Needed to Clear My Head

I needed to clear my head today so I went for a walk up to the top of Burleigh. Usually I don't bother hiking up that far - I'll just mess around on the ski hill or fix a yurt or something. But today I wanted to get up there. I'd forgotten how cool and remote feeling it is. Daisy and I saw a wild turkey and her chick on the way in. I found two turkey wing feathers and a downy one too.

I couldn't find Jon and Dave's trail past the lift shack unfortunately, but Convict trail has really opened up the top already. Here are the slabs on the top.
It was nice on top - there was almost a view to the south over toward a whole lot of land where I guess Sandy's house is in Sanbornton. Apparently he's interested in doing a NHS to Sanbornton hike this fall. I heard there is a lean to on one of the peaks to the south of Burleigh.

On the top there were a lot of blueberry bushes and I apparently ate the only berry because when I went to take a picture I couldn't find any more.

These, however, are not blue berries. Tricky, eh?I was reawakened to the wonder of being in the woods. Finding a spot that looked good to camp at, following a game trail, seeing a tree that looked good to climb. I was reminded of Chris, Duff and Liam's misadventure, of my ramblings in southern NH as a teenager and of all the reasons I love being and taking young people into the woods.

I even found a tree - in the middle of the upper slopes of Burleigh that had been chopped down for some reason. But no reason that I could figure out - was it logged? Probably - it was a facinating reminder that our woods are quite young really.
The only downer was that Daisy found a massive mud puddle to roll in seconds before getting back in the car! It's moments like this that anything feels possible, when it seems like students couldn't help but fall in love with this place.