While Kate and Patti took the easy way down (by car), Ger and I descended via the Nelson Crag Trail.  I had convinced him that it would be a fine trip, much shorter than it seems from the top, since I'd gone this way a few years before and had really enjoyed it.  I guess that was a senior moment: I'd somehow forgotten about the tedious, steep, rocky, swinging-from-treey drop down to Pinkham Notch.  But there was a bonus: a Northern Saw-whet Owl buzzed by Ger's head and landed on a branch right in front of us.  He turned his head to look, then turned it all the way around the other way to look at us some more.  [As I write this, the endless climb down has almost faded from memory; I'll probably recommend this route again.]