10/19/16 Little River Trail

Another beautiful day - low 70's, sunny, and a light breeze. Kelley was not overly enthusiastic so we did a little shorter hike than we usually do here.


Near the start of the trail

  First chance at the water

 Along the trail

Another place to get in

Leaves on the ground

Near where we turned around

 More leaves and pine needles

Last swim

After a slow start Kelley did well and was happy with the water being deeper than most places we have been lately. We have several days of rain predicted and hope they are correct this time - it is supposed to raining as I write but is not.   1  1/2 hours 

10/17/16 Eliot Mt. and Harbor Brook

Beautiful hiking day - 60's and sunny with only a slight breeze.

The summit of Eliot is wooded and offers no views but there is a bit of a view from a ledge near the top.

Last time we took the new trail- not on the map- but today we went to the top before taking the trail down to the brook

The brook was quite low

so Kelley had to look for pools

Leaves on the water were pretty

 and some pretty fungi - new to me

  More water

On the ride home.

Turned out to be a good day. Kelley was enthusiastic and did well. We met a couple of people with dogs ( we rarely see anyone on this hike) and that also pleased her.  1 3/4 hours 

10/16/16 Downtown

Kelley was not enthusiastic about hiking so we just went downtown for a walk. I let her choose the route and it lasted only 45 minutes, She did a lot of sniffing and I didn't see much of interest.

There were still some flowers

Crossing the Kenduskeag we could see that there are still lots of green leaves

more flowers

Because of short drive and walk I had time to start cleaning up the frost killed garden and got the front done. 

!0/14/16 Newman Hill-Hinds

Sunny but 40's and windy so it felt colder.

Start of the trail - Kelley is behind - checking out who's been here.

Small pond near the start- not on the map

 Pine Pond

Part of the beaver pond

The edges of the pond are rough in spots- because of the beavers and some trail work to keep them from blocking other areas - but Kelley managed to get in.

Another small pond near the end of hike- also not on map.

Pretty good hike. Wasn't too cold once we got moving and there was lots of water for Kelley. 1  1/2 hours 

10/12/16 Branch Lake

Fifties and mostly sunny with little wind. Drought here continues so we headed for sure water at Branch Lake.

There were colorful leaves

and a muddy little stream for Kelley

There was also lots to sniff so we started off slowly.

Bog bridges in the usually wet woods

Branch lake with it's rocky shore

 Kelley finds ways through the rocks

Another section of shore

Large fungus - 10 or 12 inches across

Another section of the loop trail

 In some places the leaves were falling with the pine needles

One more muddy spot just before we finished 

                     

A beautiful day and a nice hike. Kelley did well and we had the place to ourselves until we met a couple as we were finishing our hike 1 /34 hours                                                                             

10/11/16 Down to the Pond

This was not a hike as it was an off day. We were doing errands and I went to City Forest so Kelley could have a swim. We just walked across the meadow and down to the pond. We are finally getting our fall colors

Beside the meadow

Coming back up