2/27/13 Valley Trail and Beech Cliff

Gray day ( we later got some peeks of sun) but starting this afternoon the forecast is for several days of above freezing temperatures with snow and rain so we wanted to get in a good one before all the slush.

All the snow, rain, thawing, freezing, thawing, etc. has made it difficult to know what conditions you will find  on any trail. The start from Long Pond gave us several options. We started up the Valley Trail and the first part had a lot of ice but it was easily got round by walking in the snow beside the trail. As we gained a little elevation there was more snow and little ice.

This is a pretty trail with variations like these formations looking up the side of  Beech Mtn. Most of the time  you are on the side of the mountain because you can also look down at woods below.

Some lichen I couldn't resist

 Kelley contemplating a leap up- it's more of a challenge than it appears in the picture - she did make the jump.

We followed the trail to the parking lot from which we could get the Beech Cliff Trail- this is a short section with nice views for little effort

We decided to do the short loop trail and that was a mistake as it was difficult for Kelley who required several boosts up large boulders but we managed it anyway.

We then walked back to the Canada Cliff Logging Road ( added to the map by me so it's location is approximate ) which would take us to the Lurvey Spring Rd.

 My thought was that since the road is  closed in winter it would have had snowmobile use and give us an easy walk back to the pond - this proved to be the case.

Back at the pond

Some fishermen

I thought we might walk along the trail beside the pond to a spot where we like to lunch but the trail had lots of drifted snow and we gave that up.

Instead we had lunch by the pond and then headed home. It had been a good hike  2  1/2 hours