On July 14, the Turtles hiked to Bald Knob at Castle in the Clouds on a hazy day.

Chris, Lorraine, Jorge, Susan, Mary, Karen

A few of the hikers then went on to Turtleback.

Karen, Lorraine, Tracy

Tom, Field, & Willey - July 13, 2026

The A group hike for the week was a N-S traverse of the Willey Range, on the west side of Crawford Notch, bagging Mts Tom, Field, and Willey. Weather again made us move our hike up a day, to take advantage of fair skies and comfortably dry air. It was a warm day, but not all that bad for summer, and the following day would have been downright hot and humid. Doing the nine miles with around 3100 feet of elevation gain would have been downright unpleasant by hike's end.

We dropped a vehicle off at the end of Willey House Station Rd, where the hike would end. The hike began at the train depot at the top of the notch, near the AMC Highland Center. This is the starting point for hikes up Mts Willard, Avalon, Tom, and Field to the west as well as anything across the street, such as Jackson and Pierce. Up a way from the start on the Avalon trail, with a fair amount of elevation gain behind us, we took the right at the junction with the A-Z trail, which took us up another steep mile to where the Mt Tom spur trail begins at the col between Tom and Field. Ultimately, the A-Z trail would have taken us over the hill and down to the Zealand trail and the Zealand Falls hut, but that was not where we were headed.

After a quick snack, we made the half mile ascent to the top of Tom, which has no view at all. Pictured below is the group gathered at the cairn. L-R are Chris, Deb, Mary, Andrea, Andy, and Donna (pic by Dick).

After a quick return to the col, we followed the A-Z trail another 80 yards (so says the sign) to the north end of the Willey Range Trail, which we would follow over the next two peaks and down to its end at the Ethan Pond trail, which would take us the rest of the way out to the vehicle left earlier. But first it was the fairly easily hiked 0.9 miles up to Mt Field. This one has no view at the very top, but a few yards down a little side trail does have a nice view back at Mt Tom and down to the Mt Washington Hotel area. Here we had lunch or at least a snack.

It took around an hour to descend from Mt Field and make our way over and up to Mt Willey. This peak again has no view at all, but a few hundred feet of descent beyond the summit took us to the viewpoint ledge with a stunningly good view down Crawford Notch, across the notch to the famous Webster Cliff, and past there to the southern presidentials and Mt Washington off in the distance. Here is where we refueled for the descent. Pictured below, with the camera view somewhat distorted by the view upward from the bottom of the ledge, are Andrea, Dick, Chris, Mary, Deb, and Donna (pic by Andy). Below that is the view of Webster Cliff and beyond behind Donna.

 

 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:

Robyn, Tracy, Brian

On July 7, the same hike was offered again.

 

Mary, Karen, Irena, Lea, Ann

B Group hikes Mt. Roberts, July 8th, 2026

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. 

We welcomed new member Jeff, who is finally retired and able to hike more, and Steve and Janna who join us occasionally when their schedules allow. Some old hands rounded out the group. We met Kim near the summit, where she was completing an early start hike due to an afternoon meeting. The summit was pleasant with a gentle breeze, and it was a good hike for all of us.

Photo. From left; Katherine, Steve, Janna, Annemarie, Cathy, Mike (beard), Jeff (behind Mike), and Patsy.  Not pictured: Kim

Mt Moriah - July 6, 2026

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.

 

B group hikes Sandwich Dome and Jennings Peak, June 25th, 2026

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!

(Mary, Chris, Tracy, Mary Lou, John, Donna, and Michele)

Mt Liberty - June 29, 2026

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.