Phoebe's Nable Mt. 6/28/11

"Always Something New at Moose Mountains!" (pictures)

Moose Sign

After Scott and I spent time at the Burrows Cemetery Monday I hoped to get back on Tuesday to do a small hike and take more pictures of the flowers along the way. It was another beautiful day so I headed out, bringing my Clippers with me. I also brought some metal moose decorations to mark certain points of interest to see how they would look.

Goldenrod Spider

I arrived at the parking lot at 12:45 and began on my way. Horse Fly's were awful today and were driving me crazy as I stopped to take pictures of flowers along the road. I really wasn't paying attention to the daisy's, I mean, you see them all the time pretty much anywhere. But I was on the look out for the Goldenrod Spiders which I call crab spiders. I got lucky and spotted a very large male Goldenrod. You really have to go slow with these guys, they scare very easy. This is easily the largest of these spiders I've ever seen!

The Burrows Field & Phoebes Nable Mt.

Continuing on, I stopped at the cemetery that we cleaned up the day before. I took pictures of all the head stones, something I hadn't done yet. Then I nailed a moose to the tree and continued on up to the top of the field. There was a very pleasant smell filling the air, almost of homemade pie or something. I was trying to figure out what it was, then realized all the wild strawberries were out. A field of strawberries, and boy did it smell wonderful!!

Phoebes Nable Spur Trail

I moved on back into the trees and was startled by a pair of Ruffed Grouse that took off into the woods with their chicks, all the while making their noisy complaint of being disturbed! As I turned onto Phoebes Nable Spur trail I clipped a few branches here and there that were poking out into the trail. It was very warm out and this climb with all the stuff I was carrying was really giving me a work out as it always does!

Tall Corydalis

I arrived at the summit, threw my pack down and had a snack. I nailed a moose to the pine tree and determined I would have to paint these moose's so they show up better. I'll probably go for a bright "SPNHF" green or blue. As I looked around at the overgrown view and around on the summit I suddenly realized all the flowers that graced the summit area. They turned out to be Tall Corydalis or Rock Harlequin. My first time seeing these so I was very excited!

SPNHF

Rested and re-hydrated I made my way back down to the field. Picked 2 ticks off me and headed back down to New Portsmouth Road. I then heard a truck coming up the road. Turned out to be the Forest Society truck with Forester Wendy and her two interns. Great timing. This was the first time I really got to talk about the property with Wendy, who knows the property really well. After about a 15 minute talk they continued on to check things out and I headed back to my truck to head home. The end time was 2:45pm.