Black Cap
As a warm-up hike before our overnight trip to Sawyer Pond, we hit Black Cap. It's a fairly easy amble up to the rocky summit, but the roasting temperatures and oppressive humidity made it seem worse than it was. At the summit we wandered a bit, trying to discover if there was any kind of a ledge or outlook around. In the process, we stumbled across a small memorial for Kathleen J. Etter, the late owner of a vegetarian cafe in North Conway called "Cafe Chimes". There was an engraved stone at the base of a tree, and the branches of the tree were well-laden with windchimes of all forms. It was actually quite a touching gesture, even though I didn't know the woman in life. It made me happy to know that she had friends, and that they would want to memorialize her in that way. Next time I travel to black cap, I will be bring a windchime with me to add to the tree.