Submitted by Pat
Stats
Date: June 17, 2025
Weather: Cloudy, upper 60s
Mileage: 6.62
Elevation Gain: 832
Trails: South Ridge Tr, Shaw Tr, Boulder Tr
Nancy and I finish tracing all the trails in Pawtuckaway State Park today! We eat breakfast at Danielle’s Diner once again – our last visit to this overpriced, freezing restaurant. My map app takes me on an unanticipated route to Round Pond Road. We come into the park via Reservation Road and take a left on the one-lane Round Pond Road, heading deeper into the park. The road is a little sketchy in places and towards the end it is under water due to beaver activity plus all the rain we’ve been getting. It’s a cool, grey day which always seems to bring out the mosquitoes.
We park next to the only other vehicle in the parking area and check the trail locations on Gaia. We are in the perfect place to access all three trails that we need to trace today. Our first trail is the South Ridge Trail, the half we didn’t trace last week. The first part of the trail follows the shore of Round Pond, a bullfrog haven, before it begins climbing toward South Mountain. I am huffing and puffing as I plod upward, sweat dripping into my eyes, dripping off my elbows, dripping down my shins. I am one big sweatball.
As we climb higher, the trail follows a ridge, and we are surrounded by the ubiquitous, huge boulders. We reach the summit and sit down to rest with packs on. Nancy offers to take a picture of a young family who are eating lunch close by. Several goldfinches squabble over the last of the thistle seed in the feeder that hangs off a cable attached to the tower. Neither of us feels strong or perky. We struggle up every ascent and feel every descent in our knees.
We arrive back at the junction of the Shaw Trail and take a right off the South Ridge Trail. The trail begins with a steep, eroded descent, and we remark that we aren’t going to like coming up that section on our return. All of today’s trails are out-and-backs of which I am not a fan. As we walk, the mosquitoes congregate like starving warriors at the start of battle and buzz around our eyes and especially our ears. I constantly swat my ears as another mosquito gets past the barrier of DEET and dive bombs my ear. Briefly, they are repelled but they just keep coming back. What a great time to have to stop and pee. The mosquitoes swarm.
Nancy and I talk. I tell her that I don’t remember what being depressed feels like. I don’t remember pain either. I know I have felt pain, but I can’t recall how it felt. I am forced by my decrepit memory to live very much in the present, because most of my past is hazy, brought to life only through the journal writing I have done since I was 15 years old. The future? It never comes. By the time you get there, it’s the present again.
I tell her about how much I am enjoying working with my neighbor, Bill, planting and managing a large vegetable garden that includes corn (several plantings), lettuce (several plantings), basil, parsley, cilantro, cabbage, broccoli, summer squash, winter squash, zucchini, melons, delicata squash, golden beets, carrots, peppers, cucumbers, bush beans, several plantings of peas, and three or four varieties of tomatoes. I love planting and thinning, cultivating and fertilizing, and mulching the rows between with hay. It’s wicked cool to be able to irrigate the whole garden using aluminum pipes connected to a pump that pulls water from the Ossipee River.
We finally reach the end of the Shaw Trail and walk back as fast as we can given that our legs aren’t strong today. Trying to outpace the mosquitoes is impossible. When we reach the steep ascent that had us feeling anxious, I surprise myself at how well we both manage that uphill. We still have .7 to get back to the cars and the last trailhead of the day so we can finish hiking the Boulder Trail. We pause briefly to orient ourselves before heading out the Boulder Trail as it moves around the shore the other shore of Round Pond. There are many fewer mosquitoes, and we breathe freely.
We come across a huge cliff jutting upward for 56 feet called Lower Cliff which is used for traditional rock climbing – a style of climbing where climbers place their own removable protection into the rock rather than relying on pre-placed bolts. No one is practicing their craft on that cliff at the moment, so we admire the massive rock before moving down the trail. A chorus of bullfrogs casts their mournful bellows into the afternoon air, stopping when they hear our poles clicking on rocks. With only .5 out and .5 back, we move right along with Nancy in the lead.
Back at the car, Nancy changes into sandals and I reach into her cooler for the cold drinks she so kindly brought for us. We high-five over our accomplishment. Another patch and a very cool looking one. We hug and start driving back down Round Pond Road to our homes. My body and health held out so I was able to hike every week for a month. Proud. Keep going.