A Hike in New Hampshire

Over the weekend we went to my nephew's wedding in New Hampshire. The wedding was not until 5 PM on Saturday, so we decided to take advantage of a little free time that morning and go for a hike. We heard about a Blue Job Mountain that was only a half hour away that supposedly had wonderful views with a hike of only a mile or two. That was a perfect fit for our open morning.

The morning was cool, but the sun was shining and there was a nice breeze. We started from the parking lot on the trail to the fire tower which we could climb and maybe see a couple of states away if it were clear.

The trail was wide and gentle with trees and little underbrush to the sides. Everyone had a spring in their step as we started our hike.

We saw wildflowers. 

and a woodpecker tree.

and cairns that marked the trail.

As the trail got steeper, we hiked over flowing tree roots and rocks.

Eventually we made it to the fire tower. Ward took these pictures from the top. I only made it to the first level because the tower seemed too rickety for me to go any higher.

While Ward, Wally, and Theo were climbing the tower, I talked to a person who lived in the area. She told me about another ridge close by that had a great view and was well worth the hike if we had another hour to spare. She gave simple directions to find the ridge as well as directions from there back to the parking lot. 

So we were off.

Our first landmark was a pond which we found with no problem. But then our troubles began.

It turns out that there were many trails near the pond  Almost as many as the ubiquitous blueberries we saw. After some discussion, we chose what we thought was the right one.

But we couldn't seem to find the ridge we were looking for. However, we did find this turtle which we declared was the trip mascot. Talking about the turtle distracted us from all the bugs around--mosquitoes, black flies, and little brown ones. They were all biting.

Eventually, we saw another cairn which meant we were back in "trail civilization". And it was a good thing too because I was getting pretty cranky from the wandering among the rocks and bugs. All the while my pace was getting slower and slower.

Our goal was just to make it down off the mountain when we stumbled on our panoramic destination that we had been told about at the fire tower. It really did have a great view. However, it was too late for Wally. He got too hungry, which for Wally means he got sick. I'm not sure how much he appreciated the view from behind the bush where he was throwing up.

But, "All's well that end's well". We eventually made it back to the car hot, sweaty, tired, and bug bitten. However, we seemed to forget about most of that after we got a good lunch at Little Miss Sophie's. Luckily, we found this place much faster than we found our way off the mountain.