Spring Weekend in the Whites

[mtruman]

Just back from an incredible White Mountain weekend. The main attraction was definitely the Obs event on Saturday night but the rest of the weekend turned out pretty great as well.

Drove up early Saturday morning and stopped by Chocoura Lake on the way to soak in the first beautiful vista.

http://lh4.ggpht.com/_KuEV5mt1_ak/ShCYdi991nI/AAAAAAAAMGI/RFJDHS1vP5k/s800/5-16-2009%209-45-30%20AM.JPG

We stayed at Joe Dodge Lodge in Pinkham on Saturday night so we decided to get a hike in there on Saturday. Since we needed to be back in North Conway for the event Saturday we decided to go for a moderate one and picked Lowe's Bald Spot. First time we'd been up there are it's one of the best views for the effort that you can find. The trails were completely lined with every variety of spring flower.

Hobblebush was everywhere!
http://lh5.ggpht.com/_KuEV5mt1_ak/ShCYeRrjwbI/AAAAAAAAMGU/69eafMwSQXs/s720/5-16-2009%2011-33-45%20AM.JPG

As was Painted Trillium
http://lh4.ggpht.com/_KuEV5mt1_ak/ShCYfA1zQII/AAAAAAAAMGg/kuGIRDmMmIY/s720/5-16-2009%2011-58-30%20AM.JPG

Not as many Red Trillium - but they were beautiful
http://lh6.ggpht.com/_KuEV5mt1_ak/ShCYeyka2nI/AAAAAAAAMGc/dhymVN18qbY/s720/5-16-2009%2011-35-48%20AM.JPG

The Trout Lillies were just beginning to open
http://lh4.ggpht.com/_KuEV5mt1_ak/ShCYhGBrRuI/AAAAAAAAMHM/g_Myu7s5brA/s576/5-16-2009%201-54-47%20PM.JPG

I thought these were Wood Sorrel but realize now they're not. Help?
http://lh4.ggpht.com/_KuEV5mt1_ak/ShCYhQ_6AlI/AAAAAAAAMHQ/a2s-jPzTrRY/s720/5-16-2009%201-57-46%20PM.JPG

Bunchberries just beginning to come out
http://lh5.ggpht.com/_KuEV5mt1_ak/ShCYhyn9raI/AAAAAAAAMHY/OHo29pKXW74/s720/5-16-2009%202-20-48%20PM.JPG

The view from Lowe's Bald Spot was incredible. The sun broke through just before we got to the top.

Lenticular over Adams and Monroe
http://lh5.ggpht.com/_KuEV5mt1_ak/ShCYfv2CqFI/AAAAAAAAMGs/JSSkGyAGED0/s720/5-16-2009%2012-53-18%20PM.JPG

View North up the valley
http://lh4.ggpht.com/_KuEV5mt1_ak/ShCYf0kk32I/AAAAAAAAMG0/O70C2r17hl0/s720/5-16-2009%2012-56-07%20PM.JPG

Shoulder of Mt Washington
http://lh5.ggpht.com/_KuEV5mt1_ak/ShCYgerzeXI/AAAAAAAAMG8/0vtKGLdihOA/s720/5-16-2009%201-00-23%20PM.JPG

Sunday morning I snuck in a quick hike to Lost Pond which is right across the street from PNVC

http://lh3.ggpht.com/_KuEV5mt1_ak/ShCYiByOmnI/AAAAAAAAMHc/28Mp16h7qXs/s720/5-17-2009%207-16-10%20AM.JPG

We wanted to get in one more good hike on Sunday before heading home. We decided to do the Wildcat River Loop. Got started and at the first water crossing we go stymied. Bushwhacked up and down the shore a ways and found no reasonable spot. Looks like the rain on Saturday night was more than I thought. Since we knew there were several more crossings after this one we decided to try a different option.

