Mount Everett, Part 3

If you've read the previous posts, you know that Mount Everett is on the Appalachian Trail in western Massachusetts. I hiked up it with three of my dogs - Seamus, Fergus and Daphne. We reached the summit and found lots of rock and lots of very stunted, shrub-like trees:

I remembered the summit from my previous hikes (a decade or so ago) as being grassier, more open and most importantly of all, having a fire tower! But this time I saw no grass, I saw no fire tower:

And then I saw the four concrete piers upon which the four main beams of the fire tower had previously been anchored. It had been removed, perhaps for safety reasons, perhaps to make the summit more "natural." Well, it may be more natural, but one couldn't see much at all from the summit over those shrubby trees:

Our two young Appalachian hiker friends passed through about then and we found a note attached to one of the piers. It'd been left there as a friendly "hello" by a previous through-hiker about two weeks earlier. The note had been left in a plastic bag. I read it, felt connected and returned it to greet the next passerby:

The two young hikers continued on their way as they had a rather distant campsite as their day's goal. But I enjoyed the summit for awhile. I set the camera up and snapped my own photo just as Seamus and Fergus got in the way. I just tell people that Daphne took the picture:

Seamus rested while Daphne played and hunted for insects:

And then we headed back down the trail:

The trail was narrow and very rocky, and the dogs were much better at rock-hopping than I was:

The tree cover increased, though they were still mighty short as trees go:

And we stopped once again at the rocky shoulder with the spectacular views:

In this photo, Fergus must have been doing his "Keep On Trucking" impersonation. Daphne looks a little bit weaselly, if you ask me. I doubt that she was feeling fatigued:

In fact, while Seamus and I rested, the two youngsters explored the scrub pines which populated that rocky promontory:

Seamus looked regal:

And Daphne was just plain cute as she bounced up and down hunting bugs:

Fergus seldom holds still, but prefers to keep moving and exploring:

And to wind up this post, a video taken while hiking down the mountain. Notice the drop off into the valley below on the right of the screen towards the beginning. Mostly, though, I just wanted a video of a wild Azalea: