Here at Hangman Hill

We have been angling to visit Mt Cardigan for a while. It has a reputation for great views and lovely trails. We were not disappointed on our recent visit!

July and August are usually great hiking months in the White Mountains, and this year has been no exception so far. The warm temperatures do mean that you have to get an early start, however.

The COVID situation appears to have driven every Tom, Dick and Harry in New England onto our local trails. Despite this, we have had a lot of fun hiking over the last month and we hope there is more to come in August and September.

Here is a sampling of a few of our recent hiking adventures…

King Ravine Trail

The trail up King Ravine is a New Hampshire classic and is on the Terrifying-25 list. It involves a lot of scrambling on big boulders and some very steep terrain. In addition, you can visit the Ice Caves Loop on the way and practice your speleological skills too. For added adventure we decided to descend vis the Chemin de Dames which is also on the Terrifying-25 list because of its steepness and exposure. Oh, and we also decided to take Zealand on this hike with us!

Waterfalls in Evans Notch

On a really hot day there is no alternative to finding a great White Mountain waterfall in a remote location, to escape the heat and the crowds.

Last weekend we headed up to New Hampshire for a weekend of hiking in the White Mountains.

On the first day (July 4th) we tried to avoid the crowds and took the seldom used trail up the east side of Kearsarge North. It was a beautiful 10-mile out-and-back hike and we only saw 2 other people on the trail.

On the 2nd day we drove west to Smarts Mountain on our way back to CT. This is a 52 WAV peak that we hadn’t hiked before, and we enjoyed a loop trail that ascended via a rocky ridge and descended back through the woods. There was also a fire tower on the top of Smarts Mountain, which is good because the trees are pretty tall up there!

Our current front door is the fourth one in tenth years, but it has held up better than the first three. The original one was rusty metal and drafty, and needed replacing within a year of moving in. The second one was made of western fir and needed to be replaced after about 9 months due to a failed poly finish. It was replaced under warranty, and the next one lasted a similar length of time. By then the frame had also deteriorated so badly that we needed to start from scratch. We learned in those first ten years that a front door that faces east gets the worst of the weather in the winter and is baked alive for most of the summer.

The current incarnation is made of fiber-glass and was designed to look like wood. It looked this way for the first eight or so years, but recently the finish had started to come off in big chunks leaving bare fiber-glass to peak through. So, this weekend’s job was to sand it down and re-paint it.

A trip to the paint store on Friday gave us all the necessary supplies and the weather was predicted to be good for 3 days. Friday afternoon was spent sanding in a cloud of dust, but the old finish came off very easily revealing a perfectly smooth white door and surround. On Saturday we applied primer and the first top-coat. The recommended paint was a latex enamel paint and it dried so darn quickly that it was setting-up as we painted. This led to a slightly streaky and uneven finish, but the overall effect is still so much better than it was before. Hopefully this will also protect the door front the UV-rays and extend its life for at least another 5-years (or hopefully more).

Keeping with strict social distancing guidelines during the months of March, April and May meant that we didn’t meet up with our Full Moon Club. With things opening in June we decided to gather for the June Strawberry Moon at Napatree Point. We were excited to see some friends, albeit from a distance, that we hadn’t seen in while. It was also nice to feel a little more “normal”, as we have been meeting for each Full Moon for almost two years.

But, then the storms came on the night of full moon. Rain, high winds and lightning meant an outdoor gathering at the beach wouldn’t be so much fun, or safe. So, we delayed our full moon gathering to the next night.

We gathered along the beach entrance and walked at safe distance from one-another to the “rocks”. There we gathered, and waited….. This time of year the moonrise shifts quite a lot in a twenty-four hours. In this case, the moonrise occurred nearly an hour later than the moonrise on the actual full moon the day before.

Clouds gathering to the north and east hid much of the moonrise, which was ~9:20pm. But, the sunset… it was spectacular! We enjoyed a beautiful evening, had drinks and dinner, and caught up with friends.

As an added bonus we were able to celebrate Sheri’s birthday on the same evening. Many thanks to Denise and Mike who carried a candle and cupcakes all the way to the point. Sheri also received some lovely home-spun cards from friends. While the separation required during a pandemic is hard, the creativity that occurs when people avoid Hallmark as a source of cards was inspiring.

We hope to keep our distancing celebrations going through the summer. Hopefully July will bring a visible moonrise!

Zealand and Mesa have been in quarantine for too long. So we decided to try a social distancing after dinner drink party at Hangman Hill with Mike, Denise and Mesa. It all went great. The human friends stayed apart while the dogs romped and played. They were soooo happy! The sun went down, the dogs continued to play and we enjoyed a fire.

All was good until it started to snow, and then, it was chuckin!

It was good while it lasted. Actually, it was really good to spend time with friends, in person, well, 6ft away and outside. Next time we will have our skis ready.

While we are staying safe at home in Connecticut, we have been missing our hikes in New Hampshire. We remembered a hike we did in the Acadia area of Rhode Island that offers a ridge walk over Mt Tom with some open ledges. Perhaps this would fill the void left by 2-months without a tip to the White Mountains.

We arrived at the trailhead mid-afternoon with temperatures close to 60 degrees Fahrenheit and clear skies above. The first part of the hike took us through pine forests, along a gravel logging road and eventually to the summit of Mt Tom.

Indeed at the summit, and along the broad ridge that slowly descends from Mt Tom, we found views and rocky ledges. With the trees still barren, we could see views in all directions. Plants and flowers are starting to poke though the earth and moss from a long winter’s rest while the buds on the tress and shrubs are about to burst open.

We came to a second false summit to find a section of theater-style rock chairs with a nice view to the south. We took a short rest, strained for views of the Atlantic Ocean, but we could only see hills and the deep blue of late afternoon skies.

We returned to our car parked at the RI DEM Station on Route 165. We spent a few minutes by the Wood River watching a fly fisherman. Based on the steady flow of the river, a return with canoes is in order, with our blaze orange hats and vests.

As today is ANZAC day, we are making ANZAC biscuits to commemorate the occasion.

After a week of vacation and four weeks of lockdown, Bruno’s hair was getting very long. Time to fire up the dog clippers (with a fresh blade of course) and see how good Sheri’s barbering skills were. Not too bad for a 1st attempt 😃

We spent the last week (before mandatory COVID19 home confinement in Connecticut) on a boat in the Virgin Islands. We were there to help our dear friend Joann celebrate her retirement in style.

The venue was a private motor yacht charter called the “Milk & Honey”, and we were taken care of by Captain Kenny and his wonderful crew (Chandra, Virginia, Kevin, Steve, Jeff and Cole). We departed from St Thomas in the US Virgin Islands and visited a different tropical location every day for a week (including Virgin Gorda, Cooper Island, and Peter Island).

The swimming, yoga, paddle boarding, kayaking, sunbathing, snorkeling, hiking, hot-tubbing, eating and drinking were all fantastic. We also enjoyed fabulous sunsets and an abundance of wild-life (tropical fishes, dolphins, turtles, crabs, lobsters, rays, and birds).

Hopefully the pictures below give you some idea of how much fun we had. The company, the boat, the itinerary, the food and drink, and the service we’re all second to none. We can only hope to have this much fun when we retire!