MMR Bowser Pond 8/12/11

"Searching the Woods for a Direct Route to Bowser Pond" (Pictures)

Mushrooms

It was such a beautiful day Friday I just couldn't sit inside all day! I was up unusually early and so after hanging around home in my office and sipping on my coffee I decided to head to Moose Mountains again and work on finding a route from near the kiosk to attach to the Bowser Pond Trail. I arrived at around 11:15am. I decided to head down the banking to the river and follow it up to find the best crossing, keeping in mind the higher water and run-off streams in the Spring. All sorts of mushrooms were found along the river and I was obliged to take their picture!

Amphibian Trap

A little ways up the river I came to a beaver dam and a small pool where Moose tracks indicated that one was here getting a drink of water. So I dubbed this Moose Pool. A short ways further upstream I came to an unusual contraption in the water. Upon closer inspection this is what I found. Four separate clumps of leaves wrapped in netting, held down in the water by a rock which was tied off to a pink nylon string to a tree. Interesting to say the least. All I could think of was it was some sort of salamander/newt trap or a water mineral test of some kind. After e-mailing the Forest Society about it they said it looked like a salamander/larvae trap. This made sense! If the person who put these here is reading this, just please contact us as we would appreciate you completing a educational/scientific form and we would love to see your results/findings :)

Mushroom

Shortly further upstream I found my crossing point. There is a small clearing here and a banking that climbs through some trees to an overgrown skid road. I taped the trees with pink tape up to the main trail/road. Along the way I found an orange mushroom that was glowing in the sunlight, it was amazing! This small starting point taped off it was now time to head through the woods onto the road. This is were I get a little skittish. I am fine solo hiking on trails and familiar mountains. But the idea of Moose and Bear that are plentiful on this property and me squeezing my way through dense forest and old skid roads (which are probably used as herd paths by these animals), makes me a little unsettled and jumpy. I know these animals are more scared of humans than we are of them and the chance of a bear attack is like zero, I still am very cautious and try to be as loud as I can!

Dragonfly

So, I took a right on this road and followed it. Dragonfly's seem to love these semi-open old roads and I was chasing them around from tree branch to tree branch! A ways down the road became very overgrown with young pine trees. Then it abruptly ended. Dang! I found some animal bones in a pile here and I got a little squeamish! I believe I was right near the spot where I found a dead moose and I wondered why I was finding more bones. I followed the bones through the woods and came to the spine and jaw sitting next to each other. 30 feet away was the spot where I had found the dead moose and it was not there. So something dragged it through the woods and I guess was picking off what little, if any meat that was still on the bones. This freaked me out! Just then a very loud knocking made me jump and nearly have a heart-attack! I remember hearing this before and I believe it is a tree blowing in the wind. At any rate this particular spot gives me the creeps every time I'm here. It feels haunted and cursed or something. So I bolted outta there and across the river to the kiosk!

Mushroom

Safe and sound back at my truck I took a break and cleared my head. I wasn't giving up just yet. I walked up the road (Burrows Farm Trail) and followed my pink tape back up to the river. I then spotted a mushroom. It was nearly half-a-foot tall and in perfect condition! Nice! I continued on to the skid road. I went left this time and almost immediately came out onto Piper Mt. trail/road where it takes a sharp left and goes uphill. I new this spot was close to Burrows Farm trail but didn't realize it was THAT close! At this point I decided to just head down this trail to Bowser Pond and check things out down there. If I felt like it I could continue my woods exploration from above and maybe it would be easier to find my way down to the river.

Pickerellweed

I arrived at the Bowser Pond trail and headed down the banking where I had blazed a side path. I hung out on the pond shore and took some pictures and looked for birds or maybe a moose across the other side. All was quite...very quite! I made my way along the shoreline, stopping at various open areas where there were small rocks to sit on. The Pickerellweed was in full bloom and was very pretty up close. I am always surprised to not find any frogs or turtles laying in the sun on the logs over here. Perhaps they are in the pond, but I've yet to see any. I did find one little lonely frog on a rock though.

Bowser Pond

I found the duck decoy thingy Scott and I had spotted on our first visit here and I was going to take it with me and get rid of it. But I didn't want to carry it and didn't feel like it was doing any harm, so I placed it back in the water. I also spotted another out in the water along the marsh section. Bee's were busy collecting pollen from them and dragonfly's were whizzing by skimming the water. Such a beautiful relaxing area! I made my way to the Southern end of the pond where there is a small clearing which I believe is part of the pond floor when the water is high. This is a beautiful spot! Across the pond you can look up to MMR's East peaks and there are tons of dragonfly's.

