On Top of the World

View from the Top

In New Hampshire (No, I'm not going in order) we climbed Mount Monadnack. The name, I'm told, means lonely mountain, because it rises alone from land that is hilly, but certainly not mountainous. The trail that we took went up for about 2 miles, and down the same distance on a slightly different path. And when I say it went up 2 miles, I mean it went UP for 2 miles. It was a trail unlike any that I have ever hiked upon. First, it basically went straight up the mountain. No messing around with things like switchbacks, or stairs. Just... UP. Second, the trail was often just rocks that already happened to exist without vegetation, which I guess was convenient for the trail-makers. The path was marked with white dots painted on rocks -- not quite often enough and in a color that was coincidently similar to some of the lichens that also occurred on the rocks. Happily, there were some very large and creative cairns to follow as well... sometimes. Anyhow... the way up was dotted with lovely glimpses and also populated with some wildlife -- we saw a kestrel, a dragonfly, and red squirrels, which I love. They are so much tinier and spunkier than our grey ones. Also shier, and I felt lucky to have gotten a photo of one at all.