First Good Snow

A two-inch snowfall last week was enough to get the roads salted, but for recreation, yesterday's 8" was much better. I brought my snowshoes to Horse Hill in Merrimack this afternoon. A number of my neighbors apparently got there earlier, though, and there was a well-beaten path that rendered snowshoes pointless. No problem. An hour's walk in boots was a good way to end my workday.

Yesterday's powder was followed by just enough rain to settle the fluff a bit. This afternoon, there was a light crust over the powder, and breaking trail up to Blodgett Hill was easy. Breezy, 30s, partly cloudy: very pleasant.

Veteran's Day in Rindge

I wanted to remind my 16-year-old son that Veteran's Day is more than just a day off from school, especially since his 26-year-old brother is over in Iraq with the US Army. We headed out to Cathedral of the Pines in Rindge, which has special ceremonies every November 11. (Why so far? Because my 16-year-old is working on getting his driver's license, and this road trip let him log 2 hours of supervised driving.)

From the Cathedral's web site: "The Cathedral of the Pines’ educational programs and public events honor service to the Nation by promoting peace, interfaith understanding, and respect for the natural environment." Symbols of the various branches of the military are displayed on the grounds, and there's a special memorial to women in the armed services. We spent time (not nearly enough) walking over this serene place.

The altar pictured above, dedicated to our nation's war dead, is made from stones gathered from every state in the Union. As you can see, Mt. Monadnock is just a few miles away. It's a fitting place to honor veterans from every era. Long drive for a short walk, and worth it.

A Short Stroll in New Boston

On my way home from Concord yesterday, I took the scenic route. Hooray for the Everett Turnpike, but Rt. 13 has all the charm. About 45 minutes and four historic markers after leaving Concord, I was in New Boston.

Just a couple of minutes by car from the town center is the Skofield Conservation area. Its little trail, the Briar Hill Loop, is as pleasant a workday walk as I've ever had. I didn't have much time to spare since I was already taking the long way home, but it took me less than half an hour to savor the trail. I'd have finished sooner if I hadn't brought my camera with me.

I owe thanks to the Piscataquog Watershed Association for listing this area in their wonderful guide book, which I found at Toadstool Bookshop in Milford. I never would have found the trail on my own.

Go pick some blueberries!

I headed to Temple Mountain on this sunny Sunday to enjoy a couple of hours along the Wapack. I packed a lunch, but I needn't have bothered: there were enough blueberries on the bushes to feed me & anyone else who might happen along. I stopped to eat at the Berry Pasture, with a fresh breeze in my face and Monadnock dominating the view to the west. Can't beat that.

Not that I'm encouraging anyone to bail out of work this week, but I highly recommend a berry-picking trip to a hill or mountain near you -- and soon.

Trail Expo in Milford, May 17

I raved about Charles Martin's recent book on rail trails. Mr. Martin will be speaking at a Trail Expo this Sunday, May 17, at the Hampshire Hills Sports & Fitness Center in Milford. Mr. Martin will be speaking at 1 p.m.; the whole event runs noon to 5 p.m. The Milford Conservation Commission is sponsoring this event, which sounds like a good way to gather information from a number of southern NH trail maintainers & agencies. For more information: http://conservation.milfordnh.info/

Blackflies 1, nhflatlander 0

I am nursing itchy welts from about 75 blackfly bites. Serves me right for wearing short sleeves last weekend out at Windblown x-c ski area, helping clear brush off the trails. Yes, I brought DEET, but it proved pitifully inadequate to the task. New Ipswich blackflies are tough ones. (I have since purchased a much stronger DEET formula. To heck with concerns over systemic toxins.)

The Jenks family, owners of Windblown, have put out the word that their trails are open to hikers, now that the ice storm's damage is somewhat cleared. Friends of the Wapack took care of the section of the Wapack trail that runs through Windblown, and the Jenks family did the heavy work on the rest of the property's trails. I spent some time each of the past two weekends with a crew doing cleanup by tossing cut brush off to the trailsides.

My boots got extremely muddy, I was nibbled to distraction by the blackflies, and I had a great time. Call it a slow hike uphill through the woods on Barrett Mountain, with some light weight work thrown in as I tossed brush: low weights, high reps. I'm sure that fits some kind of workout plan.

My thanks to the Jenks family for letting me help with this!

Recovery!

