Despite the forecast, people actually wanted to do the Franconia Ridge with me yesterday. HuiYeng (7summits), Damon and Damon’s friend Ken met me at Lincoln Woods at 7am to spot a car, and then head-up to the Skook trailhead.
With Damon in the lead for the majority of the day, you know we didn’t dawdle…
On Skook the surrounding green was beautiful and the air was moist and refreshing. On the ridge, I used HuiYeng’s suggestion to imagine the beautiful views of the Bonds and Owl’s Head on one side and Cannon on the other. Up high it got cool enough for gloves and a quick pace. Although we never got rained on there was enough moisture being in the clouds to keep us all damp.
In between Lincoln and Liberty we dropped into the woods, where we were surprised to see a spruce grouse standing in the middle of the trail and not moving away from us. We were initially charmed and curious at how bold this bird was - pictures and maybe even a short video were taken. But then things started to get a little weird…. The bird, who was either guarding a nest or territory (or had just mentally lost it), became really interested in Damon, (his deodorant maybe??). The bird blocked the way down the path and moved to intercept Damon when he tried to move on and started making these creepy little bird noises. Damon, having gotten over the bird’s initial charm, gently used his pole to push the bird into the brush, but it would immediately return to the trail. Damon finally just walked by and the bird took flight and trying to grab him by the pants. Damon then started talking about grouse for dinner.
Next was HuiYeng’s turn. I told her to just run by the grouse and she did…but instead of standing there it flew-up and tried to peck her in the head. Sorry HuiYeng!! I managed to get by unscathed, but turned around and the bird was following us. It started feeling like Jurassic Park…. The grouse must have followed us for close to 1/8th of a mile. Yikes!
We were happy to survive the grouse trauma and moved quickly to hit Liberty and Flume, then down Osseo. At one point, the sun almost looked like it was going to break through. We got back to the Lincoln Woods lot about half an hour later than Damon’s estimated 8 hour trail time.
As usual, a GREAT day! Thanks guys!
With Damon in the lead for the majority of the day, you know we didn’t dawdle…
On Skook the surrounding green was beautiful and the air was moist and refreshing. On the ridge, I used HuiYeng’s suggestion to imagine the beautiful views of the Bonds and Owl’s Head on one side and Cannon on the other. Up high it got cool enough for gloves and a quick pace. Although we never got rained on there was enough moisture being in the clouds to keep us all damp.In between Lincoln and Liberty we dropped into the woods, where we were surprised to see a spruce grouse standing in the middle of the trail and not moving away from us. We were initially charmed and curious at how bold this bird was - pictures and maybe even a short video were taken. But then things started to get a little weird…. The bird, who was either guarding a nest or territory (or had just mentally lost it), became really interested in Damon, (his deodorant maybe??). The bird blocked the way down the path and moved to intercept Damon when he tried to move on and started making these creepy little bird noises. Damon, having gotten over the bird’s initial charm, gently used his pole to push the bird into the brush, but it would immediately return to the trail. Damon finally just walked by and the bird took flight and trying to grab him by the pants.
Damon then started talking about grouse for dinner.Next was HuiYeng’s turn. I told her to just run by the grouse and she did…but instead of standing there it flew-up and tried to peck her in the head.
Sorry HuiYeng!! I managed to get by unscathed, but turned around and the bird was following us. It started feeling like Jurassic Park…. The grouse must have followed us for close to 1/8th of a mile. Yikes!We were happy to survive the grouse trauma and moved quickly to hit Liberty and Flume, then down Osseo. At one point, the sun almost looked like it was going to break through. We got back to the Lincoln Woods lot about half an hour later than Damon’s estimated 8 hour trail time.
As usual, a GREAT day!
Thanks guys!
