With our snowshoes on, we blazed through the woods. Sierra was doing great. There were quite a few shallow streams from early spring runoff. Nothing like the soothing sounds of crampon teeth against granite. A bit of the ways in, we reach a bridge. Let me nix that. We reached what used to be a bridge. Winter had not been kind to the logs, and we had to find our way around the rushing water and deep drifts at the lip of the rushing water. Sierra, like a champion, did great.
We continued on. The thing about hiking with Sierra when she’s doing great is her pace ... as in, she doesn’t have one. It is more like a steady sprint to the top of the mountain. End result: Sierra gets to practice her “Wait” command quite a bit. Not a horrible thing all-in-all. After Sierra broke through some of the deep snow with her skinny legs, we started the final ascent. We all took it like the true Sherpas we aspire to be like.
After 10-15 more minutes, we make to the top of Mt. Perceval. We snap some pics, eat some more goodies, get some water and take in the amazing views: mountains to the north, lakes to the east [Squam & Winnipesaukee], and stately looking conifers to the west.
In time, we pack up and keep pushing on the loop to Mt. Morgan. Writing this from memory: I am not sure of the mileage for many of the details heading down. But I remember truly enjoying the hike up. The hike down was only challenging with Sierra pulling a bit — as we tried to balance ourselves on steep snowy hills.
We stop once to snap some more pics and then decide to push on ahead, back to the trailhead. With about .5 miles to go, Sierra catches scent of the fact that we’re almost back to the car. So began her showing off with Olympic-like strength. In time, we got to the bottom: tired but not so tired that we couldn’t enjoy the drive home through a stellar area in NH.
A beautiful winter hike for us.
Happy snowshoeing.
Pictures
