Red Hill

Beth and her boys, as well as my boys took advantage of the gorgeous day today and hit up Red Hill via the Red Hill Trail. Great little trail about 1.5 miles each way. Good for kids with a fire tower at the top with gorgeous views over the Lakes region. The views are primarily seen from the fire tower itself, with some minimal views from below. It was a warm day and a little buggy, but that is hiking in Summer. We topped the day off with some burgers and fries plus ice cream at Flurries in Meredith and you had the recipe for a pretty top notch day.

 Strava Activity

Blue Job & Little Blue Job

Today, Beth and I took our boys (she has 2, I have 2) over to Blue Job. While my boys have hiked a couple times before, this was Beth's boys first real adventure on a mountain. What a fun morning we had! 

Strava Activity

1 of mine was not feeling the camera today

1 of mine, and 1 of Beth's.. up the fire tower!

Whiteface Mountain

So, Beth and I are on a complete roll right now, and I'm loving it. Today we tackled Whiteface Mountain in the Belknaps. We almost couldn't find the trailhead, as it's sort of between a few houses and a bit indiscreet.. but we found it eventually. Quite a bit of the trail was snowmobile trail, which is used for other off-road vehicles also. Today, we encountered our first trail bike.. which sort of scared us as we weren't expecting it! We also encountered an abandoned car in the middle of the trail, which also freaked us out a bit as we weren't sure if someone had tried driving up the mountain and had been in an accident.. or if anyone was in the vehicle or what the situation was. It was empty, and it was still there on our descent.. so I'm not sure what was going on with that! Another gorgeous day however, and another peak closer to the Belknap Range patch!

 

Piper Mountain

A gorgeous day dawned and Beth and I headed back to Gilford to explore Piper Mountain. Having seen the start of the trail from the Carriage Road to Belknap Mountain, I was excited to check another peak off my Belknap Range bucket list. Another one of those bang for your buck hikes, just over a mile to the summit, the trail heads right on up with about 1,000ft of elevation gain. What I love about the summit of Piper Mountain, is it primarily faces in the opposite direction to Lake Winnipesaukee (the traditional Belknap Range view). The actual summit has 2 peaks, North and South which offers a really large open area with lots of corners to peek around. Today we visited the North peak which features a throne someone has constructed from rock! Being a popular summit, it could be crowded.. yet you feel alone in the universe!

 Strava Activity

Roaring Falls Race Preview

I'm very lucky to have met some outstanding people as part of acidotic RACING. One of those folks is my good friend Robin. She is an incredible athlete.. having competed in running, cycling, triathlons, ironman plus I'm sure many other things. When not training for an upcoming event, I'm blessed to spend many hours traipsing the woods with her. She's a wonderful guide, very patient and most importantly full of encouragement. Robin was putting together a new race on the acidotic RACING calendar on the Castle in the Clouds conservation lands, called the Roaring Falls Trail Race. On this overcast day (with perfect hiking temperatures), I set out with Robin to preview the long course of the Roaring Falls Trail Race which is approximately 11.5 miles long. The end result will be slightly different than we previewed today, but I thoroughly enjoyed my time spent at the Castle and fell in love with the trail system. Extremely well marked (makes me think of a woodsy highway system, with their signs set up like street signs!), the trails are well maintained and in excellent condition. A combination of some technical terrain with lots of wide open carriage roads that carry you up and down without even really realizing it! Best of all, there is a patch you can earn by covering all 19 trails/30 miles which includes 5 summits. Instantly on my to-do list.

 Strava Activity

first real viewpoint ascending Mt Roberts

Mt Roberts trail

Lady Slipper orchid

Mt Roberts Trail

looking back at where we had been