St Josephs College by woods

 It was 60 today and mid October so I thought I would go mountain biking while I can. Went from the house to St Josephs College without getting out on any significant roads. Mostly trail and some low traffic neighborhoods. I took the trail past the beach and stayed straight on pond road. Pond road turns to dirt and on the left near the end is a parking area and kiosk that you can't see from the road. These are more water district trails. Stay on the trail to the right and you get to a small beach on the water. Back a little from the beach there is a trail that goes to Park Ave and then left to beech road. At the end of beech is a trail that goes to the college trail system. I ran into the x country running coach and he said biking on the trails was OK. This is a great route to get to the college. Very windy today creating big waves in the lake. Also some branches on the trail to pay attention to.

Other trails off 237

Tree taken through a screen. Looks like a painting?

East Windham Conservation Area. More trails! Good walking and also mountain biking. Calm after wild winds yesterday.

Fryeburg ME bike ride

 This is a nice bike ride down to Brownfield and the surrounding area. About 4 miles of bike trail, 3 miles of dirt. The rest, except for maybe 1-2 miles was very rural roads. Total mileage was 27. Views of the White Mountains from time to time. We stopped at the Stone Mountain Arts Center. A themed by room restaurant in an interesting nicely done barn with another large event center where they have bands from time to time. Surprised to come across this place in the middle of nowhere. This ride should be done again.

Blackstrap Hill Preserve

 This is another local area of trails on the same road as Lowell Preserve  I would say these trails are better for hiking or skiing rather than biking. We saw a few bikers but the trails were a mix of relatively nice trails for biking and others with lots of roots and rocks. We walked 5 miles and didn't cover it all so large area.

Mt Pierce - NH

 Climbed Mt Pierce from Crawford path connector. Turned out to be a cloudy day that turned into the first snow of the season. The snow was a highlight and seeing people hike to the Mizpah hut with supplies was a highlight because they had the same wooden frame packs that they used 50 years ago when I hiked in the area. Also checked out Crawford Cliff that was a half mile off the main trail. We also started walking toward Eisenhower hoping the weather would get better but that didn't happen.

It is snowing:

Mizpah hut

Supplies heading up to hut like it was done 50 years ago: