Mt. Shannon Easter hike

Didn’t I just say something in my last blog entry about “anything can happen” in New England this time of year?  Well, it certainly did catch us by surprise today!

Not that mid-April is that deep into Spring in central NH; honestly it’s barely just beginning, but we’ve finally been moving in the right direction lately.  Things are starting to grow and bud, we’re well into mud season, bug season is starting, (those latter two obviously being drawbacks), and I even just packed away my winter hiking gear, considering how conditions have consistently been.  And while the forecast today was a little chilly, it was still in the 40’s this morning with partial sun.  However, the wind chill was pretty wicked.  But it still blew our minds when we saw snowflakes, which became full on flurries!!  (“Wind chill, blew…” haha!  I did not intend the pun, but oh yes, I’m very well amused by it.)

Certainly we’ve had more intense weather events around this time in previous years.  There have been plenty of April blizzards.  I recall as many Easters in childhood wearing snowsuits for our egg hunt, as I do searching around blooming flowers.  Our flurries today didn’t accumulate to anything, at least in lower elevations.  But it still had us exclaiming every few minutes, “what the heck?!”  I got hit in the face and eyes by hard blowing snowflakes at several points.  Between the snow and wind, I was glad that I had dug my winter headband back out for today, and chosen the fleece rather than a lighter jacket.  It looked like a few mountains across our vista may have gotten a dusting.  I imagine up north could have seen measurable snow in the high peaks.  Apparently it hit just as much to the south as well, and they are in full-on spring mode down there.  Hawk is currently hiking the CT section of the AT, and said he saw quite a bit of snow today too!  Hard to believe it possible, seeing so much in bloom there when I dropped him off yesterday.  But as I said, this is New England!  

We could see heavier snow hitting those distant mountains to the ENE.

Enough weather talk, though.  This was our family holiday hike!  And Hummingbird concluded that it was only appropriate for us to introduce my sister, who is also doing a 52 Hike Challenge, to our favorite local mountain.  Joining us were also two of my nieces, so we had a nice little group going.  My favorite part was probably when we got to the summit and one of them exclaimed exactly what we always say about Shannon: “It’s so pretty!”  Yes, indeed it is.  Give the kid a tee shirt. 😉  Happy Easter!

Everybody look left...

Everybody look right...

Everywhere you look, we're standing spotlight.  (Soaking in the beauty of Shannon!)

"But wait, there's more!" Hummingbird led the fam to the 2nd viewpoint...

And then around the corner to the back trail, to yet a 3rd viewpoint.

You may think Eliana inherited my rock hugger gene, but no, she's simply dying on the boulder from overexertion. LOL In actuality, she handled the hike quite well overall.

Amaya decided to engage in rock parkour on this hike.

Oh look, another pretty spot at Shannon Mt.  Imagine that.

Bonus: we realized last minute that this actually would not be a repeat hike for us, as we'd not yet hit the east side of Shannon this year, so our loop today was actually going to count as a unique hike for the 52!  It definitely was not the important goal for the day, but it was certainly frosting on the cake.  And who doesn't like frosted cake for Easter?

Hike 20. 4/17 Mt. Shannon loop, 2.4 mi, 1:30 hrs, 568 ft.