This Blog contains photos taken between October 22 and 31, 2018. It seems that the Last Week of October 2018 was 10 days long. The major events of the week were a pair of hikes over icy trails.
The week started with a hike over Mount Pierce and Mount Jackson, two 4000 footers. The hike was made more challenging by ice on parts of the trail. Certainly not continuous ice, but enough ice in certain spots to make one tread carefully on protruding rocks or along the edges.
We crossed a bridge and noticed below us a tree engulfing a rock.
A short detour took us to Gibbs Falls.
As Bruce and I, and his dog Caro, climbed higher along the Crawford Path, we notice more snow, and some ice.
The trail runs vertically through the center of the photo below. As you can see it is covered with ice.
The trail was quite beautiful, as were the woods on the sides.
We got to a clearing somewhat below the summit of Mount Pierce. The rime ice on the trees was spectacular. The rounded peak at the top right of this photo is Mount Eisenhower.
We soon reached the junction with the Appalachian Trail, which we would hike to Mount Jackson.
This was the view just below the summit of Mount Pierce. Mount Eisenhower is to the left and Mount Washington is hidden by the low clouds.
The rocks and the ice near the summit of Mount Pierce were beautiful.
It was downhill south of Mount Pierce for a while before we climbed again. Then it was a fairly steep downhill to the AMC Mizpah Hut where we were greeted by a crew of young people closing the hut for the season. We were also greeted by very friendly Canada Jays.
As we climbed toward the summit cone of Mount Jackson, we found more ice.
Approaching the summit of Jackson, Bruce looked back to encourage Caro up a challenging piece of the trail.
The views back to the north were pretty special.
Here is a photo with the major peaks labeled.
We got to a spot that Caro felt was too steep. He searched for an alternate path in vain. Here is Bruce descending to encourage Caro along. Me and my shadow waited.
It was a bit of a struggle, but Bruce finally convinced 2-year old Caro that he could make it.
The view to the north from Mount Jackson was great. Below is a 15-shot panorama.
Here is a cropped portion of the panorama above with a few of the peaks labeled. We were on Mount Pierce just under 3 hours earlier, having spent considerable time at Mizpah Hut.
On the summit of Mount Jackson we found Canada Jays waiting to greet us.
I took one last look to the north before we headed down the very steep first part of the Jackson-Webster Trail.
At one point heading down, Caro balked and Bruce headed back up to urge him down. He had to succeed because we knew there was no real alternative. Heading back to the Mizpah Hut would have been almost as steep a descent from Jackson. I knew there was nothing I could do to help — I would just get in the way on the steep ledges. So I walked a bit ahead to a small clearing and took off my backpack to have a bit of a late lunch.
Before I could get my sandwich out, I looked to my right and head-high and about 2 feet away sat a Canada Jay looking at me. I could have reached out and touched it without moving. But I didn’t. Instead I took its photo, of course. The photo below is uncropped and was shot with my 18-200mm hiking lens.
There were actually 3 Canada Jays at this spot. Here are some of the photos I took as I shared nuts and part of my sandwich with them.
After this spot, the trail got less steep. But we still had over 2 hours left to reach our car parked in Crawford Notch.
We got a beautiful view of Mount Lafayette covered with snow while driving home.
And then less than 10 minutes later, another great view.
Much of the rest of the week was spent close to home. I got a photo of some nice red berries on a hike near Dartmouth.
I played with some 10-shot multi-exposures while hiking a road near my home.
A hike with Jann around Occom Pond in Hanover yielded these two photos.
A red squirrel decided to have some fun with our bird-feeder/squirrel-spinner. Surprisingly he (or she) kept coming back for more.
On the last Tuesday of October, Bruce, Caro, and I did an 8-mile hike over Firescrew, Cardigan, and Orange (Gilman) Mountains. We hiked from Alexandria. Parts of the trail were very wet, and naturally there was snow and ice. But perhaps what we will remember most was the intense wind on the summit of Cardigan. Here is Bruce leading the way up the Manning Trail.
Parts of the trail had interesting roots.
There is a huge glacial erratic along the trail.
There were many scattered icy spots heading up Firescrew. We eventually put on microspikes. They were a considerable help.
Just below the summit of Firescrew is a cottongrass marsh that is beautiful in summer. This day it was covered with ice and snow.
Not far from that spot I photographed some iridescent clouds.
We dropped down from Firescrew on the Mowglis Trail and headed up Cardigan. It was much colder and windier than it looks in this photo.
Sheltered from the wind by the tower, the three of us stopped briefly for a snack.
We descended the West Ridge Trail past huge cairns. We were very grateful that the wind was at our back.
We turned left on the Skyland Trail heading to Mount Orange, also known as Mount Gilman.
Near the summit of Mount Orange we got a view of the wind turbines on Mount Tenney with Mount Lafayette and Mount Lincoln looming large behind them.
We picked up the the Vistamont Trail just below the summit of Gilman and followed it down. I got this photo as we crossed an unnamed stream.
Along the trail were some interesting tree features.
When we reached Bailey Brook along the Holt Trail, I was thrilled. I had never seen so much water in it, and the light was great for photography. I made three photos shooting at as slow a shutter speed as I could (1/8 and 1/4 second) while hand bracing the camera in turn against a tree, on a bridge railing, and using a trekking pole as a monopod. I was not carrying a tripod.
We finished the hike along the gentle lower leaf-covered part of the Manning Trail.
From the parking lot I photographed some iridescent clouds.
Later that day on a hike with Jann, I did some motion blurs. I am teaching a photo course with a homework assignment for the week to show what can be done by controlling your shutter speed, and I am doing the homework too.
I ended the month with a photo of an old barn.
Overall October, 2018 was a great month — wonderful fall foliage, some challenging but rewarding hikes, and some nice birds and other wildlife.