I slacked off a bit on pictures on this trip, but it was a very pretty day.
A nice loop in the Belknaps.
We wanted something reasonably short , not too much elevation gain, but still entertaining and with some views.
Myself, The Lovely Virginia and our friend Nancy ... and we had a new hiker with us, Annie the dog.
She was very well behaved, but definitely high energy. I tend to range ahead and get separated by a few hundred feet.
Annie, being a sheep dog, didnt like this. She would walk with me, then whimper and run back to the others. Then back to me.
She did settle down after a while :)
So, up the east side of the Precipice Path, steep in places but with good footing. We thought the west PP would be too dangerous for a new hiker, and maybe a bit harder than we wanted today anyway, what with the rock fall and all.
Took us a little while to find our legs, none of us is in as good shape as we'd like. But once past the dreaded place-where-I-lost-my-Canon the trail levels out and we got into a pretty good groove.
Up , up, past the telephone pole and out onto the Blue Trail.
Deerflies were immediately on us, seems to me they are early this year. Fortunately there was a pretty good breeze.
Not long before we reached Straightback and spent an hour admiring the views and chatting with another hiker.
No flies, until the breeze dropped, then we each had our own little 'following'.
Annie sounded like an alligator snapping at them :)
About the time we packed up another trio came thru, but they were looked to be on a mission and didnt stop to chat. No worries.
Nice day for a long walk!
From there we had a pretty simple descent down what I believe is an old carriage road, or perhaps an old farm road. Washed out with a lot of loose rock, so it took a certain amount of care to avoid a turned ankle, but not hard.
Finally came to the Silent People, and admired them for a bit, then the last few hundred yards to the cars and home. And pizza!