The ice storm four months ago has become a reference point for all my observations of southern NH trails this spring, and if you wonder why, one look around the Miller State Park parking lot at the base of Pack Monadnock will settle the question.

I can't begin to speculate on how many people it has taken to return trails around here to usable condition. The auto road, still gated to keep cars out, is clear all the way to the summit. The road sports a new edging of wood chips and sawdust from all the overhangs and broken limbs cleared from ice-damaged trees.

Here's what the low end of the road looked like last Saturday, at the base of the mountain where hardwoods predominate. The destruction must have been overwhelming to the first people who came by to check it out in December. The cleared road testifies to a lot of effort since then. Even so, I was stunned for a few minutes when I got out of my car and had my first look around.

I got there at of 8:15 in the morning The few other cars in the lot belonged to members of a trail-clearing party of Friends of the Wapack. The group's web site says that there will be a work party somewhere along the trail every weekend this season, and this must have been Pack Monadnock's turn. I heard a chainsaw being used in the woods off to my left as I descended from the summit later in the morning.

I decided to walk up the auto road, wondering just how blocked the Wapack and Marion Davis trails must be. I brought my camera in the hope of seeing some wildflowers growing low to the ground, but there has been way too much cleanup activity along the road to allow anything to sprout along the edges. I don't doubt that there are plenty of flowers farther from the road and along the trails. I did see lots of buds on trees and shrubs, reminders that the forest will recover as it always does after one of Nature's big events. One tree had lost its two main limbs and looked pretty sorry, but that didn't stop a bird from working on a good-sized nest in it.

The road's a mile & a quarter long, I think, and it rises 700 feet. Towards the top, where evergreens take over from the oaks & maples & birches, there is much less tree damage. The evergreens seem to have shrugged off the ice and bounced right back. The last few hundred yards of the road have blue blazes on nearby trees, and that made me wonder if the Marion Davis trail has been re-routed for a distance.

The summit, without the summer crowds, was a fine place to be. The view of Monadnock always pleases me, even on a hazy day. The cool morning was giving way to an 80+ degree afternoon, with a brisk breeze up on the landing of the fire tower. I later perched on a picnic table with my water bottle, looking over towards North Pack in its shades of green & grey. Close up, the woods show damage. From a distance, they look like they'll be around long after I'm gone, which of course is exactly the case.

On my last visit, in September, NH Audubon had volunteers at its raptor observatory near the summit, identifying birds in the fall migration. I was lucky enough to catch sight of a golden eagle that day, or so I was assured by one of the volunteers. Very different this weekend – not the migration season, and there wasn't so much as a turkey vulture soaring overhead. I settled for chickadees in the woods.

One Subaru – or more precisely, one Subaru's driver – drove around the closed gate to the auto road, surprising me on my way up. Aside from that, I had very little company: a half dozen dog walkers, one intrepid bicyclist, a runner (prepping for the race up Pack in late May?). I was therefore unprepared for the sight in the parking lot when I finally got back down a little past 11: more than 40 cars, with more coming in by the minute. That tells me that the Wapack Trail up the mountain is in fine shape, since all the people from those cars had to be somewhere, and they weren't on the auto road!

A Country Road and a Fine New Book

After an all-day hard rain yesterday that delayed the Red Sox opener and left my local trails even muddier than before, I decided to take my walk on a road this morning. After doing some business in Amherst, I parked on Chestnut Hill Road, in the little pull-off that connects to the Joe English Reservation's Highland Trail. One glance at the trail confirmed my guess that it was not a day for slogging through the woods in my sneakers. I headed up the road towards New Boston.

It's a treat to have an hour in the middle of a weekday to spend on a country road in early spring. Next to no traffic passed me. The trees haven't leafed out yet, so I got a good look at all the songbirds making music. Overcast was lifting, giving me a different view on the way back than I got on the way out of the Uncanoonucs in Goffstown and the hills out past Milford. Forsythia is about a week away from bloom, and daylily shoots are popping up all along the roadside.

Tree damage was obvious in the woods. I expect some of the houses & yards I passed needed quick action the week after the ice storm, but they look fine.

I gave a halfhearted effort at making this a workout, to compensate for my sluggish winter, but I abandoned that plan about five minutes into the walk. It was uphill, and that's workout enough. I turned around at the New Boston town line & enjoyed going downhill on my way back to the car. Not a bad way to spend an hour -- closer to 50 minutes, actually. I went back to the day's "serious" work in a good frame of mind.

