We went for a short father-daughter hike this morning, on a small hill nearby. I think it's named "Indian Ridge," and it's a nice hike if you're in the Hanover area and looking for an easy, less-traveled trail for kids (Google Maps link). (You can access the trail from Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center, or from Sachem Village. If you're interested, pm me for details on how to get there.) It was raining, but Gilly really needed to get out of the house and burn off some energy, or we were ALL going to go crazy. It turned out well, since the rain tapered off about midway through our hike.
It was fun to see Gilly get excited about things that I would never notice, like the rock she's posing next to (below). She was walking along and all of a sudden started yelling, "turtle rock! turtle rock!" (You can see the "eyes" and "mouth").
We also spotted loads of salamanders. I've never seen so many! They must be having a great summer, with all of the rain. I lost count of how many we saw, well into the dozens.
We also saw this creepy-crawly spider. It was pretty big, and had spun its web right across the trail at eye level. I almost walked into it (yuck). Gilly, of course, thought it was pretty cool.
The victorious summit shot:
A hazy view of Baker Tower down in Hanover:
The hike back was uneventful, although we did have to enact the "no talking while walking down steep hills" rule. She was jabbering so much that she kept tripping over roots and had some good tumbles. At one point I looked back, and she was looking up at the sky, singing, while she was walking down a steep pitch with rocks and roots
It was fun to see Gilly get excited about things that I would never notice, like the rock she's posing next to (below). She was walking along and all of a sudden started yelling, "turtle rock! turtle rock!" (You can see the "eyes" and "mouth").
We also spotted loads of salamanders. I've never seen so many! They must be having a great summer, with all of the rain. I lost count of how many we saw, well into the dozens.
We also saw this creepy-crawly spider. It was pretty big, and had spun its web right across the trail at eye level. I almost walked into it (yuck). Gilly, of course, thought it was pretty cool.
The victorious summit shot:
A hazy view of Baker Tower down in Hanover:
The hike back was uneventful, although we did have to enact the "no talking while walking down steep hills" rule. She was jabbering so much that she kept tripping over roots and had some good tumbles. At one point I looked back, and she was looking up at the sky, singing, while she was walking down a steep pitch with rocks and roots
