Mt. Pierce…errrr Clinton?

Christine and I communed with the great outdoors this weekend by hiking Mount Pierce (a 4310 foot peak). Pierce was known as Mount Clinton before there was a President Clinton but it was renamed for President Pierce and for some reason is still referred to by both names hence the title above.

It was about 6.5 miles round trip and was probably not the easiest hike to do on our first hike of the summer, but we pushed through and had a fun time. To get to the top, we hiked Crawford Path, “the oldest continuously-used mountain trail in America” which was created in 1819. Below is picture of us at the summit with Mount Eisenhower and Washington behind us. If anyone plans on hiking with us in the future make sure you request Christine’s excellent trail mix which kept us going. Also, do not put me in charge of the water (half of which was left on our kitchen table…Oops!).

Along the way we met all sorts of interesting animals (including an inordinate number of flies). In addition to the flies, we came across a couple birds that I had never seen in all my years of hiking in New England. We saw a white and black bird on the summit (pictured below) and we even saw a wild pheasant, which I never expected to see on a mountain in New Hampshire. Maybe all these years I was wrong to assume that it was just a squirrel or some other rodent when I heard rustling along the path. The first time I really stopped and looked was yesterday and there was this beautiful red faced pheasant.

In the other news, we have started our own little garden on our back porch complete with several herbs and some of my favorite peppers. Many of you may not know that crushed red pepper has surpassed ketchup as my favorite condiment and I like everything that I eat to be as spicy as possible. Which brings me to my favorite veggie in our little garden, Thai Dragon Peppers! They are super hot and I learned by lesson the hard way last year that they should never be cut with bare hands. I am so excited just thinking about being able to put them in everything by the end of the summer!