Sundew

I hung out here for a while before heading out. Just then I spotted this small, weird looking plant on a log at the shoreline. It was so weird looking! There were hair-like tendrils that came out from a succulent leaf that appeared to have drops of water on the tips of them. Very awesome! I did some research when I got home, Scott helping by saying it looked like a fly catcher. He was almost right! It is a Sundew. The droplets of water are actually a gluey substance it secretes to capture insects. One of New England's Carnivorous plants. What a great find! Very excited now, I headed up the road and back onto SPNHF property and Bowser Pond trail. I came to the top of the hill where I was hoping to bring the Bowser Pond trail into the woods.

Boulder

I explored this area and actually found a herd path about 100 feet to yet another overgrown skid road. Perfect! I followed this shortly to the top of a steep drop over the banking. The woods here were open and the ridge was covered with boulders! I followed alongside the banking down to a gully of sorts and up to a good sized boulder on the top of a hill. What a great trail side feature! This route is great! The banking here was much less steep and provided the perfect spot for the trail to ascend/descend easily. So down I went and back into the trees. I reached the young Pine trees, which I now know is part of the old skid road I was on before. I found the road and was unsure if this is exactly where I wanted my trail to go.

Boulder Field

Tired, hot and happy with my findings I called it a day. I just have to connect the dots now and find the best trail in the middle section. Then I can begin trimming and blazing! Should be pretty straight forward. Most of the trail will follow old skid roads! I plan on having this trail finished by the end of August! I can't wait! A direct route from Burrows Farm trail to Bowser Pond Trail will provide an easier hike to this beautiful spot and will provide a nice loop option using Piper Mt. trail :) Once this is complete I will be searching the woods off of North Trail to find the ledge that overlooks Bowser Pond!!

Bowser Pond Trail Work 7/27/11

"A Dead Moose and a Beautiful Pond" (pictures)

Dead Moose

I headed out this beautiful day to Moose Mountains to do some trail work. I set my sights for Bowser Pond. Previously I trimmed back the trees taking over this woods road from Piper Mt. Road and 200 feet in. From here I blazed a small trail down the banking to the pond side which looks across the water towards Piper Mt. Today I wanted to scout out a potential through-way from the kiosk to the lower portion of the road so that I could make a more direct hiking trail to the pond and a possible loop option. So from the parking lot I hiked up Burrows Farm trail a hundred feet and took a right into the woods. I crossed the river over a barb wire fence and followed the waters edge South. At one point I passed by a decayed small moose skeleton. It still smelled horrible and was not a pleasant thing to find!

Bowser Pond

Past this I entered a little deeper into the woods and followed a young, thick pine glade. Soon I came onto the woods road. I followed a yellow dragonfly around until I got a couple pictures of it and I headed uphill and at the fork I decided to take a right which crosses onto non-SPNHF property. The road arrives at the South end of the pond and a beautiful view across the water up to a South facing ledge and the East peaks. I must find that ledge and build a trail to it! A blue heron flew over head and circled the pond. Then he quickly vanished back over the trees. Guess I was in his spot or he didn't want to see me! I took some picks and headed back up to the main road.

Bowser Pond Trail

I hiked down the junction with Piper Mt. Trail and began trimming branches. This section was already done once but Scott said it needed to be trimmed a little more. I worked my way down the road, at one point hearing a large animal walking through the woods. Being alone and so close to the largest body of water in 2,000 acres I was already nervous of Bear and Moose! So, startled I yelled out "hey" and began to make a lot of noise. Silence was all I heard in return! I then pulled my keys out and hooked them to my backpack strap so they would jingle and make some extra noise.

Old Row Boat

Back to work I continued cutting, noticing an old row boat in the woods near the fork in the road. I worked my way all the way back to the top of the hill and explored this spot as a possible trail entrance for a straight shot back down to the parking lot. There was thick young pine here as below so I decided to wait on this until I had Scott with me. So I walked down the road, down the hill and came out at it's end on New Portsmouth Rd. next to an old home. Tired and hot I called it a day and headed home. I hope to finish cutting this trail and blazing it by the end of August!

Bowser Pond 7/18/11

"A weekday walk-around" (pictures)

Just a quick walk today. I printed 2 maps to put in the mailbox. All five were gone after only 4 days! So I guess I'll have to print more off! We hiked up to the Burrows Cemetery to check on the lily's. A couple had flowered and it looked nice! Then we headed back down and up North Trail, took a right onto Piper Mt. Trail. We checked out Bowser Pond then continued down Piper Mt. trail as we hadn't been down past this point.