We headed off to Mountain Pond which is described as a nice 3 mile loop around a the pond. Hmmm. Guide said something about portnetial difficulites in spring and wet conditions. Hmmm. In short the trail was more of a continual bushwhack through soaked underbrush while climing over wet "greasy" rocks. Doesn't appear that it gets much human travel - but the moose clearly like it. We followed several sets of moose tracks the whole way around and there were fresh piles of scat every few hundred feet. As much as I would like to see a moose I was actually pretty glad that it wasn't there since it would have been pretty close quarters with the path. At the far end of the pond we got a beatiful view across to South Baldface and several other peaks. Mud, moose poop, wet soggy bushwhack over slick rocks. All in all a really nice morning walk. :)

http://lh3.ggpht.com/_KuEV5mt1_ak/ShCYjfQZDtI/AAAAAAAAMH4/d49WA0uBnuQ/s720/5-17-2009%2011-12-17%20AM.JPG

The prettiest Trillium at the end. First ones we saw growing together.
http://lh5.ggpht.com/_KuEV5mt1_ak/ShCYjVnTqpI/AAAAAAAAMHw/bmZUEwYaOa8/s720/5-17-2009%2011-10-24%20AM.JPG

And the prettiest Hobblebush - sure hope the moose don't eat this one!
http://lh5.ggpht.com/_KuEV5mt1_ak/ShCYkJlc9lI/AAAAAAAAMIA/ap87AbTxZ58/s720/5-17-2009%2011-47-30%20AM.JPG

Finished the day off with a great lunch at Moat Mountain. Just a fantastic weekend. Highlight was definitely the wonderful show by Jim and Patrick. The rest was pretty great too. Only two months till Seek the Peak. Can't wait!!!

Rest of the pictures are here if you haven't had enough yet: http://picasaweb.google.com/mtruman42/NewHampshireSpringWeekend09?authkey=Gv1sRgCKyJ07OC yOC4Hw&feat=directlink

[TrishandAlex]

Mark, wonderful photos. Glad you were able to attend the Obs event and have a great time.

I saw some hoblebush on our hike Sat -- so that's what those pretty white flowers are called!

Lovely, lovely pictures, thanks for posing them!!

[CHRIS]

Great trip report Mark and wonderful pictures. I really like the one with the Lenticular over Adams and Monroe. But they are all fanastic. We were also up North this weekend and I have not had a chance to post any pics. yet. We found a bunch of the white Trillium also. Very pretty flower. We also got lucky and got to see a moose cross the street right in front of us coming out of Evans Notch. Which I will post later but of course the pictures are no where near as good as Patrick's. My daughter kept bugging me to drive up Mt. Washington but we just did not have the time this weekend. Glad to hear everybody had a great time at the Obs event I would love to have been there.

[Lizz]

I think the flowers you did not identify are hepatica.

Cheers!
Lizz

[Jimmy Legs and Little d]

Mark,
Terrific pictures and report. Lowe's Bald Spot is a great spot to soak up some views. Also, can relate to the "greasy rocks" from our Mountain Pond hike but nonetheless a beautiful area not to many people are aware of. The flower you asked for help identifying, I believe, is a Rue Anemone.
Hope you have a fine day for STP. Look forward to your report and pictures.
Little d:)

[rockin rex]

Great spot. Many people fly by it on the way to the gulf and Madison and they don't realize what they are missing. The views from there as your pictures show are amazing. I have actually camped there on the rocks and had an incredible night. Mark your pictures as always are amazing.

[JimS]

Mark,

Great, comprehensive spring pictures in the Whites! Love the flower shots, and you found some great spring views as well. Wonderful collection.

The unidentified flowers are indeed anemonies.

Hope to see you at seek the peak, and thanks again for coming to the show!

[Tim&Val]

Hi Mark! It was great to see you on Saturday night!

We drove to the top of MW with my parents on Saturday morning and had a GREAT tour of the Obs with Stacy. As we were walking back to the car, we caught a glimpse of this, which I believe is your cloud!!

http://www.barkeater.ws/forumpics/img_0142_edited.jpg

My parents were on the summit of MW (via Cog Railway) in October 1965 for the last day of the season. It was their honeymoon! Now, they've also been there on the first day of the season, as Saturday was the first day that the Auto Road was open all the way to the summit.

