July 16, 2007 | Miles: 16.0
Start: Lyme-Dorchester Rd.
End: NH 25A
Danielle:
A gorgeous day to be hiking in southern NH. We really enjoyed this section. With two big climbs, it was the perfect Danielle & Ryan hike. The hike up to Smarts Mountain was pretty nice, with some great views from Lambert Ridge. When we got to the firetower on Smarts, a fast-moving NOBO was sitting, playing his banjo and singing. Very nice to snack to :) Then it was down to South Jacobs Brook for lunch. A great spot! Mount Cube was next on the list, again with some nice views along the ledges leading to the summit, and a few blueberries too. Yum! By the summit, we were pretty tired, but were still moving along well. The final descent seemed to go on for a while, but we soon arrived at our car, very happy with our hike! Saw quite a few thru-hikers throughout the day, and gave a ride to Pokey, a section hiker like us, back to her car at Lyme-Dorchester Road.
Flora and fauna report: Most of the wildflowers have passed, but we did see some nice wood sorrel, wild geraniums as well as the blue beads and bunchberry berries starting to get blue and red, respectively. Saw 5 snakes, a toad, a frog, one orange salamander (newt), a deer and Ryan saw two woodpeckers.
Ryan:
Today rocked! Of course, I started out a little less than thrilled to be up and out, but a Dunkin Donuts Supreme Omelet has just the right amount of disgusting to fuel the day. A great climb up Smarts Mountain. Hard, but fair. Great views from the summit fire tower, plus some tunes from Five String, a northbounder with a banjo. Mt. Cube was even better. A number of open sections and a great view from the top. The trail was busy today with a number of thruhikers, both north and southbound, which made it a lot of fun. It was a long day with the two big climbs, but it was a great one.
No comments:
Post a Comment