August 23, 2022
I injured my big toe doing trailwork on Mt. Washington a few days ago. Managed to trip over nothing and ram my foot into a granite boulder. Though nothing is broken, the toe still lacks mobility and the entire area hurts if I do too much. That being said, I am not the type to sit tight if I can possibly visit something on my massive LifeQuest list, so I figuratively jumped at the opportunity to grab this natural landmark while my younger daughter visited a nearby college. Looking at the Gaia app, I saw a half-mile trail to this body of water and figured my toe could handle that well enough.
The Park Service describes Poutwater Pond as “…an undisturbed, sphagnum-heath bog that illustrates ecological succession from open water in a glacial depression to upland forest.” There are multiple ways to get to it, so even though this isn’t in the middle of wilderness forest etc., it may help to have a map or an app on hand so you don’t get turned around with all the intersecting and criss-crossing paths.
This was just the right amount of walking for my toe. I do hope the thing heals quickly, though. I haven’t done a serious 15+ mile hike with lots of elevation gain in a month; heat waves, family visits, and my banged up foot kept me off the trails. I prefer maintaining my hiking fitness over feeling my body turn to weak mush, so I look forward to getting back out there for more strenuous hikes within a couple of weeks (after this toe heals). There are a few mountains in Vermont and Maine on the National Natural Landmarks list, and then of course I need to finish up Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller, and there are Wildlife Refuges etc. I want to get in as much as I can before the snow falls. And who knows, maybe I’ll keep going through the winter this year. I might enjoy snowshoeing through wildlife refuges and beach trails.
So much beauty out there, so much to see!
