The Roost Trail, White Mountains, NH/ME, August 2014

We visited the roost trail right next to the Hastings campground. No driving necessary, but the walk to get to the trail head suddenly seems longer by foot than by car. We started at the trailhead next to the stream, to the right of the campground and returned the other path. This allowed a little bit more gradual climb but then a steep descent down later.

 Purple wildflowers along the way at the start of the trail.

 The trail mostly follows an old logging road, although only a single path hiking trail is left.

 Good thing it was August and the stream crossings weren't too difficult but there were a couple questionable ones. We stayed completely dry leaning on our hiking poles and rock hopping but if the water had been deeper, we might have gotten soggy shoes.

 This was a well-worn stream crossing with a sharp down and sharp up. When the road existed, it might have had a bridge, long gone.

 A little swampy spot that can be seen from the trail. Any moose?? Any moose!??

Unfortunately, the closest I got to moose was this photo. But that's still proof that they are near, we just didn't find the shy creatures!

 It was very dark and woodsy and damp. It almost had a rainforest feel due to the dense vegetation, dark canopy and dampness.

 Mushrooms abound. We saw mushrooms of all types growing everywhere.

 A rock hoppy, dry but challenging stream crossing. The part that made it difficult was that the rocks were all slippery and covered in moss, so there wasn't much of a good spot to put your foot. Husband helped me across with all my heavy camera gear.

 Another view of the stream. I didn't have a tripod or the neutral density filter to get a real shot of the water.

 Funky orange mushrooms growing in a cone.

Yellow mushroom type growth. Does this still classify as a mushroom?

 Farther up the hill from the stream crossing, and getting significantly more steep. You can see a faded yellow blaze on the tree on the left. Don't whine about my blazes back home, okay! They are in much better shape than this.

 More strange fungus.

 Brown cone-shaped mushrooms. I'm not sure if these are orange ones that turned brown once they were past their prime or they are a sister breed that grow brown naturally.

 At the top of the hill, you can't see the view but you can tell that you are at the top.

 In order to get to the scenic view, you have to take a side trail. The side trail is immediately super steep. There are no stairs or trail features. You basically just slide down and when you are done you have to climb up somehow. Mostly the "steps" are the roots of the trees growing into the rocks. A hiking stick is helpful. the whole top of the mountain and the way down to the view are covered in mica.

 Once you get down the steep part, the trail to the view levels out. It's not far, but seems far after you've climbed to the top of the mountain and just want to "get there".

 The nature of the mountain is nice. There's a lot of vegetation and reindeer moss growing that gives it a wild feel.

 Reindeer moss up closer.

 Jess taking a picture close to the edge of the view. At this part of the trail, the mountain gets steep again so the trees give way to views. Farther down the views are even clearer.

 At the best viewpoint, you can see the wild river below. At this time of the year it's mostly a dry streambed but I'm sure that it was pretty wild during Hurricane Irene in 2011 when Irene took out one of the trails along the river. I don't know if the trail was ever rebuilt.

 A clearer view of the mountains and the wild river. Somewhere farther up the river is the Wild River Campground and the mountains in the distance lead to trails such as the Black Angel Trail. I could not figure out every mountain peak comparing the mountains to the map, but I could point out a few obvious ones.

 I love this photo of Jess admiring the view.

 Done with the view, we headed back up the side trail to the main trail again.

 More mushrooms on the way back down the other (north) side.

 Orange mushrooms with some fuzzy greenery.

 Either fairies or smurfs live here. I think I saw a smurf.

 Back down the trail. It gets steep pretty quick. This is the trail that most people come up. The south side of the trail where we came up was less used but since this trail head is the first people come to, this is where most people start and end their trip.

 These guys were funny little round flat mushrooms.

 Another fun stream crossing. The trail seemed to have gotten washed out here. It kind of joined up with the stream for about 10 feet going down this hill. I suspect that the trail and stream were side by side until too much rain widened the stream and washed out the trail. Now it's a little bit of guesswork at this point, but all things aside, this was a fine trail otherwise.

 Mushrooms everywhere!

 Most of the trees in the white mountains have been logged and all the forests are fairly young and the trees are small. This was one remnant that looked like it hadn't been logged, sitting there significantly more massive than all the other trees around it. You can see by the photo how it dwarfs all other trees around it. For the east coast, this is a pretty big tree!

 Of course there are still more pictures of mushrooms.

 Nubie found some new friends on the trail. As a tiny 8 pound dog, he's dwarfed by any regular size dogs. But he doesn't seem to care that he's so tiny.

 Nubie exploring the trail ahead.

 Some blue berries. Not to be confused with blueberries, I believe these may be poisonous?

 This is the other end of the trail where we finished and walked back along the road to the campground. Most people start here instead of ending here.

 Along the road, there were some beautiful wild purple flowers.

 And some orange flowers blooming as well.

Back to camp to eat and rest for another adventure!