arghman
New member
- Joined
- Sep 1, 2004
- Messages
- 1,352
- Reaction score
- 153
Went to Pawtuckaway, to hike up & around North Mtn with 3 friends of mine who called up last minute. We got there & met up w/ Frosty who was also interested.
North Mtn is my favorite area so far there, lots of different plant communities. The very south end of the ridge is a sunny rocky area, we bushwhacked uphill looking for something (I figured this south-facing slope would be the area where something bloomed first), didn't find much & got almost back to the trail where Frosty was waiting for the rest of us, when I spotted some herb-Robert and rock harlequin, and my friends saw a bunch of hepatica:
(just goes to show sometimes bushwhacking is unnecessary, you see almost as much by staying on the trail)
the leaves are from last year, this years' leaves haven't emerged yet. This was about the only plant in bloom (except for a small sedge which I'm not even going to try to identify), & it was abundant on the sunnier slopes of North Mtn.
The ridge itself is semi-open w/ good views in a number of spots, & has chestnut oak and eastern red-cedar, both of which are kind of uncommon in NH. Also some type of gooseberry or currant which I didn't bother trying to identify.
Then it descends via dark hemlock woods & goes by some cliffs ("Devils Den"). We went by the boulder field where there were a bunch of people rock-climbing (weird to see people hiking w/ foam mats on their backs instead of backpacks), then over to Round Pond, then back via the North Mtn bypass. This time we did not get lost: I had pre-marked some waypoints on my GPS and it was helpful to see where we were. The area south of Round Pond seems to be kind of a Bermuda triangle where it's disorienting, probably because of all the twisty little roads & trails.
Saw a turtle (who was intent on doing nothing) and two other whatsits:
the one on the left is probably orpine; the one on the right, I have no idea but it looks very familiar somehow.
=====
"site X"
Just as a seasonal reference (look up "phenology"), the spring-beauty (Claytonia caroliniana, although perhaps this is C. virginiana) has started to bloom:
this was yesterday at a place with no hiking trails that I'll call "site X", nowhere near Pawtuckaway, and I can't say anything else.
North Mtn is my favorite area so far there, lots of different plant communities. The very south end of the ridge is a sunny rocky area, we bushwhacked uphill looking for something (I figured this south-facing slope would be the area where something bloomed first), didn't find much & got almost back to the trail where Frosty was waiting for the rest of us, when I spotted some herb-Robert and rock harlequin, and my friends saw a bunch of hepatica:
(just goes to show sometimes bushwhacking is unnecessary, you see almost as much by staying on the trail)
the leaves are from last year, this years' leaves haven't emerged yet. This was about the only plant in bloom (except for a small sedge which I'm not even going to try to identify), & it was abundant on the sunnier slopes of North Mtn.
The ridge itself is semi-open w/ good views in a number of spots, & has chestnut oak and eastern red-cedar, both of which are kind of uncommon in NH. Also some type of gooseberry or currant which I didn't bother trying to identify.
Then it descends via dark hemlock woods & goes by some cliffs ("Devils Den"). We went by the boulder field where there were a bunch of people rock-climbing (weird to see people hiking w/ foam mats on their backs instead of backpacks), then over to Round Pond, then back via the North Mtn bypass. This time we did not get lost: I had pre-marked some waypoints on my GPS and it was helpful to see where we were. The area south of Round Pond seems to be kind of a Bermuda triangle where it's disorienting, probably because of all the twisty little roads & trails.
Saw a turtle (who was intent on doing nothing) and two other whatsits:
the one on the left is probably orpine; the one on the right, I have no idea but it looks very familiar somehow.
=====
"site X"
Just as a seasonal reference (look up "phenology"), the spring-beauty (Claytonia caroliniana, although perhaps this is C. virginiana) has started to bloom:
this was yesterday at a place with no hiking trails that I'll call "site X", nowhere near Pawtuckaway, and I can't say anything else.
