I had never been to the section of the Quarry Trail between Rand and West Quarry.
Opportunity was knocking, so I made a plan. I also wanted to walk the North Straightback Link, so I worked out a route over North Straightback to Rand. I did not want to go over East Quarry, I did not enjoy the descent on its west side a few years back.
Gallery / slide show
I estimated my plan at about 8.5 miles ( GPS reported 8.9, not bad !). It included an unmaintained trail; I was a little anxious about that, I walked it 3 years ago, but was not sure I could find it easily. I wouldn't have much time to hunt around...
So ... Off I went. I almost needed a program ... I count 23 trail junctions on my route 
!
Fortunately, all were signed or blazed; locating proper trails was not a problem.
The unmaintained trail 3 years ago was barely discernible, marked only with occasional snips of survey tape. It has been upgraded considerably, with a sign on each end ( the "Marsh Crossing Trail" ), and bright yellow blazes. And still some legacy tape ...
This trail links the Anna-Straightback Link to the Quarry Trail near the summit of West Quarry. It is not shown on the current Belknap Range map, but is shown as an unmaintained ( and unnamed) trail on the Roberts map. It's a cheerful pleasant trail, and provides a nice link. Beaver activity has made the brook crossing problematic, but a short diversion upstream allowed an easy crossing.
The trails were all in good shape, though trails not near Mt Major required some care due to leaf cover. As expected, I saw no one outside the vicinity of Mt Major.
When I reached this sign
I was a little unsure which way to go. Obviously "cliffs" would be steep ... but maybe the intent was to convey views? "steep" around a quarry site didnt sound too good...
So I took the cliff route heading toward Rand. This section of trail seemed needlessly difficult; there were two or three places where a lapse of attention or a little bad luck could be hazardous. If this trail section was so bad , what must the spur trail be like? Hmmm ...
Well, worry about that later. I poked around just a few minutes at the old quarry site, and then on to Rand. Nothing remarkable about Rand, opted to skip the outlook past the summit and headed back to West Quarry. I decided I should check out the spur trail ... this turned out to be a good choice. The spur trail is steep, but seemed safer to me than the main trail.
From this point, nothing remarkable until I reached Mt Major. There I saw the usual small crowd ranging from myself to little kids in sneakers. A warm afternoon, so not alarming to see people without the gear I was carrying. Though I was a little concerned about a few people who seemed underequipped.
Mt Major is deceptively easy and close to the road; and I think the time change may have led some people to be later getting off the mountain than was wise. By the time I made it back to my car I felt happy to know my headlamp was in my pack ... a few more minutes and I would have needed it.
I hope everyone I saw made it out safely !