52 With A View: Mount Paugus - South Peak

Thursday, October 24, 2024 - This is a zoomed-in map of the New Hampshire "52 With A View" - I have 20 to go (yellow). I'll do Mount Paugus - South Peak today:

After last week's BURN (by taking a trail on the North Side of a mountain), I'm only doing trails-from-the-SOUTH for the rest of this year:

It was a really nice day as I drove into my Breakfast-in-Boston:

In New Hampshire, wonderful scenes once I got off the highway:

the chapel is Wonalacet Union Chapel, and is in my hiking map at the end of this blog.

I started just before noon:

10 minutes later I'm on Kelley Trail:

To quote The Guidebook: Kelley Trail goes up alongside Cold Brook to enter secluded, beautiful box canyon through which the brook flows. This is perhaps one of the most beautiful sections of trail in the White Mountains. The trail ascends through the narrow canyon, crossing the brook a few times. In its upper section the trail passes small gorges formed during the last ice age when the canyon was the outlet of a glacial lake, then reaches the bowl-shaped amphitheatre known as "Pleistocene Plunge Pool" at 1.9 mi. The trail makes a steep climb out of the canyon along the left side, then ascends a rough and rocky section as it squeezes through a cut at the top. Above here, grades ease and the trail ascends gradually to Paugus Pass ...":

Up at Paugus Pass you take a right onto Lawrence Trail:

I'm "mountain climbing", which means I HAVE TO GO UP sometime:

2 hours 20 minutes into the hike (just over 4 miles) I reach Mount Paugus - South Peak:

The views are less-than-spectacular (needs a little weed-wacker?):

Having said that, I really like the pictures I took on my way back down (are there giant beavers around here?):

Back in the Parking Lot at 4 PM:

A Great Hike - 8.20 miles in 4 hours 6 minutes:

What a LOVELY Day! Thank You God for this wonderful "52 With A View" day!

For my listening pleasure today:

various - Playboy: Jazz After Dark (2 cds), 2003 double-album, last heard 4/30/2016 - A LOT of Very Slow Jazz. Don't Delete, but no need to listen to for another 8 years:

Yes - The Yes Album, 1971 album, last heard 11/20/2016 - a great album:

After the hike:

various - WZLX - From The Vaults, 2000 album, last heard 9/23/2016 - Henley, allmans, Petty, Frampton, Boston - quite a collection:

Matchbox Twenty - Yourself Or Someone Like You, 1996 debut album, last heard 9/28/2016 - a lot of very good songs:

Simon & Garfunkel - Sounds Of Silence, 1966 2nd album, last heard 10/02/2016:

The single "The Sound of Silence" was #1 Jan 1 + 22, 1966
The album was released Jan 1966; Parsley, Sage ... released Oct 1966; Bookends released April 1968, and that was the order I recorded them on my reel-to-reel tape deck at St. Paul's School in the Fall of 1968.
The album ends with "I am a Rock"; bonus tracks include "Blues Run the Game" which I heard Counting Crows do last year in Boise, Idaho.
I wanted to listen to all versions of the song, and scrolled past 3 versions of "Be True" by Springsteen and thought "I WANT TO HERE THOSE"
They were GREAT
So I listened to the 6 versions of "Land of Hope and Dreams" - THEY WERE GREAT
So I listened to 2 versions of "Dream Baby Dream" - they were GREAT
and then I was HOME!

Shameless Plug: if you enjoy this blog, you may like my other one about visiting Art Museums and National Parks (and hiking in the Rockies)
hyperlink: dixonheadingwest
http://dixonheadingwest.blogspot.com/

52 With A View: not Mount Avalon & not Mount Willard

Thursday, October 17, 2024 - This is a zoomed-in map of the New Hampshire "52 With A View" - only 20 left (yellow). I HOPE TO make it to Mount Avalon & Mount Willard today:

They are 2 separate mountains, but they are very close and can be hiked in a single afternoon.

It is a BEAUTIFUL Fall Day in New Hampshire! I felt really cocky when I saw Mount Washington and The Presidentials "up there" with snow on them - thank goodness I'm not hiking any 4,000 footers today! Just a couple of them little old 52-with-a-view mountains

I parked just south of the AMC Highland Center, across from Saco Lake:

You walk up the railroad tracks a little bit, then cut left onto The Trail:

It's going to be an easy day - 3.6 miles round-trip to Mt. Avalon, then 3.2 miles round-trip to Mt. Willard.

Lovely trail-in-the-woods:

I crossed over a pretty brook:

Mmmm, I started seeing this "white stuff":

I had passed the pair of hikers by the time I hit the "spur-trail" for Mt. Avalon (only 1/2 mile to go!):

3 minutes later I was at the bottom of the rock-climbing-trail:

At the top of this slide, THE TRAIL DISAPPEARED.

The area inside the rectangle is on the north-side of the mountain, meaning THE SNOW DIDN'T MELT. It was 2-to-3 inches on the ground, with snow-ladened fir tree branches, all closely packed together. I bushwacked FOR AN HOUR (soaking wet), and made it back to The Trail, and quit and headed home:

He who hikes and runs away, lives to hike another day. In comparing "my bushwack" with "The Trail", I didn't bushwack East enough, or South enough to hit The Trail. See you in Springtime!

A pretty view in Danvers as I made my way home for dinner:

Thank You God for this "challenging" "52 With A View" day!

For my listening pleasure today:

Scarlet Haven - Paleologos, 1999 2nd album, last heard 10/09/2016 - Courtney Reid's Rock Band - I really like their 3 albums:

Steely Dan - Countdown To Ecstasy, 1973 2nd album, last heard 10/09/2016 - wonderful album - I'm a fan:

Bonnie Raitt - Give It Up, 1972 2nd album, last heard 10/10/2016. On March 30, 1973 I saw Bonnie (with Little Feat opening) at Irvine Auditorium (Univ. of Pennsylvania) [that was a fun rabbit-hole finding out that date]. She was a solo artist, great show, and was joined by Little Feat for her encore. In the set, she asked for requests - from the 4th or 5th row, I shouted out "Jesus Cried", which is the opening of "Too Long at the Fair", and she said "Sure":

Jesus cried, wept and died
I guess He went up to heaven
I've been downtown such a long, long time
I'll never make it home by seven

Diana Krall - Only Trust Your Heart, 1995 2nd album, last heard 10/10/2016 - I like her music:

After the hike:

Dido - Life For Rent, 2003 2nd album, last heard 10/10/2016 - I like her music:

George Thorogood & The Destroyers - Move It On Over, 1978 2nd album, last heard 10/10/2016 - WOW - I want to learn to play "Who Do You Love?" by Bo Diddley:

John Mayer - Heavier Things, 2003 2nd album, last heard 10/11/2016:

Bill Morrissey - North, 1986 2nd album, last heard 10/12/2016. Never fails to shed a tear:

Shameless Plug: if you enjoy this blog, you may like my other one about visiting Art Museums and National Parks (and hiking in the Rockies)
hyperlink: dixonheadingwest
http://dixonheadingwest.blogspot.com/