To change the subject, I found a great new book while I was browsing the table from Bondcliff Bookstore (Littleton, NH) at the recent Made In NH Expo. New Hampshire Rail Trails (there's an easy title to remember) is by Charles F. Martin, and it's published by Branch Line Press in Pepperell, MA. It's going right on my shelf full of guidebooks, and will probably be in my backpack on several trips this year. He covers trails all over the state, offering the history of the various rail lines and the prospects for development of more trails. It's not an encyclopedia, but he manages to cover quite a bit in 300 pages, including maps and a long list of organizations supporting these trails. Development of some trails is proceeding so quickly that even some of Martin's 2008 information is outdated, but that's hardly bad news and Martin notes which trails are likely to see extension or upgrading in the near future.

I'm delighted with this book. I've already made note of a trail he describes up in Bethlehem. I have a racewalk in that pleasant town next weekend, and I'll head for the trail as soon as the race is over.

Help out Fish & Game this spring

NH Fish & Game is looking for volunteers this spring for its Reptile and Amphibian Reporting Program (RAARP). Walkers everywhere, check it out: http://www.wildnh.com/Wildlife/Nongame/reptiles_amphibians.htm

Spring in Mine Falls Park

I shared the Mine Falls trails this afternoon with dozens of other folks eager to enjoy spring's first weekend. No crowds yet. Conditions reflect transition: trails have some patches of very slick ice, the ball fields are just emerging from the snow, and the low trail along the river is muddy enough for me to wear boots. I didn't care, and neither did the runners and dog-walkers out there with me. There was tree damage over the winter, but the mess is all off the trails.

No Porta-Johns out yet. Be patient.

I should have brought binoculars and an Audubon guide book. With no bugs out yet, it would have been a fine day to pick a spot in the woods and just sit for awhile to spot the birds. On my walk today, I saw swans in the cove where I usually see herons. The blackbirds were making noise down at the culvert near the millyard. Mallards were poking along the canal shore along an ice-free stretch. A woodpecker -- smallish; not sure what variety -- was busy near the newest bridge. Of course, I saw robins. One of them seemed to be posing for a delighted three-year-old near the ball fields.

road & trail work

I am overdue in giving thanks to all the people who were busy this winter cleaning up roads and trails after the ice storm. I've done very little trail maintenance myself, and anything I can do locally that doesn't require bushwhacking is thanks to someone else's efforts. To all of you, and you know who you are, thank you.

It's good to read on the state park web site that Monadnock SP's trails are slowly opening back up to authorized use after storm cleanup. I hope the new campground at Gilson Pond wasn't completely trashed! I'd been looking forward to staying there this summer, its first scheduled season.

Here in Merrimack, Horse Hill is in good shape, and it pleases me that it's been getting so much use. I'm glad the town acquired the land when it did. In the current economy, I don't think a land acquisition of that size would pass.

I drove down Rt. 31 from Wilton to Greenville the other day and was shocked at all the downed trees along the roadside. I thought the crews in my town had a big job after the ice storm. We actually had it easy. I remember driving through Dunbarton in January and seeing how bad the tree damage was. That's what Rt. 31 looked like last weekend -- two months later. It's spring now, the snow is receding, and I'm sure there will be enough work to last all summer for anyone who knows how to wield a chain saw.

I see that the Friends of the Wapack are planning their annual end-to-end hike for next month instead of the fall. I wonder how much of the day will be spent flagging spots for future work.

Mud season will actually be an interesting time this spring, as I discover how more of my favorite trails fared over the winter. I'm half inclined to carry a small folding saw in my backpack for the spring hikes. I suppose the more sensible approach would be to note any difficult spots and then bring them to the attention of the land managers, who probably have trail crews who actually know what they're doing. I probably shouldn't go out armed with only a saw and good intentions.

New year, and I'm back outside

The P'Nut Chip 5k in Temple this morning was the perfect way for me to put months of inactivity behind me. Several things falling under the category of "medical issues" turned me into a slug, and I and my plantar fasciitis are ready to hit the roads and trails again to make up for lost time.

Our whole region endured a severe ice storm a few weeks ago, and I'm sure I'll be seeing the aftermath for months to come. I was heartened by the look of Temple today; that town took an even harder hit than my own. Broken branches lined the roadsides today, but no roads were blocked by fallen trees. I must have seen half a dozen utility trucks (and on a federal holiday, too) making their way through town. A road race couldn't have been very high on the priority list for town officials & residents as they cleaned up the mess from the storm, but everything today went smoothly.

