December 22, 2011
No one I know loves winter more than my friend Cath. With that in mind, there's no better way to spend the first day of winter than joining her on a hike. Although it sure didn't feel like winter today with temperatures nearing 50 degrees and no snow. Today we would be hiking in the Maine portion of the White Mountains so Cath could red-line some new trails. We parked on Route 113. Part of 113 is closed in the winter so we had a 5 minute roadwalk to Brickett Place. We started on the Bickford Brook Trail but at the next trail intersection we turned onto the Blueberry Ridge Trail..
View to the west from the Blueberry Ridge Trail.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
We took the summit loop where we had this view to the south looking down to Shell Pond.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
We headed down the Stone House Trail. We took a couple of short spurs along the way. First we visited Rattlesnake Pool which was much nicer than the name implies. Next we stopped at a beautiful gorge.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
We then walked around Shell Pond.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Then we headed up the White Cairn Trail as we returned to Blueberry Mountain.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Madison loves the mountains.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
We continued on the Blueberry Ridge Trail which has some very pretty semi-open ledges to hike across.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
There was a little bit of crunchy snow up high. The trickiest part of today's hike was the numerous ice flows we had to get around.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
The true summit of Ames Mountain, which is just a bump, is a few feet off the trail so we tagged it. We then headed up to the summit of Speckled Mountain. It was one of those hikes that despite hiking, hiking, and hiking, we only reached a maximum elevation of 2906'.
Cath took a picture of Madison and me on the summit.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
We put our microspikes on for the first part of the descent. After a mile we took them off and traded them for our headlamps which we needed for the remainder of the hike. Thanks for joining me today Cath!! I hope we get lots of snow soon!!
| 
