Monday, June 23 - Mt. Morgan

Was it after 2 o'clock when we started our climb up Mt. Morgan?!? Hunter and I are both morning people but we thought perhaps we might have company on the more popular trails, so we had held out until quite late before we set out - just the rangers 3 again. It was a warm start to the hike, and also buggy. We were armed with bug spray, but these were gnats, the kind that get right in your eye. The start to the hike was not propitious, but somehow the details fell away and it seemed quite effortless before we had covered the gentle gradual ascent to the stream which I remember as marking the start to the steeper section. The stream was almost dry and the steepness itself had to prove to me that that was, in fact, the stream that we had hiked to so often when Hunter and her siblings were much younger. We climbed to the ridge and then up the gully at the top which was also dryer than I remember from my past excursions. Because we had Rumi, the pup, we did not take the fun trail up the ladders. At the top, the breeze was cool and the wide-angle view, so rewarding. There were only 3 other people up at that time; in the past, we have encountered many more on the summit. The views in so many directions make it very rewarding, and the parking lot at the base helps with its accessibility. We scooted back down - 2 hours on Mt. Morgan. We were hot and ready for a swim in still cool Squam Lake.