Hiking Hadley Mountain, Part 7

We'd climbed the mountain, literally and figuratively. We'd braved the slippery ice and bone chilling wind and cold. We'd seen the panoramic vistas. Now it was time to descend the mountain, retracing our route along the trail and return to where I'd parked the car at the trail head. I hustled to get over the edge of the summit to escape the high winds and we began our return journey by passing through this growth of aromatic Balsam Firs:

As soon as we were out of the high winds, the temperatures seemed to moderate. Yet I was so very thoroughly chilled that I kept my heavy gloves on for another half hour or so. There were some wonderful scenic places on the way down the trail also:

One of the signs I believe which indicate Seamus' intelligence is his propensity to gaze at the scenery. I've never seen another dog do that:

Back down the mountainside we hiked. When I first captioned this photo, I mentioned that Fergus was not in it. But now, after enlarging it, I can see his dirty feet against the snow. The rest of his white body, just ahead of Seamus, is pretty hard to see because of the snow:

And we stopped for a photo. By this time, you may notice, I had my gloves off:

A handsome giant in the woods:

"What about me? I'm handsome too!":

Seamus stopped for a dose of cold feet and a chilly drink of water. I think my dogs live a pretty good life:

And just look at those muddy feet!:

We made it back to the trail head and began driving back to the highway along a narrow dirt road. Alongside the road were many old fashioned syrup buckets:

This was New England scenery and life at its finest. A sugar bush in season, a sunny day, happy tired dogs and a hike with fabulous scenic overlooks:

The last sight along the dirt road was the sugar house nestled in the woods. No one was there as we passed by. This was the end of the hike. From here home it was a matter of finding the right highways and dodging the Sunday traffic: