Cathedral Ledge in winter, North Conway, New Hampshire

Molly took us on a winter hike to the top of Cathedral Ledge in North Conway New Hampshire. It was a warm winter day and steam was rising off the snow lending a theatrical look to the woods. I expected to see wolves staring at us from the shadowy woods like in the Polar Express. Frozen creeks were springing back top life sending throaty gurgles echoing of the forest.


























We walked down a wide path that's a gravel road in the summer. With two feet of snow on the ground the path was thankfully tamped down by snowmobile riders to give us some hard pack for walking. On our left, before the road started to climb, ice climbers picked their way up the crystalline walls of Cathedral Ledge. Solid walls of ice build up as the freezing, melting and refreezing winter snows layer on each other. Melt water trickled today, clearly seen under the ice walls. Kinda spooky.

As the road climbed so did my pulse. I unzipped my jacket as sweat sucked my flannel shirt to my skin. After a while I could hear my heart pumping in my ears. I took my scarf off, my gloves off. I completely unzipped. I like to have my head up when I walk, ears open, eyes watching, taking in the scene, camera at the ready. Now my head was down as we climbed elevation. I watched as one foot moved in front of the other. I was not having fun.

"How much further Mol?" "It's right up around the bend." "You know that for sure?" "I think so." Molly's bad at directions and knowing exactly where she is. She hiked this road earlier this year but there's not a lot of landmarks to mark progress. How does one tell one tree from the next? I knew she had no idea how much further we had to go.

The Duncan's were now 100 feet ahead of the Welch's. Molly & Drew calling back to Dylan & I, spurring us on! "Come on!"

























We climbed and rounded two more turns in the path. Molly once again said "We're almost there". Dylan & I stopped. We'd had enough. "We'll meet you at the bottom" we yelled. I could tell Molly was pissed. She trudged off stamping and beating the snow to a pulp under churning legs. Drew ran behind her.

Dylan & I took our jackets off and spread them on the path. We layed down on our backs. After a minute my ears opened again. We looked at the sky through the over-hanging pine boughs and listened to the majestic sound of silence. Silence is a BIG sound. We seldom hear silence. In the city and suburbs there's always something making a sound. Here it was vacuousness silence. My pulse slowed, my sweat dried up. I stopped thinking about me and took in the woods. We entered the silence and became one with it.

Feeling better we got up and hiked around the next bend and unbelievably we were at the top.
There, behind Molly & Drew, was a beautiful vista animated with moving walls of fog settling in between valley's and vales.

























The neighborhood where our house is was laid out below us like a winter diorama. Cranmore Mountain stood facing us far across the Mt Washington valley.












































Look at the sweat on Drew.


























A boy and his dog




















...then we had to hike down.