Osceola, East Osceola - June 19, 2011 - #7, #8

The plan for this Father's Day was to do the Morgan-Percival Loop which has some neat caves and chimneys to climb through which I thought Alex would like.  I showed him some photos I found online of them the night before and he was psyched.

Woke up in the morning and Ethan was NOT having a good day, so we decided that just Alex and I would go.  Then I made Pancakes instead of Waffles for breakfast so Alex decided to also have a meltdown.  And then I sat at the wrong chair at the breakfast table and then we really found out what one of Alex's meltdowns is like.

So I decided I'd go by myself!  With a chance to do some 4Ks and save Morgan-Percival for when Alex isn't freaking out I quickly decided to do an easy out and back to Osceola and East Osceola from the Tripoli Road.

Started out as a pretty easy hike, though the black flies were the worst I've seen!  WOW!

Weather was perfect and the views from the summit matched.  Hung out on the summit with a moderate crowd of people, snapped some photos and enjoyed lunch sitting over the several hundred feet high cliffs.

Trail down to East Osceola got interesting at one point as it descends through a short chimney, I took the "easier" route around, but took the chimney on the way back from East.  East, was one of those "spot hikes" - no view at the wooded summit, just a cairn.  Turned around and headed back - about 4.5 hours total at a nice easy but quick (for me) pace.

Flume

Memorial Day weekend we went camping at Lafayette Campground in Franconia Notch State Park.  I wanted to head up to Lonesome Lake (trail started 100 feet from our campsite) but I was not feeling well that weekend so we headed to the Flume Gorge instead.  We completed the ~2 mile walk around the gorge.

Will let the photos do most of the talking:

Memorial Day weekend we went camping at Lafayette Campground in Franconia Notch State Park.  I wanted to head up to Lonesome Lake (trail started 100 feet from our campsite) but I was not feeling well that weekend so we headed to the Flume Gorge instead.  We completed the ~2 mile walk around the gorge.

Will let the photos do most of the talking:

North Uncanoonuc - Mother's Day

 For the first hike of the spring/summer we decided to try out North Uncanoonuc which is only 20 minutes from the house.  We have driven past it 1000s of times and never considered hiking, or even knew there were trails up.  I have driven up North Uncanoonuc to the wonderful forest of attractive cell towers and chain link fences.  But knew nothing of South Uncanoonuc.

So a google search and I found the trail map and chose the White Dot Trail that ascends from the north.  The trail is only 0.6 miles but includes 800 feet of elevation gain which is a fair amount for such a small hill and short hike.

Nice day and easy hike (though it still took us several hours) .  Due to proximity to home I'm sure we'll be back some day.

At the White Dot Trailhead

Alex emerging from the cave that is part way up the trail

View of the Forest of Towers on S. Unc

Taking a break at the summit

Ethan snacking at summit

Alex looking for the geocache near summit

More summit exploration

With GPS, still looking for the cache

Heading back down

Mom and Alex at view north of summit

Ethan, Dad and Alex at view

Resting on the chair tree on way down