On the left was a grown-in skid road. Scott wanted to check it out so we climbed the hill for a pretty good view across to the pond. We then snaked our way through the various grown-in roads to arrive back onto Piper Mt. Trail at the top of the hill. We made the walk back to the truck and called it a day.

Piper Mountain Trail & Bowser Pond Trail Blazing 7/13/11

"Two Hours of Time, One Mile of Yellow" (pictures)

Landing at North/Piper Mt. Roads

After two days of humid weather it was a rather nice day Wednesday ... hot, but a nice breeze blowing. So I decided to head back to Moose Mountains Reservation to work on some more trail blazing. I decided on blazing the Piper Mt. Trail to Bowser Pond. I drove up past the kiosk, checked the new map box to find 2 more maps had been taken! Guess I better print some more up! I continued driving taking a right at the North Road junction and parking at the landing where Piper Trail enters on the right. After some thought on the trail names on the property I am thinking this trail should be called Piper Link Trail as it doesn't actually climb the mountain, rather it links over to Piper Mt. Road.

First Piper Mt. Trail Blaze

Anyhow I clipped some trees leaning over in front of the snow mobile trail information signage and began my first blaze at about 12:45pm. The sun was hot but the breeze kept things mostly comfortable. I was thinking about the SPNHF crew on Mt. Monadnock doing trail work the past few days in the horrible heat! I would have liked to join them but the drive is way to long, especially having to head right to work when I got back. Besides, I have plenty to still do here!

Calico Pennant

After finishing the first two blazes at the entrance point I noticed a dragonfly landing here-and-there on the tops of dried up flower stems. It was so beautiful! I kept trying to get close so I could get a macro shot of it but it just wouldn't sit still. I chased this guy (and it is red, so literally a guy!) around for 5 minutes thinking I was supposed to be blazing trails, not chasing bugs around with my camera! The dragonfly then hovered and circled around my head several times as if to say, "get lost! This is my territory!" My patience finally paid off though and I got a beautiful shot of this Calico Pennant :)

Moose Marker & Blaze

Then it was down the road spotting ahead for a good tree, cutting the brush back, and slapping on a blaze. This continued until I reached the banking high above Bowser Pond. From here there is a grown-in woods road on the right. I cut the overgrowth back just enough for a visible trail and continued my blazes about 100 feet. Here there is somewhat of a clearing down the banking to the pond that Scott and I had found before. I built a small cairn here with nearby rocks and decided to put my "Blue Moose Marker" here.

Bowser Pond

Then I trimmed the trees and blazed down to the waters edge. I was a little disappointed to not see any herons or ducks. Probably not a good time of day for them and perhaps the noise scared them away! The pond is pretty just-the-same with a few dots of yellow water lily buds on top of the water. I also spotted a couple turtles sun bathing on some logs further up along the shore.  I stood here for a few minutes relaxing and scanning the pond. I watched as half-a-dozen swallows catching bugs swooped over the water. Then I climbed the banking, clearing the rotted logs and what-not from the foot path.

Indian Pipe

Indian Pipe is coming up and blooming right now, so I had to take a picture of one. It was so cute there next to the trail. And they are my mothers favorite. My mission half complete it was now time to blaze back to my starting position! It was getting hotter out and I was already getting a little exhausted, sticky and hot. And it was nearly all uphill going back. I spotted a very bright yellow Clouded Sulpher Butterfly and really wanted a picture of it! It was very quick and would not sit still for more than a second. It kept making it's way back down the trail. I was getting tired and was not about to go back the other way, so I gave up on this one. Better luck next time! I ended my day at 2:45. I have been surprised at just how long such a simple looking task can take ... A total of 1 mile of trail blazing in 2 hours! It is very rewarding and exciting though to be putting the first blazes on this property!

Updated MAP 7/13/11

Moose Mountains Reservation 6/3 & 5/11

"Bowser Pond" (pictures)
(Moose Mountains Facebook Group)

Difficulty: Easy

Directions: From downtown Farmington, NH take Rt. 153 North into Middleton about 5 miles. Continue onto King's Highway for .9 miles. Turn right at the police station onto Ridge Road. At 1.6 miles turn left onto New Portsmouth Road. Bear left onto New Portsmouth Road Exd. The trail head and kiosk will be seen ahead.

Stats (Round Trip): Mileage> About 4 - Elevation Gain> About 200' - Our Time> 2hrs.  

Dragon Fly

Report: Having a short time before work Friday night Scott and I decided to take advantage of the nice weather and make a short trip to Moose Mountains. We parked at the kiosk happy to see the "no wheeled vehicle" signs still up and the gate still closed. We walked up New Portsmouth Road and after crossing the river we took a right, crossing a landing area. Thousands of dragon flies were covering the road and flying every which way as we passed through.

