Hiking and Biking

 A picture perfect morning!

Got up at 8:00, it was already 55*.  We left the cottage at 10:35 and it had warmed up to 68*.  We drove to Beech Mtn. for an easy, fairly quick hike.  We had to wait for someone to leave before we could park.  We left the trailhead at 11:15 and took the left fork in the trail.

While there still wasn't a ton of fall color, these leaves caught my eye.

We stepped off the trail to enjoy this nice view and I was able to take off the bottom section of my hiking pants.

We glimpsed this view of Long Lake, looking the other way.

This is the only summit with a fire tower.  It is occasionally occupied by volunteers, but not today.  

It only took us 35 minutes to reach the top and we could have done it faster except we were following a family with a super cute little girl, maybe 3, and that slowed us down a little.  We passed a little brown snake at one point but it was too fast for me to get a picture.

We hung out for about 15 minutes enjoying the view and the nice warm day.  Although the parking lot was full, it wasn't that busy at the summit.

Cranberry Islands (maybe)

Somes Sound

We headed down at 12:05, found a little color and spent some time with one of my favorite views of Long Lake.  Although I remembered this view, I wasn't sure this was the hike.

We ended up following the same family DOWN so, again, it took us a little longer, even though we passed them twice.  Arrived at the car at 12:45, the temp was somewhere between 69* and 72*.  

From there we drove about 20 minutes to a place on Echo Lake called Ike's Point to have lunch.  I thought it was a picnic area but it was not...hahaha  It was a boat launch but there were enough larger rocks that we were able to sit on the rocks and eat our lunch.  

The water was super clear and a woman walked down while we were there and went for a swim, although she did have a wet suit on, so I don't think it was very warm.

We changed into our bike clothes in the car...easier said than done and drove to the Brown Mtn. Gatehouse for our only bike ride of this visit, the Hadlock Pond Loop.  It's a 3.9 mile loop, crosses four beautiful stone bridges and took us about an hour.  We chose to take the loooong, gradual ascent, thankfully, rather than the short, steep one.  We would probably still be riding.  I didn't take pictures of the bridges because, quite frankly, we have done this ride a few times so I already have plenty of bridge pictures.  I did manage one picture of the only time we could see Hadley Pond.

Kind of a joke that it's called the Hadley Pond Loop since you hardly ever even see the pond.  Anyway, it's a nice ride and it did get out heart rates up.

We drove back through town and reached the cottage at 4:30.  Still 69* ;o)  We sat outside in the sun for awhile, came in when we got chilly.  For dinner, we went to Pat's Pizza in town and used our gift card for a small pizza and beverages.  The sunset was around 6:30, so we were practically eating in the dark by the time we finished, although there was one light which didn't do much to illuminate the outside eating area.  

We got back at 7:30 and started packing because we have reached the end of our stay.  We agreed it was a really nice day, we got a lot of exercise but didn't beat ourselves up too much.  

Thanks for stopping by...

;o)