September Weather in October...Woohoo!!!

Drove to Fryeburg for what might be our last bike ride of this year.  It's hard to believe that the temperatures continue to be in the 70's this late in October but we like it and we're trying to take advantage of it!  Admittedly, it was in the 60's today but still sunny and warm.

We like the Mountain Division Trail because it's a decent ride, 4 miles each way, completely paved with some hills and valleys and there's a bathroom at the end.  

I keep thinking I won't take any pictures, because we've ridden this route several times and I've taken lots of pictures, so I don't need any more.  Then I come across something I haven't seen before, life these fall berries.

There were tons of them!  Many people cut the stems and use them in Thanksgiving and Christmas sprays and wreaths, but I'm not one of those.  They do provide some nice color against all the brown this time of year.

There wasn't as much color along the river as I thought there would be.

It took us about 30 minutes to reach the information center, where we used the bathroom and had a snack.  The temp was up to 63*.

We (Bill) discovered this painted rock, which we left right where we found it.

There was some good color on the distant hills and in the parking lot.

One of the nicest stretches of color was on our return trip.

Dan was kind enough to let Titan out for us, so we didn't have to go right home, instead we drove to North Conway.  We did a little shopping and drove to the Mt. Washington Valley scenic overlook.  Surprisingly, there was still a lot of color, including green and there didn't seem to be a lot of leaf drop.

It's too bad the colors never look as good in my pictures as they really are ;o(

We got a snack and iced coffees at the s.l.o.o.o.o.w.e.s.t McDonald's in the world, picked up a couple of things at the grocery store and headed home.

Keep it up Mother Nature!

Thanks for stopping by...
;o)

Bradbury Mountain State Park

Although it started out cloudy, we believed the weather prediction for clearing skies and decided to check out the foliage before it was too late.  First, we headed to Freeport to pick up a birthday gift for Dan.  I had a $10 certificate to Beans, so we stopped there to spend it.  HAHA, know how hard it is to spend only $10 at Beans!  I finally discovered a nice dish towel for $9.95 and although, with tax, it totaled $10.50, I got away scott free!

From there it's only about 10 minutes to Bradbury Mountain.  We chose this destination because it's got a good bang for the buck...a short hike, the summit is only 485' above sea level, and the views are decent.

We took the "long" way to the top, The Northern Loop Trail, stopping below the summit for the first foliage views, via the Bluff Trail.  

We backtracked to the NLT, then to the summit, a large, fairly flat area overlooking the woods, all the way to the ocean.  The entire hike only took 35 minutes, including our short stop.

1:48 pm

Although we reached the summit at 1:50, it was still pretty cloudy, but the colors were worth the climb.  It was 66* with a light wind.

We found ourselves a nice, cozy spot on the rocks and had ourselves a snack.  While nearly everyone else was eating apples, we had ourselves cookies from Keeping' It Local. 

They have oatmeal so they're good for us...right?

We stayed until 3:30 and the clouds started breaking up around 2:00.  

1:50 pm...a little blue sky

2:05 pm...some sun lighting up the colors

2:25 pm...clouds moving out!

2:25 pm...lots of blue sky

There were a lot of people, kids, dogs and bees!  The bees LOVED the apples but didn't care for our cookies ;o)  Surprisingly, with bees literally everywhere, no one got stung until we were ready to leave and a super cute little red headed guy, maybe 3-4 was eating an apple when a bee landed on his hand and stung him.  We could hear him screaming half way down the hill.  Poor little guy ;o(

We returned to the car via the Switchback Trail..."very steep with sharp turns"!  Not so much!  Took us about 10 minutes and it wasn't a big deal at all; it was the only place we saw a lot of red.  Apparently, the red color is determined by the amount of rain in the spring.

A nice, relaxing afternoon.

Thanks for stopping by...
;o)