A family ski area where many, including yours truly, first took a successful downhill run, King Ridge Ski Area in Sutton NH is now a conserved area for hiking, bird watching, and cross country skiing. The former ski area has been divided into a luxury home development at the very top of the hill and a 441-acre preserve owned by the Town of Sutton with the Ausbon Sargent holding the conservation easement. Trailheads are found along Hominy Pot Road and Kings Hill Rd. We entered from Hominy Pot Rd. found 0.2 mile east of Exit 11 off I-89. A small parking lot is exactly 1 mile from NH Rt. 11 just beyond the interstate crossing, but it is easy to miss because the sign is partly hidden.
The area seems to be infrequently used. I have been there a number of times for bird photography and yesterday for a hike with Jann and have never seen another visitor. Many of the trails are level and easy, but some climb the former ski slopes. The trail along Lyon Brook is especially nice. We have had a hot dry summer so the brook was just barely running—more like trickling among the exposed rocks.
Streams filled with water are exciting to photograph, but the dark exposed rocks with bright reflection in the pools made interesting subjects.
We approached a well-made bridge over Lyon Brook, and I set up to make a multi-shot panoramic image. I shot 5 images with the camera oriented vertically on a tripod and used 4 of them for the composite below. In this way one can make the lens effectively wider and still maintain a “normal” aspect ratio.
After crossing the bridge we emerged from the forest into a field filled with milkweed and some migrating warblers. But we suspected we were off the reservation so we returned to a wide path along an old stone wall. The light was very contrasty so I made three bracketed exposures two stops apart and merged them using Photomatix Pro. 
I had been using a polarizer and when I aimed my lens at a small piece of the brook, I saw a dramatic change in the image as I rotated it. I’ve seen this many times before, but a side-by-side comparison of such images can be a huge surprise to those who do not use one. Here are two views of the same subject taken 9 seconds apart. All I did was rotate the polarizer.
Finally an unidentified caterpillar. Anyone know the species? There was a stem next to this one that had been stripped of leaves. Could be this is the culprit and it moved next door to continue eating.
