Hedgehog Mountain Payoff

Our friend, Janet, a fellow Texan and Maine neighbor, and Clay and I plan a weekly hike somewhere in the White Mountains or nearby mountains in Maine. The hikes start early, climb to some payoff - a pool or a view, include a picnic lunch, and ALWAYS an ice cream reward on the way home. This week it was Hedgehog Mountain in the White Mountain National Forest of New Hampshire. In the guidebook it is listed as 4.8 miles, moderate rating, climbing 1350 feet to its high point of 2535 feet. There were views almost in all directions, narrow ledges near the top to edge around, and one boulder that I had to scramble up and over on my hands and knees. It was a beautiful day and the best of the weather predicted for the week, so, though we were first on the trail many more scrambled up to the top after us while we enjoyed our lunch.

An unexpected payoff was found during our lunch. High in a bare spruce snag nearby we spied a pair of cedar waxwings.
Just like us they had migrated from Texas or perhaps a little further south to feast on the plentiful blueberries of the White Mountains. While we ate the pair kept up a steady stream of chirps and an occasional swooping foray from the snag down into the bushes and back. A little investigation showed us the reason for their anxious chirping.


Three fledglings, well behaved, sat still as stone in the bush, their body language saying "we are twigs, we are twigs, you don't see us, you don't see us." They didn't move at all for the thirty minutes or so we observed them. If you notice their tail feathers have yellow tips that indicates the types of fruit pigments they have been ingesting.

We didn't divulge their cover to the others coming up the trail. We headed home down the loop trail happy to have this unexpected payoff for long climb to the top of Hedgehog Mountain.