After postponing the hike by a day due to rainy weather, eight of us met up at the Mt. Morgan trailhead at around 10AM.  There was Kyle, Rob, Markus, Dan, Brian, Chuck, Rick and myself.  We waited alittle bit for Markus and for one other guy to show.  Markus was a little late due to Rt. 113 being flooded to the west and noone had a great deal of confidence that the other guy would actually show up.

We headed up the trail at around 10:20AM.  It was an absolutely beautiful day...a little chilly at the start, but mostly sunny.  Markus was still getting ready, but said he would catch up.  We headed up at a moderate pace and just enjoyed socializing with each other.  The trail was pretty wet, in fact, it was like a running stream in places.  We reached the ladders at a little before noon and everyone opted to accend via this route (there is an alternate route to the summit bypassing the series of ladders, which are bolted to the rocks).  Upon accending the ladders and emerging through a rock "cave", we were rewarded with wonderful views of the Squam Lake Region.  A short scramble later we reached the summit of Mt. Morgan.  Here we enjoyed our lunches on a ledge just below the summit and out of the wind.

After lunch we continued along the ridge, which connects Mts. Morgan and Percival.  This is a relatively level route through the woods with a few views to the surrounding area.  We reached Mt. Percival's summit at around 1PM.  This peak was a little more crowded than Mt. Morgan had been.  It offered wide open views again of the Squam Lake Region and also over to Mt. Whiteface, Passaconaway and Chocorua.  We took another extended break here before starting out descent.  Initially, the descent was very steep and rocky off of the summit of Percival.  This was only for a short distance before reaching the rock "cave" on this side.  This cave has a very narrow opening to squeeze through.  Inside there was a fairly large chamber...enough for most of us to fit, before squeezing through the other opening at the exit of the "cave".  After this the trail meanders at a modest grade on its way back to the connector trail, know officially as the Morse Trail.  We reached the parking lot again at around 3PM.

Afterwards all of us, except for Brian, went over to Hart's Turkey Farm (a place famous for serving up traditional turkey dinners all year round) for an early dinner before calling it a day.  Thanks to everyone for making this a great Sunday fall hike...it was alot of fun and a wonderful group of guys!

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