I've always loved the ride taken many times along 113 just north of the Lakes Region. Anne had never seen Squam Lake from up high and we were looking for a moderately easy hike. Leaving our cars in the somewhat plowed out parking lot we hiked up in easy grades, soon we crossed a tote road and followed the trail up a more moderate grade through a rock wall gate.
Going through the gate-----------Higher up we see some views-------------Clouds moving in I was wearing the snowshoes for the first time this year, the snow wasn't as deep as back at home, maybe 6 inches. Really not great conditions for snowshoeing because my crampons kept catching rocks and roots, I fell quite a few times...."Note to self-Remember poles next time you wear snowshoes." Taking a break-----------Beautiful woods and unbroken path-------------Anne relaxing My pack had two sets of crampons and all the winter gear, clearly overkill for this hike but good for training. ---Virgin woods---------------Near Mt Morgan Summit-------------
At the spur where you can go over the cliffs on a set of ladders and through a cave, we decided to follow the main trail to the summit, clouds were moving in and the sun tried to pop through low clouds. We reached the summit, Anne was amazed at how beautiful the views were from this small summit. We stopped and ate lunch, I brought some seats and we relaxed for awhile before the winds started blowing. Back at the trail junction we headed over to Mt Percival. I remembered the trail going over a ledgy area and wondered how well it would be marked with the snow covering the rocks. We needed a sense of humor and some sense of direction, we finally spotted the summit.
Mt Morgan Summit
We were having fun, I'd taken the snowshoes off before now, they were just useless in these conditions. Several of the ledges had steep sections to climb up which made it interesting because ice coated the rocks underneath.
---Goofing around on Percival-----------Sliding down the ledges----------Yee Haw!!!!!
We reached Mt Percival, the light was different now, we're only 11 days from the darkest day of the year for us. It was much colder on Percival, I paused to put on my instep crampons remembering those icy ledges on the way back. Anne decided to continue barebooting.
It was much more fun going back and following our tracks. Much easier also to descend the slippery ledges.
All in all a fun day up on the Squam range, we popped out before sunset, never saw another person on our 6 mile journey, shared the trail with a coyote, several hares and a deer who all passed through before us.
We decided to add this to our "Prettiest Hikes in New England Page