A short day trip, close to following the same steps I first made on the Long Trail but this track stays well below the elevation of the Long Trail on a side trail called the Ice Beds Trail. We left the parking lot in what seemed like a brisk mid morning breeze. The termperature was around freezing but it seemed colder with the breeze and dampness. I was surpirzed I needed to pull on a jacket to stay warm and even more surprized it stayed on for the entire trip.

The trail followed a ridge and we soon reached the highest point at a lookout on the White Rocks. The ridge sloped downward from there and we followed it with our destination the bottom of the rocky ravine below White Rocks. There were cavish spaces between the boulders that could easily harbor ice into the summer. The most peculure thing was a birch tree that had fallen into the revine though still attached to it's dubious perch on one of the boulders. With a major root pointing skyward, the sap leading to the leaves would actually flow down hill until it came to a crook in the tree where it dropped straight down for a foot and then back up to a gradual slope up to the living branches. The crook, I imagine, was a break in the tree from when it originally fell or when it broke from the weight of ice on it. See the pictures to see what I mean. The trip back was up hill mostly so finally my jacket could be unzipped by warm hands.

A nice short trip. The trails sees lots of traffic but the trail is not well defined so hikers have widened the trail to the point that it is actually hard to find the track without wandering off it. I've seen trails like this improved by poles used to hem in the traffic to just one trail.