Tom Rankin
Well-known member
Reference:
Saturday morning it was COLD! I don't know exactly how cold, but my face almost froze off just walking into the Highland Center from the parking lot! Sure enough, Craig (Puck) was there in the dining room, making final preparations. Other participants were arriving, including Vegematic, Paradox, Jason Berard, and others. I also saw Trish of Trish and Alex, and introduced myself. Nice to meet you!
After a hearty (but expensive!) breakfast, we got ready to leave. Our destination was Webster and Jackson. Others had different surrounding peaks, and lower lying areas to cover. The objective was to note how many birds we either saw or heard. Hearing is ok, as long as you are sure. Actually, even if you see a bird, you must be sure of what species it is. We had packed binoculars and a camera with a 300mm lens, along with the usual winter gear.
We crossed the road and walked the short distance to the Jackson trailhead. We immediately stopped and put on snowshoes. The snow was packed down, but this gave us better traction. I left crampons, and Microspikes behind, reasoning that if the terrain required them, we would simply turn back. This was not a peakbagging mission, and Webster is on 'the list of peaks that are not on any other list'!
The birds made themselves scarce as we slowly trudged up the trail. We were stopping frequently to listen, but it was pretty quiet in the woods. Our best find of the day turned out to be a little serendipitous. Laurie stopped for a bathroom break, and I walked on ahead. As I was standing there, I heard scratching sounds above me. It turned out to be this fellow, who was walking all over the upper branches of a tree, looking for bugs. S/He could clearly see us, but was totally unconcerned and continued searching for his/her breakfast. I'll let you I.D. the species/sex if you want to.
Farther up the trail, we finally heard a couple of chickadees and a crow. We got brief visuals on one of the chickadees. When we came to the Jackson/Webster split, we decided to do Webster first. It looked like at least a few people had been up the trail. We dropped down to the waterfalls, which are nicely frozen now. Then we struggled up the other side of the steep bank and continued. It looked like the tracks were fainter now. We pressed on, with the tracks being fainter and fainter, and the drifts getting higher and higher. After a long time, we made it to the junction and took stock of the situation. It has taken over 3 hours to get to this point! The summit of Webster was only .1 miles away and the trail looked doable. So off we went. The views were great! We could pretty much see in all directions, including mighty Carrigain, and mightiest of all, Mt. Wasghington. (Here it comes Tim! )
After a snack break a little lower on, we decided to press on to Jackson. This was where the snow was the deepest and the drifting the worst. There was only 1 faint snowshoe track now, and it looked like Sasquatch had ambushed a hiker and stolen his snowshoes! The strides were huge. I'm 6' tall, and there was no way I could match it, especially while breaking trail. The track did come in handy for route finding a few times, so thanks Sasquatch, or whoever you are!
As we neared the summit of Jackson, we saw our first Gray jay. They continued to flit around us until we got to the top. There were 3 of them and they posed nicely for us in front of Mt. W. They were extremely friendly and bold, flying right down to our food bag in an attempt to steal our goodies! We did offer them a few nuts, which they snatched from our outstretched hands. We got some great views up here too and it was dead calm. Perfect!
Extreme close-up of Mt. Washington.
The walk back down was slow, with an occasional butt slide. We were still listening for birds, and Laurie was having a little trouble with her snowshoes.
We got back after +7:00 hours. A slow but very enjoyable pace. I guess not bad considering we had to break trail for at least 2 miles.
We met up with all the other birders and compiled our totals. I think we collectively saw 28 species, which was pretty high. While we were sitting around the room, a red fox ran across the snow outside, and came right up to the door of the Highland center! Something tells me he raids the garbage cans!
After the ornithological pursuits were completed, we went to the Italian Oasis for a couple of Brews with Paradox and Trish. I'm pleased to say that their beer is better than the last time we were there!
The weekend continues in another trip report....
Saturday morning it was COLD! I don't know exactly how cold, but my face almost froze off just walking into the Highland Center from the parking lot! Sure enough, Craig (Puck) was there in the dining room, making final preparations. Other participants were arriving, including Vegematic, Paradox, Jason Berard, and others. I also saw Trish of Trish and Alex, and introduced myself. Nice to meet you!
After a hearty (but expensive!) breakfast, we got ready to leave. Our destination was Webster and Jackson. Others had different surrounding peaks, and lower lying areas to cover. The objective was to note how many birds we either saw or heard. Hearing is ok, as long as you are sure. Actually, even if you see a bird, you must be sure of what species it is. We had packed binoculars and a camera with a 300mm lens, along with the usual winter gear.
We crossed the road and walked the short distance to the Jackson trailhead. We immediately stopped and put on snowshoes. The snow was packed down, but this gave us better traction. I left crampons, and Microspikes behind, reasoning that if the terrain required them, we would simply turn back. This was not a peakbagging mission, and Webster is on 'the list of peaks that are not on any other list'!
The birds made themselves scarce as we slowly trudged up the trail. We were stopping frequently to listen, but it was pretty quiet in the woods. Our best find of the day turned out to be a little serendipitous. Laurie stopped for a bathroom break, and I walked on ahead. As I was standing there, I heard scratching sounds above me. It turned out to be this fellow, who was walking all over the upper branches of a tree, looking for bugs. S/He could clearly see us, but was totally unconcerned and continued searching for his/her breakfast. I'll let you I.D. the species/sex if you want to.
Farther up the trail, we finally heard a couple of chickadees and a crow. We got brief visuals on one of the chickadees. When we came to the Jackson/Webster split, we decided to do Webster first. It looked like at least a few people had been up the trail. We dropped down to the waterfalls, which are nicely frozen now. Then we struggled up the other side of the steep bank and continued. It looked like the tracks were fainter now. We pressed on, with the tracks being fainter and fainter, and the drifts getting higher and higher. After a long time, we made it to the junction and took stock of the situation. It has taken over 3 hours to get to this point! The summit of Webster was only .1 miles away and the trail looked doable. So off we went. The views were great! We could pretty much see in all directions, including mighty Carrigain, and mightiest of all, Mt. Wasghington. (Here it comes Tim!
)
After a snack break a little lower on, we decided to press on to Jackson. This was where the snow was the deepest and the drifting the worst. There was only 1 faint snowshoe track now, and it looked like Sasquatch had ambushed a hiker and stolen his snowshoes!
The strides were huge. I'm 6' tall, and there was no way I could match it, especially while breaking trail. The track did come in handy for route finding a few times, so thanks Sasquatch, or whoever you are! As we neared the summit of Jackson, we saw our first Gray jay. They continued to flit around us until we got to the top. There were 3 of them and they posed nicely for us in front of Mt. W. They were extremely friendly and bold, flying right down to our food bag in an attempt to steal our goodies! We did offer them a few nuts, which they snatched from our outstretched hands. We got some great views up here too and it was dead calm. Perfect!
Extreme close-up of Mt. Washington.
The walk back down was slow, with an occasional butt slide. We were still listening for birds, and Laurie was having a little trouble with her snowshoes.
We got back after +7:00 hours. A slow but very enjoyable pace. I guess not bad considering we had to break trail for at least 2 miles.
We met up with all the other birders and compiled our totals. I think we collectively saw 28 species, which was pretty high. While we were sitting around the room, a red fox ran across the snow outside, and came right up to the door of the Highland center! Something tells me he raids the garbage cans!
After the ornithological pursuits were completed, we went to the Italian Oasis for a couple of Brews with Paradox and Trish. I'm pleased to say that their beer is better than the last time we were there!
The weekend continues in another trip report....
