I woke up this morning (0630) with a plan to continue volunteering this weekend during the Backyard Winter Bird Survey (conducted by NH Audubon). Even though I got a good bit of data yesterday, I wasn't finished looking for birds. With snow conditions continuing to be a bust for skiing, I decided to look for a place where I could do some hiking and hills today. Over breakfast in a quite crowded lobby this morning (0715), I spent some time consulting my maps and some online resources. During this time, I found an interesting area off I-89 (and old NH-10), the Grantham Town Forest, that was crisscrossed with lots of trails between the towns of Grantham and Plainfield. I wasn't in a big burry to leave White River Junction, however... Back in my room, I did some paperwork, reading, organization, etc. until it was time for (early) lunch (1030). By this time, I was getting really annoyed by the strong smell of weed that permeated the entire hallway and, even, my own spaces. Hoping to escape the hotel room doldrums, I left Vermont, proceeded into New Hampshire and headed south on I-89. It took a bit of driving on muddy, unmaintained roads to reach the location of a trailhead for the Grantham Town Forest - when I got there (1100), I found that no one had plowed the parking lot recently (since November?). Fortunately, there was just enough room to park on the “side” of the road and I headed into the woods from there (1115). There was a lot more snow in this area, which was on a high ridge above the valley where the Interstate is - if I got off the track (groomed for snowmobiles), I sank in up to my knees. So, I didn’t get away from the good surface and had a nice walk. After passing (and looking inside) a warming hut on Miller’s Pond Road, I arrived at a “four corners” junction. The main trail that went north-south was called the Croyden Turnpike and it looked the most traveled. So I followed it to the south. What a nice day - temps were in the high 30s and there weren’t any clouds! Several snowmobiles passed but I was otherwise alone. Backtracking after a while, I retraced my steps until I passed the four corners again - this time, I continued north. A bit later, four snowmobiles passed me and pulled out onto an overlook just ahead of me. When I caught up to them again, I ended up in a good conversation about the trail systems. They were board-members for their local skimobile club and immediately tried to recruit me for trail maintenance and merry making. I declined their offer but, when they mentioned they’d give me a ride (!!!) north on the Croyden Turnpike (“to see the view from Little Mount Washington”), I eagerly accepted. On the back of one Snowcat, I got to experience the thrill of racing through the snow, up and down over crazy moguls, curving and weaving through narrow passages. I’ll admit that one hand was death-gripped on a handle I found but I’m still very glad I got to ride! The driver took me to the top of Little Mount Washington and I was greeted with a spectacular panorama of all the snow capped peaks for 50 miles: Sunapee, Kearsarge, Cardigan, Moosilauke, the Kinsmans and (maybe) Franconia Ridge and the edge of the Presidentials! The view was tremendous. The guys told me that the Croyden Turnpike actually connects NH/MA border with a place deep inside Quebec - a trip on that trail would be an amazing winter adventure! I said goodbye to my new friends and then walked back to my car, which was about 2.5 miles away by then. The snow surface was really good and temps were in the high 30s. In the end, I got two hours of pleasant outdoor time in the woods, good exercise in the unseasonable weather and an adventurous ride in the last remaining snow near my home - can’t beat that! At 1315, I drove over to Eastman to check on the trail conditions. Since everything was covered in ice, I decided to do some more work on the Bird Survey (1330 to 1430). The weather conditions vastly improved but this didn't seem to help me find many more birds... By the time I finished, though, I felt very good about how I'd been able to participate in the annual event. My initial plan had been to spend the weekend at home, looking out the window and recording my finds. In the end, I did spend one hour in the parking lot of my unit but also visited four other areas (two on each day, for one hour each) to see if the number/types were different. Over the two days, I saw at least nine different kinds of birds (including, among others: sparrows, mocking birds, starlings, nuthatches, chickadees, crows, tufted titmice, blue jays, cardinals) and listened to them singing in the quiet of trail systems, riverways and a golf course. Since I was never near any bird feeders, the number and types were much lower than they might have been at someone else's home. But I am glad that I wasn't pinned down on being at my condo - it took a lot of research to identify some of the different birds I saw and I needed extra time to get back into the "birding" mindset (thank goodness for internet photos and bird call recordings). At 1435, I drove back to White River Junction and arrived at the Holiday Inn again just before 1500. I ate early dinner in my room (1730) and also spent time online recording the NH Audubon Backyard Winter Bird Survey results. After that, I spent the rest of the evening reading, cooking, watching movies. I went to bed at 2230. The whole birding exercise brought back happy memories of watching feathered friends as a kid while my mom would look them up in her bird book. Hoping I can try another one of these surveys sometime!