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With warm weather finally upon us, the time had come for Polly to lose her thick winter coat. It was either that or listen to her pant all summer and vacuum the house and car two or three times a day. We had always thought we have two big dogs: Tuck weighs 80 pounds; Polly, just a bit smaller...

Trail: Kinsman Ridge Miles: 4, up and back The dogs needed to get out, I needed to get out, Cindy needed us out of the house, and the crown of Cannon stared down at our place in Franconia seeming to demand: Get the hell up here. So then... those were BIGEarl's and TrailTrotter's tracks from...

Trails: Mt. Kinsman, Kinsman Ridge Miles: The usual 8, up and back Time: Extended due to circumstances I had planned to write an oh-so-clever Trip Report full of witty (or not, depending) references to NH's most famous, and now late, resident, J.D. Salinger, but the way the day ended calls for...

Trails: Liberty Springs w/bushwhack, Franconia Ridge Mileage: ~8 Time: 5 hours Folks: (Human) Loanshark, Rob, Colin, James, The Feathered Hat. (Canine) Polly and Tuckerman. You know how something goes wrong at the beginning of the day and then the whole rest of the day seems to go wrong too...

Trail: Mt. Kinsman Distance: ~5 miles, up and back Elevation gain: 1,400 feet Time: 2.5 hours It had been way, way too long. Some business travel followed by the flu kept me off the trails for five weeks. I was going crazy. So were the dogs. That's right, "dogs," plural. Some of you know...

Trails: Basin-Cascades, Cascade Brook, Kinsman Pond, Kinsman Ridge, Taft ski run, old Tuckerbrook ski trail. Miles: ~14 Elevation gain: approx. 4,800 feet Time: 10 hours, 45 minutes You know how it is with Rocket21. You agree to something that's reasonable, then pretty soon he's got you...

Miles: Approx. 10 Time: 6 hours Elevation gain: 3,100 feet Perhaps you, too, are bored or even frustrated by the usual routes up Cannon Mountain: the long grind, broken only by the novelty of a ladder, up the Hi-Cannon Trail; the route past Lonesome Lake that includes the stiff climb up from...

Trails: Dry River, Mt. Clinton, Webster Cliff, Saco River Miles: 14.4* Time: 8:10 No. of people seen on trails: Dry River, 0; Mt. Clinton, 2; Webster Cliff from Mizpah Hut to Mt. Webster, 6; Webster Cliff from Mt. Webster to end, 10; Saco River, 0. Cell phone coverage: None (AT&T) Conditions: +...

A family event over the long Labor Day weekend prevented Tuckerman and me from taking a major hike (just as well; crowded trails don't attract me), but on Monday we were able to stretch our legs on the Jericho Road Trail up to Cooley Hill, just south of Easton, NH. The climb is gentle and the...

Trails: Zealand, Ethan Pond, Shoal Pond Miles: ~11 out and back Time: 5 hours (incl. 45 min., total, for lunch at Shoal Pond and visit to Thoreau Falls) Cell phone coverage: None (AT&T) Conditions: Zealand and Ethan Pond trails in great shape, with just a few muddy/wet spots. Shoal Pond Trail...

Trails: Moriah Brook, Carter-Moriah, Kenduskeag, Shelburne Total miles: 15 Time: 10 hours* Steve Smith, in his book "The 4,000-Footers of the White Mountains," describes the 15-mile loop over these two peaks from a start at the Wild River campground as "spectacular," and for good reason: not...

Trails: Tuckerbrook, Hardwood Heaven, Coppermine Miles: ~6 The story is well known. In 1939 the great film star Bette Davis, who enjoyed spending time in Sugar Hill, N.H., when she wasn't making movies, was out hiking by herself and managed to get lost on the way to Bridal Veil Falls. An...

With his usual unlimited kindness, Jeremy -- rocket21 -- offered to teach a member of his father's generation (me) what I really need to know to navigate the tricky, convoluted routes and byways of contemporary American culture. According to Rocket, if one is not conversant with the plot details...

Trails: Lincoln Woods, Black Pond, Black Pond Whack, Lincoln Brook, Owl's Head Slide, Franconia Falls. Miles: ~18 Time: 9.5 hours Conditions: Some muddy spots, no surprise. The BP bushwhack is very muddy in places. The two upper crossings of Lincoln Brook (about a half-mile before the spur to...

An owly new summit To our bag could be summon’d If Tuckerman and I To Owl’s Head would hie. But weekends don’t fail To bring crowds to this trail. That’s my puppy’s delight -- But some fear the bite. So a quiet Tuesday Was our choice for this play, And we had empty trail Where it’s straight as...

Trails: East Pond from Kancamagus Highway, Mt. Tecumseh from Tripoli Road, plus short 0.4-mile walk on Tripoli Road between trailheads. Miles: 17 Time: 9 hours No. of people seen on trail: East Pond Trail, 5 (all between East Pond and Tripoli Road trailhead); Mt. Tecumseh Trail, 15...

Total miles: 17 Time: 9 hours A couple of reasons compelled Tuckerman and me to stretch a climb to Tecumseh's summit into a long, all-day walk. One, we're trying to get into leg-shape for three long hikes we'd like to complete before summer's end (the Owl's Head death march, and traverses of...

Trails: Glen Boulder (from Pinkham Notch), Davis Path, Isolation (West), Dry River, Dry River Cutoff, Mizpah Cutoff, Crawford Path (to Crawford Notch) Total miles: 15 Conditions: Glen Boulder Trail: Fairly dry. A few wet spots down low near the trailhead in Pinkham Notch. Davis Path: From...

Beginning in 1965, the poet Gary Snyder has hosted some friends on an annual circumambulation of Mt. Tamalpais in Marin County, California, emulating the circumambulations of Mt. Fuji in Japan made by Buddhist monks. The Snyder-led hikes still continue, and his group has in the past included...

Trail: Jericho Road Distance: 6.4 miles, out and back Time: 2:40 Total elevation gain: 1,100 feet No. of People Encountered: 0 Cell phone coverage: None until second summit of Cooley (see Notes & Comment), then up to three bars (AT&T). Conditions: A few small mud pits, not unexpected after the...