Outdoors – Page 11

Lunar eclipse

Partial eclipse of a harvest ‘supermoon’.

Last night we arrived home from almost three weeks of international travel just minutes before the beginning of a lunar ‘supermoon’ eclipse. The cloudless sky was dark and the moon had just risen over the hill to our east, bright and full. I quickly reconfigured my camera from our travels through sunny Japanese gardens into settings suitable for photographing the full moon, and captured a few shots as the partial eclipse began, and then peaked at 10:44 EDT. Below is a photo during peak, when the top of the moon was darkened by earth’s shadow.

Canon R5 with 100-500mm lens + 1.4xTC, at 700mm, 1/100 at f/10, ISO 125. Cropped.

It was a calm, cool evening, and I stood in the driveway for about twenty minutes enjoying the growing eclipse. While I watched, I listened to the local coyote family howling at the moon, somewhere on the far side of the hill. Closer at hand, in the shadows to my south, I heard the alarm call of a white-tailed deer: a high-pitched snort while leaping away from an imagined predator. Meanwhile my cat, Sebastian, wove his way lazily around my ankles, equally happy to be spending an evening in the moonlight.

See the gallery of three photos – at full resolution, you can see even more detail.

Lyme wildlife – a walk in the forest

A weekly ritual.

I currently have six wildlife cameras in a hillside forest near home. Every week or two I take a walk, from one side of the hill, over the top, and down the other side, stopping to check each camera along the way. I enjoy the opportunity to be alone in the forest, off trail. I pick my own path, following my own sense of direction, recognizing familiar landmarks like a particular fallen tree, a fern-filled glade, or a notable boulder. I scan the forest floor for fresh tracks, listen for birdsong or the crackle of branches, and just immerse myself in the experience. I find it intellectually interesting and spiritually restorative – and a good workout, climbing up and down the steep hillside. Read on for the video!

Lyme wildlife – August

August treats us to bears, coyotes, a bathing owl, and more!

I woke at 2am to the howls of the coyotes, and they sounded close. It’s increasingly common for us to hear coyotes near our home, but in 33 years living in New Hampshire I’ve only once seen a coyote in-person. (They are mostly noctural, and I am not!) As noted in my post from June, I was thrilled when my wildlife camera caught a daylight video with a litter of coyote pups visiting a vernal pool. So, as I lay awake listening to the coyotes last night, I imagined those little pups were out there now, learning the ways of their pack, and wondered whether they might be in view of of one of my cameras.

Indeed my cameras brought us many exciting treats in August: a pack of coyotes, many views of both mama and papa bear (and baby bears too!), a fastidious barred owl, a nosy skunk, and more.

Two bear cubs explore the shore of a vernal pool.

Carrigain: 48 over 48

Completing my second round of the NH48 – all done over the age of 48.

I saved Mount Carrigain for last.

In 2014, shortly after skiing and snowshoeing to the summit of Owl’s Head – one of the peaks in the NH48 (a list of 48 peaks in the White Mountains of New Hampshire whose elevation exceeds 4,000 feet) – I realized that it might be worth hiking all the mountains on that list again. I could aim to complete what I call the “48 over 48”, that is, to hike all 48 peaks on the NH48 list, over the age of 48. After all, I had just completed the most notoriously inconvenient and unrewarding peaks on the list! So why not do all the rest? Read on!

First views from the Signal Ridge Trail on Mount Carrigan – with Carrigain Notch below, and the Presidential Range in the distance left of center.

Wildlife camera – July

July edition of captures from my wildlife cameras in the forests of Lyme. Squirrel, bear, deer, and raccoons.

July was a quiet month for my wildlife cameras – but resulted in some interesting video captures! Mid-month I shared the fun close-up view of a black bear, who used my camera as a back-scratcher. Now, I share a video compendium… a cute squirrel grooming himself, a busy raccoon moving through the woods overnight, a black bear that gets frighteningly close, a series of deer (including a young buck), and a pair of mischievous raccoons!

Mount Isolation

A rugged hike to an isolated member of the NH four-thousand-foot mountains, on a smoky, foggy day.

It seemed odd to climb to an elevation of over 5,200′ in search of a mountain whose elevation is only 4,003′ (1220m), just barely earning it membership in the White Mountains’ fabled set of “four thousand footers.” But Mount Isolation, our diminutive goal for the day, is, well, isolated. There are no direct routes to its summit, a slight prominence along the lengthy Montalban Ridge sloping southeast from the shoulder of Mount Washington. But as we climbed above treeline into the extended alpine landscape surrounding Mount Washington, we were glad to have chosen this route. Read on, and check out the gallery!

David hiikes down the Davis Path toward Mount Isolation. Photo by Jon Kull.

Black Mountain

Sharing a favorite hike with a friend.

After the passage of Tropical Storm Debby (which fortunately only brought us a few hours of heavy rain), the weather turned sunny and dry. Perfect for a hike! I selected Black Mountain, one of my favorite go-to hikes, to share with a friend who is still discovering the many hiking opportunities of the Upper Valley and New Hampshire. Although the sky was partly cloudy, Black Mountain’s relatively low elevation allowed us outstanding views across the Upper Valley (to the west) and into the White Mountains (to the east). And I re-discovered the “tipping rock” I’d seen on my first visit here in October 2010 (10/10/10). Check out the gallery!

The ‘teetering rock’, on Black Mountain, with Mount Moosilauke in the background.

Hike stats:
Distance: 3.75mi (6.0 km), including a side trip to the historic Lime Kiln.
Time: 2h56 (including a long rest on the summit)
Elevation gain: 1,599′ (487m)

Trailhead at lower left, summit at right. Out and back;
on the way out, we made a side-trip to the Lime Kiln on the dirt road

Grindelwald – redux

An amazing week in Grindelwald!

What a week! My friends and I rented a house in Grindelwald (Switzerland) and spent the week hiking in the heart of the Swiss Alps. We were incredibly lucky with the weather, with six sunny hikes:

We spent very little time in town – an aprés-hike visit to a pastry shop, a brief tour of the gift shops – but we did enjoy an excellent fondue meal at Hirschen, and the many sights, sounds, and tastes of the Wednesday-evening street festival. More photos in the gallery!

Street party in Grindelwald, with the Alps looming in the background.

Postscript: unfortunately, about 15 days after we left Grindelwald, a massive storm blew through the region and caused terrible flooding. The village of Brienz was devastated, and both Grindelwald and Lauterbrunnen were cut off for several days. I feel horrible for the people and businesses affected.

Grindelwald – Schwarzwaldalp

A gentle hike from Gross Scheidegg down to Schwarzwaldalp.

On our final day in Grindelwald, we chose a milder hike. It began with a bus ride up the steep and winding road to a mountain pass, Gross Scheidegg – the taller (eastern) counterpart to Kleine Scheidegg on the western side of Grindelwald. Here we stumbled into a local community festival, which appeared to be an amateur wrestling contest! We stopped to watch for a while, then ambled up the road and along the trail to take us down the other side of the pass. Our goal was the tiny village of Schwarzwaldalp, which we understood to be the site of a historic, water-powered sawmill. Read on!

A community wrestling competition at Gross Scheidegg.

Grindelwald – Männlichen

An afternoon jaunt to a promontory overlooking Grindelwald.

Our fourth day in Grindelwald allowed for a second hike. (In the morning, most of us took the train up to Jungfraujoch, where three of us walked through the sunshine across the snowfields to a hut for tea and cakes.) On return to Kleine Scheidegg, we met up with others in our group for lunch at a cheerful little berghaus nearby. We then struck out along the ridgeline, with the Eiger’s north face dominating the landscape behind us. Read on!