Sites are surrounded by lots of greenery, though neighbors are within earshot. We are Site #17. We set up camp late Friday night in the dark and in the rain. Joy. My feeble attempts to convince Mr. Great Outdoorsman to stay the night at an inn were squelched. In any case, I got a good night sleep on our half inflated air mattress (forgot to charge the pump) and at least I had my favorite blanket that smelled like home comfort.
Saturday morning, Riley was up early - restless and anxious to explore his surroundings as he hadn't gotten the chance the night before. His nose is pushing into Jeffrey's shoulder and arm, trying to wake him up. We finally get up and have a casual, relaxed morning. I eat a yummy Gala apple and a slice of whole wheat bread with White Nectarine preserves. Yum Yum. At least I have good food to eat. Green Mountain Coffee washes it all down nicely.
We head out around 11am. We plan to take a little warm up hike to ease in, especially since the longer hike will be on Sunday. Just 2 hours. Riley was very excited to be out. The weather was perfect for Berner hiking- warm, not humid, wet trails, lots of fresh, running water. We hike to a pond, passing by several campsites alongside the water's edge. People are fishing, swimming, even napping out in an inflatable raft in the middle of the pond.
At one end of the pond, we find a wooden hut where two people have stayed the night. Their mats, sleeping bags, and packs are hung within the shelter but they are nowhere to be found. Perhaps one of them is the napper out on the raft. What a nice place to spend the weekend.
We return to our campsite which is surrounded by a mix of maple, birch, and ash trees. (that's what the book says, I dunno any better). I whip up a snack: chili + salsa with blue chips and strawberries too, Yum yum. I love food. Riley and Jeffrey leave to take a walk down to the Dry River, which apparently is not dry, go figure. I read for a bit and plan out the dinner menu: whole wheat pasta shells with spinach and Feta cheese chicken sausage. A meal fit for a hiking family. Strawberries, of course, for dessert. Riley gets half a pound of duck, not too much food to weigh him down for tomorrow's hike but some good fat for energy.
Saturday night is a bit colder but I sleep well on the fully inflated mattress. My stubborn cough that I have had for a week is gone! Nothing like fresh New Hampshire air to cure a lingering cough! The sun is out early and it is going to be sunny day. We head out on our 5 hour hike.
Our first stop: Arethusa Falls. It is spectacular, and very popular. We found ourselves in the company of 30-40 other hikers enjoying the waterfall.
The falls were just a 45 minute hike in from the trail head. Most families with young children hike into this spot and hike back out. I was most surprised to even see a woman who appeared at least 6 or 7 months pregnant. The hike in was moderately difficult, certainly not easy! As we head out back onto the trail, a woman stops me to tell me her six year old daughter thought I looked beautiful. It must be the pigtails. :P
We head in the diretion of Ripley Falls. The hiking is dense with growth and it is still early in the season for groomed trails. We find the brush thick and many fallen trees across the paths.
The hike drags on and we begin to tire in the mid-day heat. We stop frequently at every steam so Riley can cool off his foot pads. I wash off my face with the ice cool water too.
Jeffrey leads the way. He is hiking like a pro. Better endurance than me. Riley tries to stay between us, keeping an eye on both of us. As we hike on, we meet several other 4-legged ones: a Great Dane, German Short-Trailed Pointer, Labs, Golden retrievers, some mutts, and then there was the psycho dog. We have already passed this psycho dog twice earlier in the hike. Our third encounter was not very pretty. This dog is the size of a large Rhodesian Ridgeback, same fawn coloring, with the face of an American Bull Terrier or Boxer. I never got a really good look at him cuz I was too busy holding Riley and trying to keep our distance from them. The dog had a gentle leader on his muzzle and the owner had to hold his muzzle and collar very tightly. Each time we pass, he is snarling something nasty and is resisting it's owner's hold with full tention. The first two times we pass this dog, we quickly scuffle by without much incident. The owner comments, "My dog needs to learn some manners from your dog."
If your owner taught you some manners you would have some manners. I think in my head. Instead, I say something polite like, "oh, they're just being boys," or something dumb like that.
The third time we encounter this dog is along the path to Ripley falls. We had reached a point on a steep decent when we decided to take a short break. We all needed a rest, especially Riley, and a bite to eat. We gorged on some oranges, apples, and ate a few Greens bars. Riley got some string cheese and almonds. As we catch our breath, Mr. SuperHiker recharges: 
We are resting quietly when Riley alerts us to some visitors. We hear a man call out, "He's appropriately warning you that psycho dog is coming." We move our things off the trails and I have Riley way off the trail. The man is being pulled down the trail and I pray to higher power that he actually has control of him. As they pass, psycho dog lunges at us and at this point Riley has had enough of the psycho-ness. He lounges back and gives a snarl and growl right back at him. The owner drags the dog off, still bucking and growling. Then what does he do? He takes his hiking sticks and wacks the dog upside the head. !*@#@?!@!* Now we really understand. Psycho owner, poor dog.
After the passing of the killer dog and abusive owner, we decide to abandon the hike to Ripley falls. The decent is steep and we have to hike back out the same way. There's still a good 2 hours to loop back to the parking lot. We keep hiking until we reach the outlook.
Here we stop for a bit for more water and a cheese and crackers snack. I am almost out of water. Good thing Riley carried his own water, I would not have had enough to share. Around the corner from this outlook is the cliff with a rewarding view.
The rest of the hike is just the decent. There were many very steep parts so decent was not as fast as I would have hoped. It was quite dangerous in some parts. I just kept singing, "I'm dreaming of an Ice Cream Cone..." to keep myself going. It worked! A great hike: COMPLETED.
My reward: a big scoop of Vanilla on a sugar cone. YUM!
We brought free range turkey drumsticks for Riley. Jeffrey decided he deserved BOTH of them. That's over 3lbs worth! Chow down!
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