Hiking in the Rain

We went for a short father-daughter hike this morning, on a small hill nearby. It was raining, but Gilly really needed to get out of the house and burn off some energy, or we were ALL going to go crazy. It turned out well, since the rain tapered off about midway through our hike.



It was fun to see Gilly get excited about things that I would never notice, like the rock she's posing next to (below). She was walking along and all of a sudden started yelling, "turtle rock! turtle rock!" (You can see the "eyes" and "mouth")



We also spotted loads of salamanders. I've never seen so many! They must be having a great summer, with all of the rain. I lost count of how many we saw, well into the dozens.





We also saw this creepy-crawly spider. It was pretty big, and had spun its web right across the trail at eye level. I almost walked into it (yuck).



Gilly collecting some fern samples:





The victorious summit shot:



A hazy view of Baker Tower down in Hanover:

Valuable Lesson

Giant stickers and Gilly don't go well together.

Triple Trouble

And so it begins . . . they have learned to set aside their differences and collaborate against the common enemy: BEDTIME.

According to Lyn, Gilly and Simon asked to go to sleep in our bed the other night. This is a common occurrence lately. They fall asleep in our bed, and we transport them back to their own rooms once they're zonked out. Well, at least that's the case with Gilly. Simon usually ends up causing trouble, waking up Greta (who is in a crib in our room), jumping on the bed, etc.

Well, apparently Lyn went to go check on them after a bit. On her way to the room, she heard giggling, from ALL THREE of them (Greta had been asleep). The pictures below tell the rest of the story. They were having a grand old time, and Greta thinks her brother and sister are hilarious (so do we).

Trail Maintenance

A few years ago I adopted a section of the Garfield Ridge Trail, from Mount Lafayette to Mount Garfield, part of the Appalachian Trail in the White Mountains. Exactly what it means to "adopt" a trail is a bit of a mystery to most people who ask me about it. Basically, it means I have agreed to take care of the basic trail maintenance. A recent post in the AMC Trails Blog (click) explains it very well.

The next post (click) in that blog, honors Barbara Kukla as the Trails Volunteer of the Month. She was the previous adopter of my section of trail . . . for 20 YEARS! I hope I do as good a job taking care of the trail as she did.

Here are a few shots from my trail:

Way to go Pops!

Pops' photography (Roger Irwin Photography) is on display at the governor's office in Montpelier, Vermont! There will be an artist's reception on Thursday, August 13th, from 3:00-5:00PM, open to the public. His photography will be on display until September 30th. Go check it out if you have a chance. Link (click)