First Mt. Bike ride of the year 3/31/09 Nashua River Rail Trail

It was a beautiful sunny spring day. After work, I headed south on the rail trail from it's beginning in West Nashua. The trail was 99% snow free. a lot of ice storm damage was present. the trail will need a major spring clean up. Some of the trees that fell across the trail have been cleared some have not. Some ducks spotted were the hooded merganser, the common merganser, mallards, and geese. I road into Harry Rich State Forest in Groton and then to the park off Sand Hill Road. I turned around and headed North at 6:45 PM, the Sun was setting at 7:12 PM. A 7.5 mile race against darkness is always a good motivating factor.

Marginal Way 3/28/09 Maine

The weatherman predicted sunny and 62 degrees for Saturday. Well it was 39 windy and overcast/foggy instead. Beth and I walked from Perkins Cove to Ogunquit Beach. We bundled up and first walked over to the cove. A loon usually winters there. It is a prime wintering spot for a loon, because it is so sheltered. Sure enough the loon was there. A bunch of Harlequin ducks were on a rock. They are heading back to the Arctic for summer. A Loon in mid molt was on the ocean side by the shore. It's nice to see them changing back to summer colors. Various other ducks and seabirds were present on this foggy overcast afternoon.

South Pack Monadnock 3/27/09

It was a beautiful sunny early spring day and I decided to climb South Pack Monadnock Mt. I ahd climbed it after work last Friday and it being an off Friday I could get there earlier. I parked in the Miller St Park lot in Temple NH. i wore sneakers and took the closed auto road. It was almost bare of all snow. It was tee-shirt hiking weather. I spotted a hawk circling the top. It's nice to go when there are no cars and the lot at the top is empty. The views where fantastic.

Lynx tracks Anson Maine

The 3 pics were taken on my property in the Lemon Stream forest of Anson Maine, 01/02/09
The upper left is a coyote track. The toe print is pointed because canine claws do not retract. Below that are Lynx tracks
The feline claw retracts. The Canine prints are longer than wider and the feline print is typical rounder or even wider than long at times. The lynx tracks and Lynx trail were very fresh, the top coating of snow had fallen hours earlier. The prints were all very sharply defined. That same day I also took pics of Bobcat prints, deer print, hare prints, and grouse prints. I have pictures of the lynx prints meeting up with and following the fresh snowshoe hare prints. In the spring I am going to mount my animal can low to the ground to try and catch a photo of one of these elusive cats.

In Search of Nottingham Mountain/Lynx tracks

Lynx Tracks top 2 pics, Bobcat Tracks bottom 2, note- scale: black lens cover next to tracks




On a cold but perfectly clear Friday March 13 2009 My brother in law Keith and I met up at the Citgo Station on Rte 43/107 in Deerfield. our goal-climb the highest peak in Rockingham county old school style-without using a GPS or compass. We were unfamiliar with this area for hiking. It is tucked away on the county line in far west Deerfield. Directions to the summit were hard to find online. We turned of 107 onto Echo Valley Rd. The tornado damage there is still a sight to see. We parked on Mountain rd in Epsom. We first veered to the trail on the right and climbed McCoy mountain because it was there. The snow was 2 feet deep in the woods but supersaturated with water that had refrozen solid with a dusting of fresh snow on top. Perfect winter hiking conditions, now snowshoes or even gaiters were needed. No bugs, bushwacking was a piece of cake. Keith said we were on Fort Mt once we reached the top. So we were thinking we were on Fort Mt. We could see the snowy summit of Mt Washington from the top. After snacks and discourse headed down the mountain and up the other trail. This part was more exciting because we saw fresh Lynx tracks, Snowshoe Hare tracks, Moose tracks, and Bobcat tracks, and coyote tracks. We heard an animal over by a falling fir tree- perfect and necessary habitat for Hares and Lynx'. I took pictures of all on the way down and posted them here. We ended up bushwacking after the trail ended and went to the summit which had lynx tracks showing that this elusive cat went right over the top. The mountain had a communications center and turned out to be the real Fort Mt. The view from the top of Fort mountain is nothing short of spectacular. Nottingham Mt. was still further to the east just over the county line. The sun was getting low in the sky and we descended. We had inadvertently climbed the highest peak in Merrimack County instead of the highest peak in Rockingham county. The discovery of the Lynx tracks was an added bonus, the area of southeast Epsom was very similar to the Lemon Stream in area in topography and in animal tracks.