White Mountains Weekend

Emily and I spent the weekend in the White Mountains of NH with my sister Marilyn and her husband Phil. I love it there. It's a very long ride but once we're there it's a relaxing and fun.

Even when it rains.

We arrived on Saturday, the 12th at around lunch time. It was sunny and warm. After we unpacked the van and had some lunch, we decided to work out the kinks from the four hour ride with some letterboxing. I printed out clues at home to 9 boxes that we could look for over the weekend. Three of them were in a park in Bethlehem, which is the town we stay in. Phil knows the area - his family has owned the cabin for years - so we all piled in the van to look together. Marilyn and Phil were totally new to letterboxing but were up for the adventure. I'm so glad Phil was there because Mapquest, of course, was wrong on where the park is. Actually it might have been my mistake because I googled the school name given in the clues but apparently it was nowhere near the park where the boxes were hidden. But I digress.

I didn't take my camera on our first adventure. The clues took us around a turtle pond where we saw one tiny turtle that seemed to follow us as we made our way around to the trails on the other side. Good thing Marilyn brought the good bug spray. I went cheap when I bought spray for Emily and me and we suffered for it. We ended up using Marilyn's after we practically got eaten alive. But again, I digress.

The first box was in the woods on top of a giant rock that resembled an elephant with a spear in it's back (the spear was a fallen tree). Emily and Phil found the box buried under some sticks and bark. It was hidden by students at a local elementary school. They made their own log book. It's always interesting to see where others who have found the box are from. We didn't find the second box on our list. It was hidden by the same group of children. The clues were vague and we had to give up looking for it. We moved on to the third, which was very easy to find and was hidden under a flat rock. Emily was elected to reach under it with her long skinny arms. LOL That box was hidden by the school children as well. I hope they visit their box every now and then to see who's signed their log book. Marilyn said she had a lot of fun and would like to try letterboxing the next time they come to NH. Phil is an outdoorsman so anything having to do with hiking, fishing or hunting is right up his alley.

After we got back from letterboxing we vegged out at camp and watched Jungle Book on DVD. I almost fell asleep! We always eat well when we're at camp. I brought burgers for dinner and Phil cooked them on the grill. We had those will the awesome red potato salad I made at home. Marilyn brought a homemade marble cheesecake, which she and I ate while Phil and Emily went fishing. It was so yummy. Marilyn and I headed into town to see if the info center was open but they weren't. She talked me into stopping at a few antique shops (I'm not into antique-ing at all) but they were closed too. I saw this sign on our way back to camp. It was lying on the ground in a pile of junk next to a building. Since I didn't have my camera I snapped a shot of it the next day when Emily and I headed out on our adventures.



After everyone was settled back at camp we sat on the deck while Emily and Phil made s'mores. (Emily made them, Phil ate them). Marilyn and I didn't eat them but I did have a piece of chocolate. Emily took pics of the fire.



The weather forecast for the next day was heavy rain and wind. Boo hoo! Where did that come from? At home (in Mass.) we'd heard it was going to be a beautiful but hot weekend. Emily and I had planned to spend a few hours at Echo Lake which is a beautiful lake right smack in the middle of the mountains. We'd never been but Marilyn and Phil brought their boys when they were young and said it was a very nice lake. We got an early start on Sunday and headed out by 9:30 a.m. before the rain hit. It was overcast but I figured we could still have fun. Now comes the funny part.

Here's the sign entering the parking lot.


I never looked at the thermometer thingie inside the van to see what the outside temp was when we arrived. I wish I had. We knew it was windy because the van got pulled around a little on the highway getting there. I told Em we should put on our sweatshirts because it might be "a little chilly." That was the understatement of the day! LOL It was so windy and so cold I couldn't believe it was July! We walked down to the beach, all the time laughing our heads off because poor Emily was practically knocked over by the strong wind. Later Marilyn described it as being in a big bowl with all the mountains around us. We were probably in the middle of a wind tunnel. LOL I'm going to guess when I say with the wind chill it was probably 40-50° on the beach. The water was very choppy. There was only one other group of people there - adults from NY. Emily and I took a few pics. It was absolutely beautiful there and I'm disappointed that the weather didn't cooperate. It would have been a nice place to spend a few hours. It was not going to be a quiet day spent on the beach for us. We decided to continue on with our other plans.

Here's Emily at the lake with the ominous sky above.


Here's me proving that I at least dipped a toe into the water (it wasn't as cold as I thought it would be). Emily caught me making a horrible face. LOL (I'm going to have to teach her to always take more than one pic) You can almost tell how windy it was.


Our agenda included lots more letterboxing. Our clues took us to the Old Man of the Mountain viewing area, the Basin, the Baby Flume and Clark's Trading Post (Clark's is always on our list of things to do). We found all but two of the boxes - one was inside an info center but we couldn't find the info center. LOL The other was supposed to be near a picnic table at the Basin but we couldn't find the box. We got some great handmade stamped images in our books, got in some fun hiking and saw some beautiful things we hadn't seen before. One set of clues took us to a gazebo in the middle of the woods. We stopped at Clark's Trading Post for souvenirs (and a letterbox in the woods near the parking lot!). Halfway through our adventures it started to rain but we didn't let that stop us. We continued to hunt for letterboxes despite the rain. Being in the woods kept us a little drier. By the time we got back to camp it was pouring. We still had a great time and I realized I really enjoy hiking. Here's a few pics taking during our adventures.

Emily putting the box back in it's hiding spot at the Old Man of the Mountain spot.


Another Old Man of the Mountain photo. This is at the official viewing spot.


This is what's left of the Old Man of the Mountain. His profile fell off 5 years ago. It was originally spotted probably 100 years ago so it was a big deal when they discovered that it was gone. It's a big tourist attraction.


After we got back to camp we hung out and watch TV. Anne of Green Gables and Anne of Avonlea were on the public TV channel. Anyone who knows me well knows that's one of my favorite movies of all time. Marilyn likes it too so we settled down and watched it for a few hours while we ate...and ate...and ate. LOL It was pouring rain, there was nothing else to do! LOL We also dozed off a little. Phil went fishing on his own. When dinner came around none of us were all that hungry (wonder why?). It finally stopped raining and looked promising outside so Phil took us to a local swimming hole - it's actually a river. We walked about a half mile from the parking lot to get there, climbed down some rocks and hung out for a little while until the bugs started biting. I wish we knew about this spot when we'd brought the kids a few summers ago. It's the perfect spot to stay cool and have fun in the water. There was a nice calm spot in the water but also areas where they can slide on the rocks (safely). Here's some pics. It was shady so the pics are a little dark.

Emily, Phil and Marilyn standing in front of the quiet part of the water.


Marilyn and Emily watching the water.


Me, Marilyn and Phil. By that point of the day I'd already been rained on, wore a hood and hiked quite a bit so I look pretty ragged. Who cares, I was on vacation! LOL


Emily and I headed out for the four hour drive home at 9:00 a.m. Monday. We got home a little before 1:00. We'll be back in NH on Columbus Day weekend! I'm already tentatively planning to hit the walking trails on Cannon Mountain. :-)