This is a fun and adventurous hike for doggies and humans alike.  We arrived at 10:30 AM and met no other hikers all day.  It was partly cloudy with a high of about 81 to 84 degrees.  There were many places for us dogs to bathe in streams and cool off. 
     We started off through a high pine forest.  We saw some white violets, gaultheria, a spring peeper and a chickadees.  There were a number of vacant unofficial camp sites along the Oliverian Brook.  We reached the Passaconaway Cutoff at 11:24 and took this trail.  It is well-constructed and not overly steep. In its upper reaches it badly needs trimming, since the plants on both sides meet and completely cover the trail below. It is a "road less traveled" so to speak.   Near the top there is a dramatic lookout to Passaconaway, which Bruce has climbed.  It would be tough to climb it from this direction, though, because it is very steep.  In one mile it goes down into a col, then goes back up for a net of 1500 feet. 
     It seemed to us that the summit has one cone-shaped peak, then a separate, very large rectangular rock (which is obviously the famous "Square Ledge"), then a couple of lower dome areas.   The trail  on the top zigzags around so much that  (it being near noon) we had no idea what direction we were facing half of the time.   At 1:00 PM we reached the summit, the first dome, where there is a small lookout with no boulders to rest on and a view of what I believe was Hedgehog, Green's Cliff and Tremont.
     The trail then zigagged down and then around the enormous cliffs of a huge stone monolith.  At one point the trail went up high enough that it looked like maybe you could climb up to the top of the monolith for a view around.  This looked 98% like a bushwhack and 2% like a trail someone had once used back in the 1930's but was now overgrown.   I, Dickens, and then Bruce, got the idea to try it.  (I always want to go on top of boulders -- that's where the fun is). 
     On the top there was an old, totally overgrown trail which led to a slanted cliff with far ranging views.  We were very impressed by a pretty lake in the distance, possibly Chocorua Lake (?) (We explorers don't always know these things right off the bat).   We had lunch at 1:16 PM.  We doggies each had a roast beef sandwich and Bruce had half of one. 
     The way down was very challenging, descending steeply through boulder fields alongside long sections of huge cliffs from Square Ledge.  It was so huge one could only photograph 0.01% of it.
At one point we passed a "navel" where some rockhound had bored two deep holes into the cliff.  We didin't see any valuable stones there, but what do doggies know about gems?  Our gems are the mountain lakes and the sun and sky, not to mention dog biscuits.
     At 2:13 we reached a stream which made us doggies happy.  We took the Oliverian trail down, completing a loop.  The guidebook says that this trail is very wet, but it was dry enough at this time of year for us to pass through OK.  Some of the brook crossings would have been hard if the streams had been running stronger.   At 3:25 we reached the junction with the Passaconaway Cutoff and at 4:25 we were out.   The entire loop was about 9.5 miles.
     Don't follow the markers for the ski trail at the start of this hike!  The Oliverian Brook trail is unblazed and goes along the stream.  We didn't take the ski trail off to the right, but if we had done so we would still be out in the woods looking for chairlift home.
     Overall, fun and adventurous are the words we would use to describe this hike.

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