Michael and Elizabeth Mayor and John Niles donated a beautiful piece of land on the west side of Moose Mountain that they jointly owned for over 30 years to the Hanover Conservancy. Though there are not yet formal trails on this site, Sunday I joined a group of 17 led by Alcott Smith and Adair Mulligan on an adventurous hike up to North Peak and the AT.
Alcott was everywhere as can see seen in the photo above.
Along the AT we looked down on Goose Pond to the east and the Hewes Brook watershed on the 92-acre Mayor-Niles Forest to the west. We saw signs of porcupine, fisher, snowshoe hare, deer, bear, squirrel, and pileated woodpecker. Alcott took us to the den of a porcupine he had seen days before only to find it had been killed by a fisher. We learned much about the trees and animals of the forest and got great exercise doing it.
Below is a short slide show with some of the other photos from the day.
