EARTH ~

We've climbed Sugarloaf Mountain over a half dozen times this spring and summer is ahead! Even with a bum leg for a few weeks, Sweetheart insisted on joining me. We took every trail there is on the easeful mountain, including the steep trail straight up the nose, up and back. Watch your footing on the loose stone when returning. The traffic below barely is ever lost to you but we don't care, neither is two youthful baseball teams and their cheerleaders off to one side of the mountain base. We're in a town where Drums Along the Mohawk roamed. There's a wide plank door in the town where an Indian hatchet once was embedded. I put my hand to the blade mark left in the door once upon a time. Despite a road all the way to the top of the summit this mountain absorbs sounds and disturbance quite well, and the road has a gentle carriage to it. Many like to use this route to climb to the top. We go up the steepest trail, then sometimes use a back woodlot trail that meets the roadway halfway down. This way all routes are made as one. Often we find a marauding raven back there telling us he sees us and do we see him! The photographs are from the top of the mountain looking down and focusing in.

Roam

Question Mark

Pioneer farm

Neighborhood






Funeral Home

After Rain

Spring field

Softwoods Crest

Deerfield

Barn Shine

Connecticut River

A sweet for your hike

photos © bob arnold