redlining with BeccaM on Mt. Chocorua

[forestgnome]

Becca "needed" (whatever) most of the trails on Mt. Chocorua. We hiked up Piper Trail to Nickerson Ledge Trail, to Carter Ledge Trail, to Middle Sister Trail over the Sisters to Chocorua.

Becca waiting patiently...

at the junction of Nickerson Ledge Tr...

Nickerson Ledge climbs at a good pitch and gets you up to Carter Ledge Trail quickly.

a fresh rotted blowdown...

telltale signs of a moose who died right on the trail...

Not too far away we found body parts, including a jaw bone that revealed that it was a yearling, a common sight since half of all moose calves don't make it through their first year...

This route takes you through miles of open-ledge hiking with a few areas back into the beautiful trees. Here are the first ledges of Carter Ledge Trail...

Beautiful laurel and rhodora lines the trail. A couple weeks ago the rhodora blooms dominated the scenery, and now it's the laurel's turn...

A nice colony of rare Jack Pine grows in this area, adding an extra special feel to this beautifully scenic area...

heading toward Little Sister...

rewarding views to the northeast after climbing the fairly steep Middle Sister Trail

continued...

 

[forestgnome]

lots of different butterflies in this area, including this swallowtail that we noticed wasn't the usual yellow color...the top half of the wings are white....hmmmm...anyone?

beautiful views from the top of Middle Sister...

a big dragonfly on Big Sister...

on Big Sister, heading on to the main summit of Chocorua...

silverling along the trails...

one of the many outcrops near the summit...

We planned to hike down the Middle Sister Trail back for a nice big loop but we decided to just zip down the Piper Trail to get to the post-hike provisions asap

Thanks BeccaM for an awesome day of hiking

 

[una_dogger]

The last photo is STUNNING!

Looks like you had perfect weather for it!

 

[mtruman]

Great report Patrick! That section on the ledges below the Sisters and over to Chocorua is just beautiful (not that the rest isn't). I agree with Sabrina about that last photo - amazing. At a glance I would have thought that I was looking at some big wall out west (Zion comes to mind). Just love the perspective.

 

[ksearl]

Great photos as usual. Looks like it was a perfect day for this ledge hike. The views look phenomenal!

Karl

 

[Kevin Judy and Emma]

Outstanding!

This is one of my favorite hikes to Chocorua, captured by the master! Thanks for taking me back!

KDT

 

[forestgnome]

Wasn't it just Canada Day? Nice shots of a Canadian Tiger Swallowtail (Papilio canadensis) and the blue variant of the Canada Darner (Aeshna canadensis).

Cool!....thanks for the ID help VFTTers rock

 

[J&J]

Nice picture of the silverling. Good stuff.