Walking the course before the race began was a real pleasure. I haven't been outside much over the past few weeks as that whole "slug" thing took over. Clearly, I've been wasting time. As cold as the weather was today (11 degrees at the start of the race), I had the right clothing, so there was no problem on that score. My regular walking shoes handled the packed snow just fine -- no boots for me when I'm timing myself on a course. And never mind what my time was. Think "slow", which was all the better for enjoying the sunshine and the rural roads along with all those cheerful, energetic people who were much faster than I.

I'm not forgetting that the trails around here, unlike the roads, are still a mess. I needed today's outing to restore my optimism for the pace of recovery from the ice storm. Monadnock State Park is still closed. The Friends of the Wapack have posted a message on the group's web site warning against hiking the trail for the time being, since the tree damage has rendered the trail "very hard" to follow. My favorite cross-country ski area, Windblown in New Ipswich, was shut down by the storm, and the owners are doing heroic work to arrange for the extensive logging and cleanup necessary to restore at least a few kilometers to skiable (and hikable) condition.

Today proved, as if any proof were needed, that things are looking up.

Horse Hill in Merrimack is in business

I bought snowshoes a couple of years ago, and nature thereafter provided two consecutive winters of scarce snow in southern NH. Finally, this year, I actually need snowshoes for my local hikes. I keep this in mind when I get tired of shoveling my driveway.

I'm happy that I can finally go to Horse Hill Nature Preserve in Merrimack and spend several hours wandering around on marked trails without having to maneuver around junked cars and piles of spent shells (from years of target practice on the land). I owe thanks to a lot of volunteers. The whole area's cleaned up, and the trails are marked much more clearly than they were last year. The parking lot off of Amherst Road has been plowed out every time I've been by there this season, which means the town is actually making an effort to keep the preserve accessible. I can spend an afternoon there without retracing my steps, if I so choose. It's taken years to get this preserve into this condition.

Wantastiquet's east side

Months after reading about the Chesterfield (NH) Conservation Commission's work to link Wantastiquet with Monadnock, I finally got out to Chesterfield to take a look at the area a few days ago. I hadn't been there since a trip to Pisgah State Park about 3 years ago. I'm impressed at the work the Commission's volunteers have done! Thanks to all of you! Obviously, a lot of people are cooperating to make these good things happen.

I started from the Madame Sherri Forest trailhead off of Gulf Road. There's a network of short trails throughout the forest, with a couple of them stretching out to nearby hills. I took the Ann Stokes loop to Indian Pond in order to pick up the trail to Wantastiquet Mountain. I've been up Wantastiquet a couple of times from the east (Hinsdale), and I was curious about whether it's now possible to follow an established trail up the west side from Madame Sherri. Short answer: yes. The trail from Indian Pond isn't blazed or flagged but is fairly well-beaten and clear.

If the Wantastiquet-Monadnock Greenway is ever completed -- and I'd love to help make it happen -- it'll extend eastward from Madame Sherri Forest, cross Rt. 63 at some point, and head through Pisgah on its way to Rhododendron State Park. From there, the greenway could pick up the M&M trail on Little Monadnock, taking hikers straight to Monadnock. Wouldn't that make a fine day's travel?

adventures on snowshoes

The first real snowfall of the season didn't come until Valentine's Day. The snowshoes I bought in Dec. '06 have spent way too much time in the basement. Between the Valentine snow and the storm three days ago (St. Pat's Eve), I have made up for lost time.

If you enjoy the Wapacks and want some winter recreation, I encourage you to head to Windblown cross-country ski area in New Ipswich. This little gem is owned and run by the Jenks family. They welcome hikers on the Wapack Trail that crosses the property, asking only that hikers pay the trail fee in winter. I hand over the $15 with pleasure. It's like an investment in land conservation. There are about 40 kilometers of trails, and snowshoers are welcomed to share all trails with skiers (just stay out of the set tracks). The snowshoe trail includes the Wapack from Rt. 124 to the summit of Barrett. I've roamed over the property three times in the past few weeks, taking different routes every time and loving every minute of it. Thank God for people like the Jenks family.

Here's to 2007!

I'm letting the dreary near-freezing rain keep me home this New Year's Day. Good for you if you're out. The hike you're planning will undoubtedly be a piece of cake compared to the drive to the trailhead.

