Woods Wind Wander

The highly underrated view from Jennings Peak After driving slightly over an hour to see our dear friends, our youngest's BFF's family, we decided to try to stay close by and do a somewhat low-key hike.  We did a bit of Internet searching and settled on Drakes Brook which was a very short drive from where we were staying.  When you are online looking for hikes (let's say on a site like AllTrails), it can be very different when you arrive to the actual trailhead and are trying to figure out how the person writing the post strung together the "Moderate 5 mile loop."  My husband likes to go online and (try to) figure out the route in advance.  I do think it is good to have something of an idea of what certain trails are like.  But sometimes I can't figure out what they are talking about and just like to string a hike together on the fly. We arrived at Drakes Brook and saw this sign.   Drakes Brook trail is an out and back (Sandwich Mountain Trail would be...

Wait a second.  A bullfrog?  Who's writing this entry? We woke up this morning with a very excited younger son.  Today is the day we drove to meet his best friend.  You see, my youngest and his BFF have been friends for the majority of their life.  They were 3 when they met and had been pretty much inseparable ever since.  At the end of their Kindergarten year, his bestie moved to Boston for his father's job, and the boys have remained in touch.  We visited them last summer in Boston, and promised we'd be back.  In the meantime, the boys kept in touch via Zoom.  When we planned our trip to New Hampshire we thought it would be great to meet up for a day in the park, have a picnic, play soccer, etc. We drove to the park and got there early.  It worked out perfectly because we got in our daily walk of 5 miles before our friends arrived (they have a baby, and like to sleep in- who could blame them?!) Here's the tasty little morsel😍!  O...

I'm not sure who had the bright idea of climbing two 4,000 footers back to back but that's where we found ourselves on our second day in New Hampshire:  at the base of Mt. Tecumseh.  No, in reality, looking forward at the weather report, and given the importance to my husband that we climb the two mountains that he had climbed as a kid, we decided to tackle Mt. Osceola and Mt. Tecumseh first. There is a lot of comparison of these two 4,000 footers online and among people, and both are rated moderate.  Now, I don't know if it is because we traveled far, climbed one 4,000 footer, then attacked another the following day, but Tecumseh felt harder in ways to me.  There is actually a split in our family about which was more difficult, 2 votes for Tecumseh and 2 for Osceola.  (And one vote is highly suspect given the amount of toads we encountered on Tecumseh 😉.)  Trying to remain as impartial as possible,  it is about 3 miles to both summits, Osceola is roc...