Great Hike! Beautiful spring flowers in bloom - jack in the pulpit, red nodding trillium, painted trillium, foam flower, lots of different violets, bellwort, starflower, indian cucumber root, baneberry & trout lily. We heard wonderful forest birds - black throated green and blue warblers, vireos, ovenbirds, winter wrens, blackburnian warblers, great crested flycatchers, & scarlet tanagers. We found an eastern american toad that Mari, Joe and Claire had fun touching and watching. We compared woodpecker holes - sapsucker holes (little dots in rows), pileated woodpecker holes (humongous, oval-shaped) and downy & hairy woodpecker holes (small, round).
We stopped at the bridge for a snack (1/3 of the way in). There were two short stretches of uphill (about 400 feet total change in elevation). We took the left fork in the trail at the outlet of Inman pond and went up to the campsite along the southwestern side of the pond. Nice place for lunch and some play time. Beautiful views at the pond - rocky shores on the north and west and boggy at the outlet. Kids went "exploring" at the picnic spot among the hemlock trees. This was Claire's favorite part! We stopped again at the bridge on the way out where the kids scrambled around on the bridge and in the small stream looking for sticks and playing in the water.
All the hikers did great - kudos to both our youngest hiker (Joe - quite an amazing little adventurer!) and our most pregnant hiker (Sara - seriously nice job mom)!
We were on the trail for about 4 hours including breaks and lunch. Total mileage - a little over 2.5 miles roundtrip.
