5 Mountains, in 2 days

I went for a hike on Friday because it was so gorgeous. Mc and i went to Welsh and Dickey, which we have climbed a bazillion times...but it never gets old, as it is so gorgeous. We saw a ton of wildflowers and lots of great views and hiked the 4.4 mi loop in only 2.5 hours!

A nice ending to a great hike!

On Saturday, Mc and I took Mr. Incog Nito up to Franconia Ridge to do the Traverse of Little Haystack, Lincoln and Lafayette (A 9 mi round trip). It was a long day, made especially longer with the blowing rain and lack of views. But we made it. It was good training for our Utah trip (though i have a feeling that nothing we hike there will be as burly). This was Mr. Incog Nito's first 4000+ft mountain, so he was pretty proud of himself. I was too...

On our way down this was the view. IF we had only waited a few hours to start the hike we would not have hiked in the cold, blowing rain. Oh well.
[CLICK PICTURE TO ENLARGE]

On the top of Mt. Lafayette

We also decided to go for a short bike ride this weekend..luckily it turned out disastrous. We reminisced that when we were kids, bike riding in the woods was easy....I think getting older makes bike riding a lot harder!

What i think of riding bikes!

Haha!

Mt. Cardigan

I climbed Mt. Cardigan this morning in a little under 1.5 hours. It is a pretty simple hike which is one reason why i chose it. Another reason is that with little effort you have some pretty spectacular views (360 degree!). It was a little overcast and hazy this morning, but that didn't matter.

Now some of you might know that my Doctors have told me "No hiking." (mold remember?) Well this hike, is 1/2 in the woods and 1/2 on slabs of rock...so i figured i was pretty safe considering that mold (i don't think) resides on/in rocks.

McKinley was pretty psyched to be in the woods hiking too!

On our way to the top, we crossed a little stream, which McKinley cannot bear to pass by without tasting the water. He almost drank these little buggers! I think they are frog's eggs.

Here they are up close, and looking very "spacey!"

Getting lost in the woods.

Over the weekend, Mr. Incog Nito and i decided to hike to a lake in Lyme, NH. I had been there last year when i went x-country skiing with Gilly, Amanda and Gordie at Green Woodlands. We thought it would be good to get out and do a little training for our big trip to Utah (in June!), maybe do some "horn huntin'" (looking for deer/moose antlers...known also as "sheds"), and explore an area we've not been to before. Nothing too strenuous, or all that breath taking but getting out in an area where not many have explored before.

Anyhow, we were not sure exactly how to get there, as there are no maps of the area...so we sort of figured we might not make it to the lake. We packed a lunch and our fishing poles in our packs (along with a bunch of useless stuff to add weight to the pack....for training purposes), and set off on our little adventure. McKinley even wore his new pack! We saw tons of wildflowers, loads of moose poop, a snake, a grouse (or pheasent), numerous animal prints, an OLD cemetery, a gigantic beaver dam, trees where moose had rubbed their antlers on and no other people. It was fun trapsing around the woods and never really going anywhere. While we never made it to the lake, we came to a few conclusions on this trip:

First, Mr. Incog Nito has a better sense of direction then Brynne does (she has a very poor sense of direction).
Second, Brynne thinks she is right....all the time, even when she isn't.
Third, we need a compass and a map.

Mc With his new pack checking out the beaver dam

A bunch of trees where last year, moose had scraped the velvet off their antlers

Trout Lily (he leaves are supposed to resemble a brook trout)

The only wildlife i saw-

(Side Note: We walked on old logging roads the whole time.....i felt like that was better then walking on small trails. It was also wet out, so things were not all that able to fly around in the air (i.e. stuff like mold...))