Northeast Mountains and Lakes

  When we got to NH we stayed at a lodge owned by other Ithaca friends who also generously offered its use to us.  A boys camp built at the base of Mount Waumbek in 1947-8, their family bought it in 1969.  We slept in a remaining cabin but did all our "living" in the lodge, mostly on the porch.  When they bought it the trees hadn't grown up around it and there were clear views of the Presidentials.  Today only Cherry Mountain, due south and some peaks of 4000' mountains beyond are visible.  I climbed the white pine over the cabin to check out the view.  Gail was taken by the Royal Couple dishtowels.

  The view of Cherry Mountain from the porch.  Hard to stop looking, but we tore ourselves away occasionally when the mountains called. The first day there we climbed Owl's Head Mountain, one of the peaks on Cherry, Martha is the other.  We didn't realize we'd be staring at it for the better part of a week.  Owl's Head is the rounded bump in the second picture highlighted by the cloud behind it.  Far in the distance are the summits of North and South Twin which we would hike at the end of the week.

  I made a point of getting up at first light each day to go out on Moose Watch.  Never saw one, but there was a turkey in the tree above the cabin one morning, and the sunrises were top notch each day.  We saw a bear as we drove away the last morning.

  I don't know how often the Presidentials are in the clear, but I bet seeing them five out of six mornings of a visit is rare.  I hesitated before trespassing during my walks to get some of these views, but I couldn't resist.

  Some of the sunsets weren't bad either.  I think this is the picture I took when I climbed the tree, but there was a similar view from a spot on the road.  That's Madison on the left and Adams is the pointy peak on the right, more about them in a post below.

  Near the lodge is Pondicherry Wildlife Refuge where we walked on the rail trail one morning.  The views were great, though we didn't see much wildlife.  The top photo is of Starr King and Waumbek Mountains so the lodge would be near the bottom, obscured by the trees.  The bottom picture is of Gail and me, same mountains in the back.