No resolutions today, but some things come to mind:

The Pinnacle in Lyndeborough must be the most inaptly-named geological feature in southern NH. The road to the trailhead takes me practically to the top. Even so, this was one of my favorite local trips this year. The fairly flat stroll to the actual “pinnacle” leads to quite a satisfactory panorama. And who maintains this stone wall (pictured above) along the way? I can't go anywhere in NH without finding stone walls, most of them long abandoned and tumbledown. This one, though, is clearly someone's pet project. There's no clearing or other obvious sign of active land use – just this neat and level wall, evidence that someone cares about this land.

Monadnock has never been so appealing to me in so many months of the year as it was in 2006.

Whatever happened to plans for a greenbelt linking Bedford and Merrimack? There was once talk of creating a trail through undeveloped land running south from Joppa Hill Farm. Is this still under consideration anywhere?

The Nashua River Rail Trail's extension northward is delightful. I didn't think there was any way the trail could go on the old rail route, which now goes through a golf course. The simple obvious solution I didn't consider was that the trail could be re-routed to skirt the edge of the course. Biking and walking through a larger part of Nashua off the main roads is easier now.

I said no resolutions. Getting out more isn't exactly a resolution -- it's more like a plan. Time to get out.

This is December?!

The weather forecast predicts some light snow tomorrow. We've had none yet in my neck of the woods. So it's a Sunday, and probably the last chance to get out for several weeks, and I decided to go to Monadnock. That's not a frequent stop for me, but I like heading there every now and then to check out different trails and to enjoy the views. I have NEVER been tempted to approach the mountain in December, but today's conditions and temperatures were too good to pass up.

What amazing conditions! There were trail runners in t-shirts and shorts zipping past me at some points. There was mud, and skims of ice were forming where water flowed over rock, but the going was mostly easy. I ascended via Cascade/Red Spot/Pumpelly, deciding along the way to go clear to the summit even though that hadn't been my original plan. I'd never been on either Red Spot or Pumpelly, and they were a nice change from the Halfway House and White Dot trails. My first 3 trips up Monadnock were on the White Dot, and I swore to myself after each hike that I'd never go back again -- too steep for the likes of me, too crowded. Then I finally got smart and started taking other trails. What a difference!

The blazes on Red Dot could stand some repainting, but the trail is pretty wide and easy to follow, though it helps to have patience and a map. I noticed things I can't really see when the trees are in leaf, like the birds that are chirping. I'm not sure if they're singing just to delight me or if they're making noise to warn their neighbors that there's a noisy hiker coming. I also tried to capture some photos of the ground-level ice formations, some of which are quite beautiful.

I shared the summit with a grand total of 3 people. That's December for you. I was once there on Columbus Day weekend with about 150 people. Three is better. The wind at the summit was cutting, as always. This was not a day to sit and enjoy lunch up there. I walked around for about five minutes, treasuring the quiet and the views, then started down to beat the sunset. It was 2:30, with sunset coming at 4:15. I had to scoot, so -- big mistake -- I resorted to White Dot, the most direct route back to my car.

I knew enough to avoid shiny rocks and the ever-growing icy spots. White Dot heads down rather precipitously for me. It's bareboot territory today, and every Cub Scout in southern NH has probably scampered up at one time or another, but I don't like this route one bit. I had a hiking staff, and I needed it to protect my knees. I walked slowly enough that one passing hiker asked how I was doing. (I assured her I was fine, just slow.) My caution proved inadequate somewhere between the junctions with the old ski trail and Cascade, when not once but twice I slipped in mud and went bumping and sliding until I hit good solid pieces of granite. The first fall was annoying enough, snapping my hiking staff. The second one was downright humiliating. I was grateful I had no audience. Of course, if I had really hurt myself, company would have been nice, but I know I take my chances when I hike alone.

Once I got up and brushed off what mud I could, my pace slowed still more as I babied a sore ankle. I got an uneasy feeling about getting back to the parking lot after sunset. I had all the standard dayhiker gear including a flashlight, but I always hope I won't need to use it. As it happened, the trail flattens out as it approaches the parking lot, and I got to the car right at 4:15.

I will undoubtedly feel the bruises tomorrow, but the hike was worth the effort. I still hate White Dot, but that's not the same as hating the rest of the mountain. I'd like to go back in the wintertime, after a good snowfall, and snowshoe all over the lower slopes. There's a prospect to warm a flatlander's heart.

