Early Bird
Active member
The day couldn’t have been better: a moderately early start, a desirable forecast, and a planned Wapack End to End. Gig and I left just before 7:00 to meet dRitter at the south end of the Wapack Trail. After a car spot, we set out south at a steady pace.
It seems fitting that we began the hike sharing stories of various animals we’ve seen in our outings- from gila monsters, to martens, rattlesnakes to bobcats- because within the first hour between North Pack and Pack we saw a female moose, the first of many wild animals we would see today. She seemed to have been lying in an open patch, and upon hearing us got up and quickly trotted off. Each of us had been on this trail several times and never even seen a moose dropping along the way. This was the first time Gig had ever seen any moose while he hiked, as opposed to on the side of a road.
On the other side of Temple, we encountered our next find, a turkey mama hen and two poults. The chicks were tiniest little turkeys we’d ever seen, but they flew upon our encountering them, so they must have been over two weeks old. dRitter aptly described them as looking like giant bumblebees- stout bodies with stubby wings. (No stripes, of course.)
Our first sit down and shoe-off break, was at Stony Top just past Windblown Ski Area. Here we enjoyed views of the Boston skyline on this clear day while we lunched. As was pleasantly and unexpectedly true of the entire hike, the
bugs were down. Neither mosquitoes nor black flies bothered us all day.
Cedar waxwings were buzzing around Barrett Mountain. We all shared a look thought the binoculars before some poised on a branch close enough for us to see the details of their slick feathers without the optics. Here I should add it was a great day for birds. I heard scarlet tanager, hermit thrush, winter wrens, indigo buntings, blue headed and red-eyed vireo and mourning doves to name a few. Species reminding me we were in southern New Hampshire, not the Whites today.
Just after seeing the waxwings a large sea-green moth or butterfly flew overhead. A Luna moth? If so, its long tail was indistinguishable. We’d never seen one in flight, and I know they are nocturnal. Neither of us are bug experts. Still it was cool and inspired the best quote of the day: “Holy, Grizzly Adams!” dRtter exclaimed in reaction to the abundance of wildlife we were seeing.
Crossing Binney Pond we kept our eyes open for wood ducks, beavers, or any other worthwhile species. Nothing. The woods here were quite this afternoon, but, beautiful mountain laurel in bloom lined the pond’s edges. We also noticed the green blueberries were turning reddish and the lady slippers past their prime.
With the trip almost over, walking up the old Binney Road, now an ATV road we saw a deer forging by the side of the trail. More interested in eating than in any danger we might have posed, it moved about 40 feet back and resumed its eating. Along this road a black-throated blue warbler made an appearance, flitting along the low branches along a road wall. The last bird heard, its flutelike song intermingling with traffic as we descended Watatic, was again the hermit thrush. Often the last bird I hear at night while backpacking, this seemed like a nice way to end a very day.
Thank dRitter for joining Gig and me today.
It seems fitting that we began the hike sharing stories of various animals we’ve seen in our outings- from gila monsters, to martens, rattlesnakes to bobcats- because within the first hour between North Pack and Pack we saw a female moose, the first of many wild animals we would see today. She seemed to have been lying in an open patch, and upon hearing us got up and quickly trotted off. Each of us had been on this trail several times and never even seen a moose dropping along the way. This was the first time Gig had ever seen any moose while he hiked, as opposed to on the side of a road.
On the other side of Temple, we encountered our next find, a turkey mama hen and two poults. The chicks were tiniest little turkeys we’d ever seen, but they flew upon our encountering them, so they must have been over two weeks old. dRitter aptly described them as looking like giant bumblebees- stout bodies with stubby wings. (No stripes, of course.)
Our first sit down and shoe-off break, was at Stony Top just past Windblown Ski Area. Here we enjoyed views of the Boston skyline on this clear day while we lunched. As was pleasantly and unexpectedly true of the entire hike, the
bugs were down. Neither mosquitoes nor black flies bothered us all day.
Cedar waxwings were buzzing around Barrett Mountain. We all shared a look thought the binoculars before some poised on a branch close enough for us to see the details of their slick feathers without the optics. Here I should add it was a great day for birds. I heard scarlet tanager, hermit thrush, winter wrens, indigo buntings, blue headed and red-eyed vireo and mourning doves to name a few. Species reminding me we were in southern New Hampshire, not the Whites today.
Just after seeing the waxwings a large sea-green moth or butterfly flew overhead. A Luna moth?
If so, its long tail was indistinguishable. We’d never seen one in flight, and I know they are nocturnal. Neither of us are bug experts. Still it was cool and inspired the best quote of the day: “Holy, Grizzly Adams!” dRtter exclaimed in reaction to the abundance of wildlife we were seeing. Crossing Binney Pond we kept our eyes open for wood ducks, beavers, or any other worthwhile species. Nothing. The woods here were quite this afternoon, but, beautiful mountain laurel in bloom lined the pond’s edges. We also noticed the green blueberries were turning reddish and the lady slippers past their prime.
With the trip almost over, walking up the old Binney Road, now an ATV road we saw a deer forging by the side of the trail. More interested in eating than in any danger we might have posed, it moved about 40 feet back and resumed its eating. Along this road a black-throated blue warbler made an appearance, flitting along the low branches along a road wall. The last bird heard, its flutelike song intermingling with traffic as we descended Watatic, was again the hermit thrush. Often the last bird I hear at night while backpacking, this seemed like a nice way to end a very day.
Thank dRitter for joining Gig and me today.