Pointed Blue-eyed Grass

We continued up the hill and at the next landing took a right down a smaller woods road. The road drops into a pine area laden with a multitude of pink moccasin flowers. It curves left and drops more steeply and continues to turn left. I spotted a small bunch of Pointed Blue Eyed Grass, something I hadn't yet seen in the wild. And we also found a Northern Leopard Frog crossing the road. They usually don't sit still for anything but this one allowed me to take some pictures of it :)

Bowser Pond

Soon we saw a glimpse of Bowser Pond which I had been wanting to check out for some time now. Scott spotted a Heron, and before I had a chance to pull out a camera or even focus my sights on it, it took off into the woods. We took a right onto an overgrown woods road and then climbed down the banking to the pond shore. We noticed a female mallard in the water that I took some pics of, only to realize it wasn't moving the slightest bit. Turns out it was a decoy, LOL! Got me! We took in the view then headed back up to the road. A tick check revealed two wood ticks on Scott.

Piper Mt. Road

We retraced our steps back to the truck and along the way I heard "Fee B" ... "Fee B". Ah hah! It was a Phoebe! I had just done some searches into why Phoebes Nable mountain was called what it was. Carrie with the Forest Society popped the question. After doing some google searches I determined the mountain was named for the Eastern Phoebe who likes farm land and open woods which is what this area was. And 'Nable" was a Greek word for music. Thus the meaning I got was "Phoebes Song". Hearing the Phoebe sing here made me all the more confident that I was correct!



"South Ridge Point" (pictures)

Difficulty: Easy


Directions: From downtown Farmington, NH take Rt. 153 North into Middleton about 5 miles. Continue onto King's Highway for .9 miles. Turn right at the police station onto Ridge Road. At about .7 miles there will be a yellow gate (snow mobile trail) on your left. Park here.

Stats (Round Trip): Mileage> About 2.5 - Elevation Gain> About 229' - Our Time> 2hrs.  

Snow Mobile Entrance on Ridge Rd.

Report: Today instead of getting up early for a long hike in the Whites we slept in a bit and decided to check out more of Moose Mountains. Hope your all not sick of hearing about this property but there is so much for us to explore and we are trying to find, and learn the trails so that they can be marked! We pass by a gated snow mobile trail I have been wanting to check out for some time now. According to my studying of the maps and satellite this road should take us to a view point on Moose Mountains South Ridge off of South Road.

Northern Red Spotted Nute

We parked and headed up the trail. After swatting at some mosquito's we grudgingly applied the bug spray. The road passes by a marsh and climbs very gradually. There are grown in skid roads along the way so just be sure to stay on the main road that is more open. Pink moccasin flowers were still in bloom along the sunny road side. Dragon Flies were also scattered about and Red Spotted Newts were here-and-there along the trail.

Ruffed Grouse

A little ways in we were startled when a ruffed grouse came booking down the trail! It's head was down and it had it's body crouched to the ground as it squawked right on by us and into the woods. "OK then!" We passed through a small grassy landing and then were really startled by another grouse that jumped out of the woods at us squawking! It went back in the woods and Scott noticed it had babies with it! It jumped back out at us, puffed up, and spun around kicking up dirt and spreading it's wings out at us. It was quite the spectacle! I managed to get some great pics of this display!

Moose Mountains View

Continuing on we passed through a couple more landings, mud ruts (from off road vehicles) and passed the red blazed property line into the Forest Society Land. We came to a three way intersection and took a right here. The trail continues a gradual climb up to a larger landing where a mud pond was present. The trail then becomes more overgrown and steep from here up to the next intersection. Here you want to take a left but we went right just to check things out. We came out to a large landing with a restricted view North to the Moose Mountains. 

View of Blue Mts. and Prospect Mt.

Back at the intersection we continued down to a fork in the road. Taking a right the road climbs moderately. Views begin to open up to the East and the road then makes a tiny loop called "the Cul-de-sac" around the high point (all of which has become overgrown). There is a partial view to Moose Mountain to the North and various mountains and hills to the South and East including Prospect, Nubble and Hussey Mountains. Perhaps we can clear some of the small trees here to open the view back up to the North.

Ruffed Grouse

Our goal achieved we headed back down the way we came. And no, it wasn't a boring trip back! The grouse jumped back out at us again scaring the crap out of us! This time it came right up close to us, squawked and flapped it's wings. Then it ran back into the woods. This was such a neat experience! As we reached the start point we were met by a lady hiking up. We introduced ourselves and told her about the "killer" grouse. This was a great trip! Plenty of wildlife to enjoy and saw deer and moose tracks too! We hope to blaze this trail this summer!!