Valerie

[mtruman]

Thanks for all the great feedback everyone! The flower research was fun. I think that it's actually a Wood Anemone (Anemone quinquefolia). Turns out there are just too many kinds of Anemones. The Rue Anemone is close, but has too many petals. There's a False Rue Anemone with the right number of petals but the leaf shape is just a little different. Finally found this one that looks just like it: http://www.ct-botanical-society.org/galleries/anemonequin.html. Of course if I had just looked at ghostflowers.com (http://www.ghostflowers.com/white_mtns4000/moriah52708/pages/06moriah52708.html) first I could have found it there (right Kevin?). Appreciate everyone's input that led me to the answer.

Pretty amazing that we managed to get pictures of the same cloud Val (and I'm sure it must be the same one). It was fun to watch it morph from the original form till it finally was no longer distinguishable.

http://lh5.ggpht.com/_KuEV5mt1_ak/ShCYfv2CqFI/AAAAAAAAMGs/JSSkGyAGED0/s640/5-16-2009%2012-53-18%20PM.JPG

http://lh5.ggpht.com/_KuEV5mt1_ak/ShCYf3P5IVI/AAAAAAAAMGw/DDq2vWwBkNs/s640/5-16-2009%2012-55-32%20PM.JPG

http://lh5.ggpht.com/_KuEV5mt1_ak/ShCYgDzkpQI/AAAAAAAAMG4/UjjsMBmmVYA/s720/5-16-2009%201-00-14%20PM.JPG

[KD Talbot]

I concur: 'tis Wood Anemone Anemone quinquefolia

Love Lowe's Bald Spot!

KDT

[Charlie]

mark nice to see you and your wife again and your hikes look like you hade a good time
very nice pictures

[Tim&Val]

Pretty amazing that we managed to get pictures of the same cloud Val (and I'm sure it must be the same one). It was fun to watch it morph from the original form till it finally was no longer distinguishable.


AGREED!! When we first saw it, we were halfway down to the parking lot... I took off almost at a run (for a forty-something), to get to a place where I could take the picture without the picnic table, tourist signs or other remnants of civilization. Between 4 of us, we had 3 cameras going and it was amazing how fast the cloud disintegrated.

[smithtim]

really nice pics and trip report.. thanks for taking the time to share it

Tim

[mtruman]

AGREED!! When we first saw it, we were halfway down to the parking lot... I took off almost at a run (for a forty-something), to get to a place where I could take the picture without the picnic table, tourist signs or other remnants of civilization. Between 4 of us, we had 3 cameras going and it was amazing how fast the cloud disintegrated.

Thinking about it again today I found this quite disturbing. We both took pictures of the same extremely transient object at approximately the same time - said object having a serious resemblance to a UFO. Rewind about 15 months at which time we both took photos at nearly the same time of an interesting formation (also rather transient) on Mt Avalon which was at the time referred to as the "tiki tree". On further reflection said formation had an eerily similar resemblance to a UFO (if not somewhat smaller and colder). A coincidence? I wonder...

http://lh5.ggpht.com/_KuEV5mt1_ak/R772EOZuDfI/AAAAAAAABEA/6aJwr2bpqnA/s400/080216-143336.jpg

[Tim&Val]

Thinking about it again today I found this quite disturbing. We both took pictures of the same extremely transient object at approximately the same time - said object having a serious resemblance to a UFO. Rewind about 15 months at which time we both took photos at nearly the same time of an interesting formation (also rather transient) on Mt Avalon which was at the time referred to as the "tiki tree". On further reflection said formation had an eerily similar resemblance to a UFO (if not somewhat smaller and colder). A coincidence? I wonder...

<creepy X-files music must be playing in the background> ;)

You're definitely right! In fact, if you compare your tiki pic to my cloud pic, they are ridiculously similar in shape.

Thank you for making me laugh out loud tonight!