Last spring, I wrote about a new accessible trail slated for construction in Tamworth. To cut to the chase, it has been completed for a while and is ready for visitors. It is only six-tenths of a mile round-trip, so it can be quickly visited and is worth a quick stop to sample. It is for eve…
This has been an incredible autumn of copper beeches and golden aspens. Signs are of a cold and stormy winter. But there is an in between season after many of the leaves have fallen, and here is a column I wrote about it late November last year.
I was lying in bed the other morning, wondering what hike I could write about this week. As you can imagine, this is a familiar scenario. Some hikes are old friends. I can picture scenes along their trails and often one hike stands out and invites me back.
Sometimes, but not too often, elements come together to make a hike exceptionally beautiful. Such was the case last Tuesday when I did a 4.2-mile hike with friend Pam Andruskiewicz and three dogs: Cora, Louie and Georgie.
A couple of weeks ago, on a Friday, a friend and I visited two Franconia Notch State Park attractions that I had never been to before. My friend, a non-hiker in semi-retirement, keeps adding to her bucket list. I have enjoyed a few outings with her, often to the coast.
One of my favorite places to see foliage is a quiet 16-acre mountain pond called Church Pond. It is located in the wilds of the Albany Intervale, north of the Kancamagus Highway.
I’ve enjoyed occasionally hiking with my grandson, Ridley Parsons, since he was small. Now he is 17 and a senior at Fryeburg Academy. Last Sunday, we hiked to the summit of Pleasant Mountain (2,006 feet) in Bridgton and Denmark, Maine.
Timing is a factor in seeing foliage and in the White Mountains, and it is often said that Zealand Valley is the first place in the area the colors mature. The official explanation for the color explosion in this northern valley is: “With cool setting air in the valley at night and decreased…
On Saturday, Sept. 13, I climbed Mount Cranmore for Jen’s Friends Climb Against Cancer.
Many White Mountain hikers went to Nancy Pond and Norcross Pond a long time ago, and haven’t returned. I was one of those uniI I went back last summer.
“The 1,120-acre Rumford Whitecap Mountain Preserve in Rumford, Maine, is the signature conservation property of the Mahoosuc Land Trust.” So says the AMC Maine Mountain Guide.
The Great Gulf on the northern side of Mount Washington is named well. Looking north from the top of its headwall, located near the Mount Washington Cog Railway railroad tracks, you are confronted with great space and an abundance of impressive mountain features, including the Northern Presi…
There is a lot of activity on the Franconia Ridge this summer. Not only the thousands of hikers who do the 8.9-mile Franconia Ridge Loop every year, but trail builders, summit stewards and trail tenders as well.
Recently, I returned to Mount Hedgehog (2,543 feet), completing the 4.7-mile UNH Trail loop. In the early 2000s, this was a favorite hike with some of my Conway friends. I frequently did it with Sandy Smith, Bob Gordon, Ginnie Smith and others.
Recently I wrote about a new section of trail in the Green Hills Preserve above North Conway. Talking to the Nature Conservancy’s Northern New Hampshire Land Manager Michael Crawford about it, he mentioned other activity going on in the Green Hills that certainly deserved looking into.
There were some complex temperature changes during the last storm, rather than an overdose of unseasonable warmth, and thankfully the snow didn’t disappear in the rain. I’m feeling optimistic at this point about a good snowy winter.