Hiking @ Snail's Pace

I got up earlier than usual and force fed myself peanut butter Cliff bar. The thing is that I got tired of all the trail food and I started to feel like having some "real" food. I did not want to cook another oatmeal. I rolled up the camp (I had a tent inside of the shelter because of black flies that were relentless and did not seem to care about DEET the night before), and I drank a lot of water as I seemed to be pretty dehydrated. Leaving the camp I stopped by the stream and sterilized more water as I wasn't sure if I would get anything on Sunapee Ridge before hitting Lake Solitude.  Pre-filtering water for treatment with SteriPen This was a good call as there wasn't any good flowing streams as I started the climb.   Lucia's Lookout offered a nice wide view.  Wide view from Lucia's Lookout Later on there was a smaller lookout from which I could get a glimpse of what I thought were "the Ledges."  After the hike I began

I got up at 5 am and left just after 6 am to Washington G eneral Store. I had a nice breakfast & coffee and I set out before 7 am.   The trail was going through the town at first and at some point I noticed plastic piping spread between trees.   At first I wondered if this was some kind of fencing but ten I realized that these were maple trees and the pipes were going into the trunks, so I guessed that this is a modern way to collect maple syrup. Maple syrup collection? Who is watching you? Once I left town I turned on a woods road going up Lovewell Mountain. I noticed lots of coyote paw prints along the road and further on the trail as well.  I also saw what I believe was coyote scat. I was a little surprised that over first few days I saw only one garter snake, but now I saw three on the way up to the top. One of several garter snakes I saw going up Lovewell Mountain Snow in June? Oh, wait! Is just a lichen patch... There was a nice view to the East ju