Spooky Spiders

We made our way back from the wilds of the The Last Best Place after taking off last weekend to visit family, share stories and gifts and of course reclain Bob the cat from his three-week sabbatical at my parents' house. This weekend begins the fall hiking season, which will only get better and better as we progress into early November. We headed back into Harriman S. P. and parked at the Sebago boat launch, same as we did back on July 4. Instead of heading to Pine Meadow Lake, today we chose to head to Breakneck Pond on a series of trails we had not yet traversed. Took the Seven Hills trail to the yellow-blazed Buck trail with a jigger on a ski road and a moment on the Tuxedo-Mt. Ivy trail, and then finally the Breakneck Mountain trail, where we took an unmarked trail down to the abandoned (at least for the season) Camp Lanova. The first leg out was the hike of the spiders. On a dozen occasions we had go around, duck under, or step over intricate "Halloween" style cobwebs made by garden spiders. Unfortunately where the sun gave us no warning of the shiny presence of webs, I caught a few in the face. No wonder H let me lead the way! Also along the way we came across a few glacial erratics, including one that was huge--about two stories tall. Since it was after Labor Day, the camp was empty and we had the lake and picnic area to ourselves. We ate at a picnic tables and spread out our blanket on the beach in the shade to read and then nap for a couple of hours. Out on the lake there was a dock with a couple of shallow swimming pools that were being occupied by some curious and hungry blue-gilled perch. The woods behind us and the beach was occupied by some very busy squirrels and noisy birds but once some other people were heard and seen on the distant and adjacent shore, we packed up and headed back following the Pine Meadow and Cranberry Mountain ski roads.