Unrelenting rain and cold temperatures followed us from our departure from home, through Ontario, Quebec, Vermont and New Hampshire. Clearly, a geographically large weather system. Throughout the day and all through the succeeding night, rain fell in copious amounts.

When we arrived at the cottage we had rented for the week, we first unpacked and then went out to do grocery shopping, to sustain us for the week in our chosen jumping-off spot in the Waterville Valley where we had access to old, familiar trails. From the cottage we look beyond in one direction to the forest behind, and in the opposite to mountains. Spectacular sunsets can be seen from that vantage.

In the morning we were relieved to note that the rain had eased considerably. The sky was now merely dripping. We set out after breakfast for our favourite area hike, Smartsbrook. On the way stopping for our permit to access the sites we had come down to see from the National Forestry Service. By the time we reached the trail and parked the rain had stopped, but it was still cold, and jackets were needed.

Off we went, our two puppies, Jack and Jill anxious to get on with things, sniffing the new terrain, overwhelmed by the fragrance of the woods, the pounding of the mountain stream over the boulders littering the streambed. A thrush sang nearby, likely perched on a tree mast, the sweet notes of its trill adding to the pleasure of our being among trees thriving with the excess of this spring's rainy season, heavy with mosses and lichens on their trunks.

The forest floor had the remnants of trilliums long past their flowering, but gigantic in size, the largest we've ever seen. We saw plenty of straw lilies in bloom but we were anxious to see if our trip this year coincided with the flowering of the Ladies Slipper orchids. Dogwood, which predominate along with Moose maple in the understory of the forest there had already bloomed.

 Most of the forests in this region are heavy with hemlock and yellow birch, some of which grow to venerable size, although what we see is most likely a third or even fourth growth; the predecessors long since logged out as a valuable resource for the State of New Hampshire. There is also spruce, pine and fir, along with maples and oaks, a nice mix of deciduous and coniferous trees. The forest floor welcomes the presence of vast multitudes of saplings.

The mountain stream was swollen with runoff from the mountainsides, heavily augmented by yesterday's constant rainfall. The entire forest landscape virtually thrummed with brilliant greens, foliage accentuated in colour by the drenching it had received. Parts of the trail were boggy, reflecting that inundation, but it was such a beautiful day we decided to forge on and hike the circuit that would take us hours to complete.

Like any other trail in the mountainous region of the White Mountain National Forest, there were continuous ascents and matching descents. We took our time, and the time it took us to complete the circuit was close to three hours. Mosquitoes and black flies were tolerable. The presence of Yellow Admirals flitting among the tree branches added to the overall beauty of the site.

On what we call the 'opposite' side of the trail we found bunchberry blooming in abundance, along with violets and woodcress, ferns and buttercups. It's a vigorous but physically tolerable hike for us two 80-year-olds and our little dogs, leaving us with a sense of accomplishment as we exited the trail.