This morning I dropped Hawk off in Pinkham Notch for a short backpacking trip. It's a long drive, so I planned to take advantage of being in the area and do some of my own hiking. Square Ledge topped my list of possibilities. It's one of those "big bang for your buck" hikes; short, fun, and sweeping views. Unfortunately, conditions weren't terrific. They were fine, but just very gray. Every now and then, the sun would break through and shine on the mountaintops, and it'd be gorgeous, but then the next minute everything would be in the clouds again. I wavered a lot, but between that and the idea of doing rock scrambles alone, I eventually decided that the effort wasn't worth the potential of not getting those views, so I just continued south. I figured I'd regret it in short order, which I did a tiny bit, but it's ok. I'll do it another time, hopefully in clearer weather. Meanwhile I had other plans awaiting.
The benefit of hiking further south is that I got to keep my trail runners on. No boots, no spikes, just comfy shoes. So that had added appeal as well. After a stop at REI, another "since I'm in the area" thing to take advantage of, I made my way to Madison Boulder. I'm sort of working on the NH Rocks That Rock list - I say "sort of" because it's not a serious pursuit (compared to my other hiking goals), but I'll try to get a checkmark if I'm in the area of one. That's precisely what I did today. The access road that you hike in on was not as ridiculously short as I expected, but that was actually a positive. At the end, you'll find the largest known glacial erratic in North America. Yup, it's a big rock. And that's about it!
From there, I headed homeward, meeting Hummingbird at Cotton-Hurd, one of our local trails. We had talked about doing some Squam redlining, but for various reasons, switched to something closer to home at the last minute. While Cotton-Hurd blue trail (which we did a couple weeks ago) is an easy, flat to gently rolling woodland walk, yellow trail is surprisingly more "hikey." It's no mountain, of course, but it's a decent workout! We always seem to forget this fact. It's also extra sketchy right now with so many slippery leaves on the steeper sections of trail. I must remember to only do this hike in winter with spikes, or mid-summer when the trail is clearer. What doesn't differ between each trail is that neither side is particularly photogenic. There are some fairly pretty spots along the brook, and the trails themselves are nice enough, and certainly some times of the year are prettier than others, but it's not comparable to a peak with grand views, obviously. Today, however, was perfect timing for a forest trail like this, with the increasingly dreary weather, when viewpoints would be relatively drab anyway. And we got Hummingbird another unique hike, as she closes in on the finish line for her 52.
So it wasn't the ambitious day of hiking I had originally envisioned, but it turned out alright. It was productive. And I certainly have plenty of energy left to do more hiking over the holiday! (If I can find the time, between cooking and other prep.) We shall see what transpires…
11/23 Madison Boulder, .8 mi, 20 min, 20 ft.
& Cotton-Hurd yellow trail, 2.2 mi, 54 min, 305 ft.
