Below, ascending this "nice little feature," are (bottom-up) Chris, Donna, Dave, and Charlie.
The views from the open ledge at the summit provide nice views southeast across the notch to Washington and the northern presidentials, south along the Carter peaks, east into Maine, and the closer neighbor Shelburne Moriah. Below, at the summit, are the six of us: Donna, Chris, Dick, Charlie, Dave, and Jolie.
Although the first stream crossing was a bit tricky, and the summit of Sandwich Dome was a bit buggy, Jennings and Sandwich Dome both had great views shared with great company. It was an awesome day in the mountains!
Seven of us OTHH took advantage of a day we found sunny and quite warm, but ahead of the building heat and humidity following, to hike up to Mt Liberty (4459 ft). We gathered at the Liberty Spring Trail parking area just to the north of the huge parking area for the Flume Gorge. Then it was around 3/4 of a mile along the paved but hilly bike path that runs along much of I-93 through Franconia Notch State Park. That was the easy part. Then it was a typical hiking trail for a while, climbing steadily but not too steeply over and around boulders. After crossing a few minor drainage streams and then rock-hopping carefully over the larger last of these, the trail got ever steeper and rockier. This stretch seemed to go on forever, until finally we reached the Liberty Spring tent site, noted for its ongoing bear "incident" problem. Onward and upward perhaps another 1/4 steep and rocky mile, we reached the intersection with the Franconia Ridge trail. It was up here that we saw the sign about the bear issue, while there had been no sign at the tent site (this time). No Yogi for us, so we pressed on and up the last 0.3 mile to the rocky summit, some 3185 ft higher than at the trailhead. The views from there are 360 degrees, looking first north up the ridge to Mt Lincoln, and sweeping around to Mt Garfield, the closer Owls Head long ridge, over to the Twins, east to the three peaks of "The Bonds," south to Mt Carrigain far off, the Loon Mountain ski area to the south, and finally across the notch to the Kinsmans, Lonesome Lake, and finally the easily recognized Cannon Cliff.
Pictured below is our gang of seven, atop Liberty, (L-R) Donna, Ginger, Mary, Michele, Dick, and Pat, with Chris perched on a higher rock behind.
Most of us decided to skip Mt Flume and just head down. Chris and Donna chose to "go the extra mile" (actually 1.2, each way) to bag Mt Flume, then return to Liberty for the descent. This added nearly another 1000 ft of elevation gain and two hours to their day. Below are Donna and Chris atop Flume, with Mt Liberty behind them.
We had a relatively cool day, for late June, for a hike three miles up the Crawford Path to the top of Mt Pierce (4310'). As we passed along the last stretch through the very short trees and into the clearing at the trail junction with the Webster Cliff trail, we could feel just how cool it was up there. We had to layer up to ward off the breeze and temperature in the mid 50s. While there had been some chance of showers during the hike up, none materialized. Mt Eisenhower, off just to the north, was in and out of the clouds, but Mt Monroe and Mt Washington farther to the north stayed in the clouds. We went quickly up the last short stretch to the cairn at the top of Pierce, then came back to the trail junction for a quick lunch.
Below, at that trail junction just below the top of Pierce, are (front) Barbara, Pat, Dick, Michele, and (rear) Donna, Ginger, Dave R, Chris, and Dave D.
