Yesterday I took my daughters, and Maddie's boyfriend, Seth to Ashburnham, Massachusetts to hike the Watatic Trail. Mount Watatic has an elevation of 1,832 feet above sea level, and our hike was about 2.5 miles round trip, It was a very cloudy day, and we beat the rain by about two hours. This was Ashleigh's first attempt at climbing a mountain and she did very well. We are slowly increasing the length of our hikes and adding some elevation, so that eventually she will be ready to attempt Mt. Monadnock, which she has been wanting to climb for the past two years. The Watatic trail is the shortest of about four trails that meet on the mountain. We chose it because it looked like rain, and we also were not certain that Ashleigh was ready to do a seven mile round-trip hike in mountainous terrain. The trail was well kept, and an easier climb than Mt. Monadnock... perfect for Ashleigh's current skills. We met a number of hikers along the way, and Ashleigh took the opportunity to photograph all of the dogs we ran into along the trail. Below, are pictures I took along the trail, and at the summit. Just out of curiosity, does anyone else see a representation of an owl in the branches of the tree on the left? Not a real owl, mind you, but an owl made of branches and leaves. Take a look at the bottom left, just above where the two trunks are. The branches make what looks like an owl's face, with a wing spreading away on either side of it. The two trunks then look like its legs, and between them it looks like a hawk's face. Above that, the branches also look like some kind of weird representation of a bat.
Okay, I know, it's late and I am just reaching for things here, but that is kind of what I see when I look at the above picture. Maybe I just have too much time on my hands, but that is what I saw, and I snapped the pic, and I can still see it in the photograph. Some people can see pictures in clouds... I guess I can see them in branches and leaves! Anyway, I'll finish off today's post with some pictures from Halloween. I think Maddie looks very spooky this year, and that she did a great job with her make up. Meanwhile, Ashleigh makes a very pretty rainbow fairy. Finally, that last pic is me as a hippy. To be honest, I always dress like that. The only part that is a costume for me is the bandanna and wig. Old hippies die hard I guess!
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Yesterday I went hiking on a new trail with my Daddy, and my sister Maddie. I saw about 9, or 10 dogs. And I got a picture of each one! But I have some bad news too. I can not get the pictures that are on my iPad of the dogs to this computer. Because the last time Maddie tried that we had to erase all of my pictures. But there is some good news though. There was a little river with a bridge and I got to go across it!
And boy did I sleep last night. Ashleigh Since my dad decided to post photos from the hike taken last weekend, I figured I'd add my photos onto the blog too. Why not. It's beautiful around here currently; with the leaves changing and all... and hikes are truly more enjoyable. There's so much to see and the weather is perfect so you don't over-heat when hiking the trails, which I love. In any case, here are the photos I captured on our hike on Rails To Trails and through the Children's Woods.
Me and the girls went hiking yesterday. The fall is one of my favorite times of year, due to all of the beautiful colors and the cool breezes. I took a number of pictures to capture the beauty. We hiked about three miles along the Jaffrey branch of rails to trails. We cut off into the Children's Woods, and circled back onto Rails to Trails a little further up. Here are some of the photos I took yesterday. Enjoy! I hope you enjoyed that little bit of Fall color! If you have a nice Autumn scene, send in a pic and I will try to post it. I will naturally, give you credit for the photo.
You probably think that this post is going to be about hiking, how much I enjoy it, and what went on on my hike of the mountain Saturday. However, that's not what I'd like to talk about. While that would be a great blog topic, today I'm going to be discussing the appreciation of the beauty around us- something that I'm sure most of you regular readers know is talked about frequently on this blog.
For those who weren't aware; Mt. Monadnock is the world's 2nd most climbed mountain, behind Mt. Fuji. It has about 150,000 hikers per year... which is crazy, honestly. I've hiked the mountain 5 times now and it's been crowded every time. A recurring theme with each trip up, however, has been the array of languages I've heard each time! It's crazy how many foreigners climb the mountain. It got me thinking... do these people really travel to here...just to hike? I guess when you live right at the base of the world's second most climbed mountain, you don't really think about it. It's just average for you, something that you see every day. Now don't get me wrong, I try to always appreciate the beauty of what's around me. But it really stunned me how many people there were who certainly weren't from the area. Another thing that my friend and I noticed (not on the mountain, a different time) was that the leaf peepers have started to come out! While waiting in the town center of Temple for his mom to finish work; we saw a few NY tourists taking photos of the scenery around them. This caught us both a bit off-guard... and made us stop and realize that we live in a place that people are willing to travel to see just for the beauty. I think that says something, honestly. I think sometimes when we're so used to the beauty around us; we don't fully appreciate it. We take it for granted because we see it every day, and it's not right. So, readers- I have a challenge for you. I want you to find natural beauty that you may not always appreciate from where you live, and I want you to send them in to my dad's email ([email protected]). I want to see the beauty you find. - Maddie This weekend, I hiked Mt. Monadnock with 2 of my close friends. It took us 6 hours, but we made it up the mountain and regardless of the time it took; it was an awesome trip. I have a good handful of photos, so this post is going to be made up of those alone. My written post will be the next one I write. Anyway, I hope you like the photos. I'll try to put captions on them.
