Summer Vacation

During the night we heard frequent rain showers battering the metal roof of the lodge, and when we woke up Gail declared she was exhausted and needed to take a day off.  That lasted until she got out of bed, saw that it had turned into a nice morning, and declared it was actually a perfect day to hike Ice Gulch.  Here's how the White Mountain Guide describes the trail:

Caution: The trip through the gulch itself is one of the most difficult and strenuous trail segments in the White Mountains, involving nearly constant scrambling over wet, slippery rocks, with deep holes between them, and it may take much more time than the standard formula allows.  There is no way to exit from the ravine in the mile between Fairy Spring and the Vestibule: hikers must either retrace their steps to the end they started from or continue to the other end....The trail is emphatically not suitable for dogs.

 At least we didn't have a dog with us.  We did see a bear on our way to the gulch, but it turned and went the other direction as fast as we did.

Looking good at Fairy Spring.

It gets your attention right away, and no, we did not try to exit the gulch here.

Scrambling and straining.

Ice.  It was August 2.  I'm not sure what formula we were following, but it took just over two hours to cover the .9 mile.  Of course, that included a stop for a bite to eat along the way.