Temple's piece of the Wapack

I've dayhiked many times on bits and pieces of the 21-mile long Wapack Trail between Ashburnham MA and Greenfield NH, but for some reason I never had time until recently to check out the segment on the northern side of Temple Mountain. I always drove past the old ski area's parking lot on 101 as I was on my way somewhere else. The ski area went out of business a few years ago, and there's actually serious talk about making the property into a new state park, which would be great for -- among other things -- the Wapack. I finally made time to check the area out last weekend.

I didn't expect that finding the proper trailhead would take awhile, but it did. This is hardly a remote area, with route 101 right there and Miller State Park/Pack Monadnock across the street. I figured I'd park in the old ski area's lot and I'd immediately find the familiar yellow-triangle blazes for the trail. I saw a bunch of old ski trails, but no blazes. Other cars were there, so I knew someone had to be on the trail. I tried going up one of the old ski trails, but the recent rains had left them badly eroded and muddy. I don't mind mud, but I was getting annoyed with myself for being unable to find a simple trail! I soon met up with a gentleman in the same predicament as I. He recommended walking out to 101 and picking up the trail right across the road from the Miller State Park entrance. That worked. A couple of hours later, on my way back to my car, I figured out the very simple (but unmarked) way to get from the parking lot to the trail without resorting to walking on the highway: from the parking lot for the old ski area, on the south side of 101,walk just past the gate (actually a cable strung between a post & a tree), turn right, and walk on the broad dirt road for less than five minutes. Those nice yellow blazes will soon be in sight.

The walk south to Temple Ledges was pleasant enough. There are few vistas on this stretch, so all the folks wanting to see the countryside ought to go to just about any other peak on the northern part of the Wapack except this one. Lots of birds -- including what I think was a bobwhite, which I had seen before only in books! A bird's a little thing, but I was delighted anyway. I encountered about ten other folks enjoying the day, all (even their dogs) sensibly dressed with something orange in this hunting season. Woods, stone walls, a group of cairns that could pass for a living room grouping, plenty of birdsong: not a bad way to spend two hours. This is not the place to wear sneakers, by the way. The approach to the ledges isn't all that steep, but within a few days of any kind of rain, there is mud. You'll get fair warning of that as you splash your way through the parking lot.

Getting here

Walking for pure joy sort of snuck up on me. When I needed to lose weight, I developed the habit of heading outside after dinner to go around the block a few times. Much later, it dawned on me that there were a whole lot of more interesting places I could explore -- maybe not after dinner, but on weekends & days off.

I found state parks. I discovered rail trails. I walked through neighborhoods that I had only before seen from a car window.

I can hear a few "DUH!"s out there. But that's just because you figured all this out before I did.

In the greater scheme of things, I'm a New Hampshire newcomer, having been here "only" 24 years. I moved up from Florida with my husband and baby, hardly expecting this whole Northern thing to work out as well as it has. It took me awhile to realize just how much of Florida's beauty I had taken for granted the whole time I was growing up -- the beauty most of the tourists miss. I didn't want to make the same mistake here. Having five kids, and making them my occupational priority (why don't I just say "full-time stay-at-home mom"?), I have learned little by little over the years about appreciating things close to home. As my family's gotten older, I've had time for trips a bit farther afield, but most of my recreational time is still spent in NH.

I enjoy entering local road races as a walker, but that has its place. Sometimes, the timed workout energizes me. I certainly don't do it for world recognition, since I am not particularly fast. I wouldn't want to give up either my races or my hikes. My long-suffering husband has been very encouraging to me, which is no small effort on his part. He is much faster than I am, and we hike together seldom because I really get concerned about how far behind him I always am. Even when we visited Yosemite, some of our hikes were separate -- I did Panorama Trail by myself, and he hiked Half Dome without me. And that was fine with me.

So, here I am, southern NH-based and fascinated by the NH outdoors. I am a complete amateur at what I do, in the sense that I do my walking because I love it. As for my outdoors skills, let's just say that without help from my son, the onetime Scout, I couldn't so much as pitch a tent. I aim to improve on that, since so many of the places I visit rate more than a 6-hour daytrip.

I plan to write about some of my favorite spots (not all of them!) and post some photos if I manage to take any worth posting. I'm an amateur at that, too.