And finally... our before and after photos. Man, that hike took everything out of us! However, I'm extremely proud of all three of us for making it up there alone and getting back down without absolutely dying. Trust me though- we all were feeling it the next day. Anyway, I'll end this post here. My written one will be out tomorrow.
- Maddie I like going for walks. Guess What? I went for a walk Yesterday and I saw a locust. I also found a little frog. I picked up the frog and showed it to my Sister and her two friends. They liked it. I also picked up the locust and Cupped it in my hands. We found acorns, and I saw many pretty leaves They were red and yellow.
Ashleigh The girls and I went out for two hikes this weekend. The first was a little bit disappointing, while the second one ended in tragedy for Ashleigh. Don't worry, she isn't hurt! She did drop her iPad, though, and cracked the screen. On Saturday, we took a road trip to see what was billed as "The Grand Canyon of New Hampshire!" To be honest, we were all a little skeptical when we heard about it, but since it was only two hours away, and we like to hike anyway, we thought we would visit it to take some pictures. Our two hour trip ended up taking about three and a half hours to get there. I seemed to have missed a turn about one hour into the trip and we ended up going too far west. I blame Maddie since she was sitting in the shot gun position, and was supposed to be handling the directions. She blames me since I was driving. It's hard to argue with that, but I'll give her part of the blame anyway! Once we got there, we found that "The Grand Canyon" was only a creek that had cut its way through some rocks. It wasn't very deep, or very long. It was located on Sculptured Rock Road in Hebron. As soon as we arrived, it started to drizzle, which certainly didn't add to our mood. It stopped after a minute or two though, and we didn't get too wet, especially since the path ran through the woods. Below are our pictures from the creek. They are a bit underwhelming. Before I start with the pictures, I just wanted to point out that the picture above is from our second hike (from Sunday) at Cathedral of The Pines. We were there on September 11th, so the flag was flying at half mast. A friend of mine, Jennifer Tzemis, died in the towers that day, and I post the above flag as a tribute to her. Rest in peace Jenn. The Less Than Grand Canyon Of New HampshireDisappointed yet? We were. Maddie got a migraine on the ride up, so we didn't even attempt to hike any of the trails there. The trails did not run along the creek, so these pics were the "highlight" of the attraction. On a positive note, we saw a number of lakes and mountains on the ride to Hebron, so the trip wan't a total waste. And I did get to spend the whole day with my daughters, which was what was important to me anyway. Unfortunately, since I was driving, I have no pictures of the mountains or the lakes to show you. Ashleigh grabbed my iPad on the way home and took the selfie below! Cathedral Of The PinesOn Sunday, we stopped at Cathedral Of The Pines to hike the trails and take some pictures. It is only about five minutes from our house, so we go there often. In fact, Maddie and I volunteered there one season. I gave tours of the different rocks and their meanings, while Maddie usually helped out in the gift shop, or tagged along with me.
Although many of the tall pines that the Cathedral was named for were damaged in a storm a few years ago and cut down, it is still a beautiful place, and well worth the visit if you are in the area. As I said, Ashleigh fell and broke her iPad, and got very upset, thus we cut the trip a little short. Below are some of the pictures I took during the short time we were there. Our second hike this week took us along the Contoocook River in Jaffrey, and eventually into the Children's Woods, which can be reach at a trail head along the Rails to Trails route. We had a beautiful day for a hike and we took advantage of it. We likely did about four mile round trip, and we timed our return with the onset of dusk. Below, are some of the pictures I took along our route. Note that most of these are along the river since it starts to get darker earlier in the woods, where the trees do a good job of blocking out a lot of the sunlight. Water shots are the best shots along this portion of rails to trails. You can really see the effects of the drought along the river. Water levels are just not as high as they usually are. I tried to catch the sunset as we were leaving, but I wasn't that successful. While the pictures are nice, they are not as dramatic as some of the ones we have caught in the past.
I like to take my daughters hiking when we have the time. Over the past week. I have taken them on Rails to Trails twice. Our first trip was in Rindge, on the part of the trail that runs from Rindge to the Massachusetts border. There was heavy tree cover on this trail and there were all types of mushrooms growing along the trail. I have tried to identify some of them, but so far I have not made much headway. The problem is that so many of the mushrooms look alike. Below, are some of the picture I took on that hike. My next post will have pictures about our second hike. The woods were dark as we entered the trail head. The ground was damp, even though it hadn't rained in quite a few days. Mushrooms. mushrooms, everywhere! Although some of them may look the same, these all seem to be different types of mushrooms. If any of you know what type of mushrooms these are, leave a comment. I'd love to know what they are! Aside from the mushrooms, there wasn't too much else that I found interesting on this hike. The scenery was a little bit lacking considering how dark it was along the trail. There were some flowers, though, in the areas where the sun was allowed to peak through.
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