Swift River Reservation

Sunday October 20

It's another beautiful fall day.  However today, we only have a small slot of time this afternoon between finishing one gig in the morning and having another gig at 6pm.  So we turn to Betsy's Nature Walks book, not to be confused with Steve's Hiking books.  To get us going, Betsy saves the normal time spent at the scanner copying the hike description and map, choosing the more expedient method of separating the required pages from the their binding (i.e. "It's my book.", she reasons).

Our hiking destination is the Swift River Reservation, one of 3 tracks of land in Petersham, MA owned by The Trustees of Reservations.  Listed at 1.75 miles long to take only 1:15, we will have ample time for our walk even with the 45 minute ride out there.  Actually, I remember that Nathaniel & I have already done this hike in the winter with snowshoes.  It will look different today without snow.

Start of hike. Sorry for the tree in the way.  You can see how deep blue the sky is through the woods behind us.

The trail winds along the Swift River.  It looks like the beavers have been busy here.

You can see this gate on the map, above.  The tall hemlocks look like the walls of a grand cathedral.

This is the "scenic view" on the hike.  When we get to this kind of "scenic view", it means we need to buy a new book:  the "scenic view" is now gone because the edition of the book we are using is too old.

Sneaking a little further up the trail, we did actually find a nice view (thankfully the leaves have fallen).

The moss on this rock was very thick.  Our feet sank about an inch stepping on it.

"Where's the trail?"  This really was a problem.  The trail blazes were few and far between.  With the fresh coat of fallen leaves, staying on the trail was a challenge.

Does "X" really mark the spot?  Maybe so.  These trees crossed right in our path, as we're nearing the end of the hike.

Across the road (Highway 32), is Connor Pond.  Below the dam to the left is the Swift River.

Above the dam, the water is placid and reflects the lovely fall colors.

Even taking our time, our hike took barely an hour.  It proves you can always sneak in a little Sunday afternoon hike if you try.

Mt Major

Saturday, October 12

It's Columbus Day and Matt's birthday.  He has a plan to go hiking.  Typing a few key words into a browser search engine determined our destination:  "foliage... hike... new hampshire."  Voilà!  We're off to Mt Major, at the southern end of Alton Bay of Lake Winnipesaukee (web site).

The weather forecast is calling for showers to the south and sunshine to the north.  The day is starting out foggy, but we have hope.  We leave the house by 9:15am so we have plenty of time for hiking after a 2 hour drive.  The mini-van is full, but we will be missing Cassandra and Dominic today so they can catch up on much needed sleep.

We make our usual EMS stop in Concord for a couple quick items, but unfortunately, the weather hasn't cleared much;  i.e.  it's still foggy!  We still have another 40 minutes to drive.  It'll get better.

Holy hiking sticks!  Look at all the cars.  The lot is full, so the parking is along the state highway.

Our "begin the hike" picture.  A large crew:  Matt, Becky, Alex, Steve, Betsy, and Nathaniel.

Nathaniel picks up a dead tree for a hiking stick.

We're in New Hampshire, so there's a lot of granite to be found.  This glacial erratic is a fine specimen.

If your pack makes your back hot, turn your coat around.  Really?

Nathaniel is lounging at a view near the top

Matt and Becky are taking their lunch break here.  We figured that if we ate now, maybe the fog would lift by the time we got to the top.  I'm told the view behind them is fabulous.

At least we still had plenty of color in the foliage.

Yay!  We made it to the top.  Unfortunately the views are no better.

"OK.  How long do we wait for the fog to lift?"

That's me next to the foundation at the top.  If you check the web site link, there's a photo of this same foundation with a beautiful view in the background.

Our first choice going down was mobbed with people.  Instead we opted for a shorter, albeit, much steeper descent.  Alton Bay is ahead, but we still can't see it.

Near the bottom, a lot of trees are still in green.  The crowds behind were an Asian professionals gathering that came up from Boston for the day. Nǐ hǎo.

It turns out that you can't see the top from the parking lot either.

 Despite the fog, we had a very enjoyable day.  I have no idea how far we hiked, and it really didn't matter since we were really out for the great color and views.  Yah.  I would go back, but maybe avoid the Saturday of Columbus Day weekend.