New Hampshire hiking 2016 (long/images)

So we had a few consecutive days off last week and wanted to get away and go someplace a little different. I hopped on to Google Flights and entered our travel dates and simply browsed around the map to find a cheap airfare. Yes, normally we can non-rev for free since my wife works for an airline, but the non-rev lifestyle can get a bit old when you spend a few nights in airports with a six year old. I spotted a nice price on tickets to Manchester, NH so we booked those, and started planning our trip around a visit to the White Mountains. We flew into Manchester direct out of Charlotte on a very nice CRJ 200 - and I must say, for being a feeder for American, that CRJ had the most legroom in coach I’ve ever had in any aircraft.

We had a nice drive up from Manchester to the White Mountains, stopping along the way for lunch. We ate at a restaurant that looked out over a river with a covered bridge. I was instantly regretting that I hadn’t brought my fly rod with me.

I found it interesting that the covered bridges resulted in a bit more work for people back in the day…apparently they had to shovel snow onto the bridge deck during winter so that the sleigh runners wouldn’t tear up the wood.

Soon we arrived where we’d be staying for the first four days - Wilderness Cabins NH - and it was really cool. Just off the Kancamagus Highway in the heart of the White Mountains, these cabins are completely off the grid and buried in a valley with no cell phone service (at all) and no power except for 1 hour in the morning and 1 hour at night provided by a propane generator. No TV, no internet, and water pressure and hot water only for the duration the generator was run. It was so incredibly nice to unplug from everything (largely).

Kai immediately found the treehouse of course…

And we spotted the Time Out Tree (fortunately did not have to be used)…

There is no air-conditioning, but we caught a fairly wet weather pattern for the duration of our trip. It was cool, misty, and rainy for most of our stay. The propane stove allows you to cook whenever you like, and a propane refrigerator kept our groceries cold. We had several really good meals at the cabin after long days of hiking…

And breakfasts were always a great start to the day…banana pancakes here…

Our first hike was the Champney Falls trail with the intent to carry along it all the way to the top of the 3,500’ Mount Chocorua. The trail climbs gradually, then more steeply along Champney Brook until it starts more vigorously ascending the slopes of Mount Chocurua.

Spotted a snake a bit up the trail…

Chipmunks would make their presence known on every hike by barking out their chirps of alarm…

The river dips below the trail and the trail crosses some very “rooty” areas that require some careful stepping…

Throughout all our hikes in the White Mountains we were constantly amazed by both the well maintained and blazed trails - and nearly no trash. They take good care of their mountains up there in New Hampshire…

A great example of the beautiful trail building…moving those enormous stones into position to make steps must have been incredibly difficult…

The uphill gradient starts to kick up. It was hot and humid work…

We reached the top of the ridge, and were within striking distance of the summit of Mt. Chocorua, when all of the sudden the skies opened up with a freezing cold downpour, followed shortly by a clap of thunder. It was a bummer to be so close to the summit and have to retreat, but we’d been at it most of the morning and were ready for our lunch break. We dove into our bags, pulled out our raingear and headed back down into the treeline to find a place to eat lunch.

View of other hikers on the summit from our turn-around point. We only had the scramble up the rocks left, but the thunder and rain took that decision out of our hands…

Heading down in the rain…

We found a spot on the trail to eat lunch and the clouds came and went with occasional sunshine breaking through…

That boy is the cutest ever!

I like that this fly was bold enough to fly around this frog…

We made it back down to the Champney Falls area. Apparently the area is in near drought conditions (we wouldn’t have known given our wet week in the White’s) and the falls are a bit low on water, but it was still beautiful…

Kai exploring under rocks to find salamanders…

Me up on the falls taking photos…

Soon enough we were back down on the flat runout to the parking area…

That evening we enjoyed some cold beer and chili while I wrapped up some writing for the magazine…carefully conserving power during the generator hour. I’d have to drive fifteen miles into town to find a WiFi spot to upload my content the next morning. Thoreau probably didn’t write about the PMDG DC-6 while ensconced in his New Hampshire cabin huh?

The next day, in a bid to let our legs recover a bit from the elevation gain on the Champney Trail, I picked the long, but relatively flat Sawyer Pond trail starting just down the road from our cabin. The 9 mile round trip hike would take us deep into the woods. Our trail is marked with the red diamonds…

We fueled up for our hike at the cabin with a nice omelette, thick cut bacon, and some stout coffee…

Within 50 meters of the parking area, you come up against the Swift River, which thankfully is pretty tame at this point in time. We took off our hiking boots, hauled up our pants, and forded the river…

I thought for sure we’d spot a moose or bear along the river…

After crossing, we picked up the trail on the other side. For the first 100 meters or so I was worried that I’d picked a bush-whacking experience as the foliage was very dense. I was worried we’d come up on a bear, but thankfully, the dense brush only lasted a short distance before it widened out to a wider trail. The mosquitoes in the lowlands were fairly murderous, and dawdling would just put out a buffet, so we tried to keep moving.

This section in particular we dubbed “Mosquitoville” for the swarms that would descend if you stopped for long. More annoying to me though were the occasional fly (some sort of black fly?) that would buzz around and land on my head. Annoying creatures.

The morning was fairly cool, but we still worked up a sweat. The trail profile looks pretty benign on the topo map, but you actually gain around 1,000’ of elevation over the course of the trail…so the work is subtle, but it is there…

It is a very lush forest though. One of the locals says the growth rates in the summer are comparable to rain forests…

Kai is curious about everything, and he loves to stop and “smell the roses” so to speak. I have to admit…Daddy is more of the “stick” and Mommy is more of the “carrot” - our teamwork to keep him moving works, and thankfully we balance each other out.

They haven’t invented a shutter speed fast enough to freeze the Kai Animal in action…always a blur…

One of the slow moving residents of the forest floor…the Red Spotted Newt…

After a couple of hours of hiking, we finally reached the outlet of Sawyer Pond…

And the view opened up onto gorgeous Sawyer Pond. Man, now I was really sad that I hadn’t brought my fly rod…grrr…

We found a very nice picnic spot and pulled out our sandwiches and chips - although the chipmunks were keen to join the party…

Kai discussing with the chipmunk why he can’t give him any food. Although I think enough crumbs were shed to provide a chipmunk sized meal…

After a nice lunch, we packed up and headed back down the trail. 4.5 miles seemed a long way to return…but there never really is a choice now is there?

We put our speed boots on to get back through Mosquitoville…

Eventually we hit the Swift River again and it was time to recross to get to the parking area…

On our drive back to the cabin, we stopped and took a short, half-mile loop hike around a historic site (The Russell-Colbath property)…

I found it interesting that the mills that used to occupy this area used to take these huge White Spruce trees and mill them down to make masts for English ships…

Tacos and margaritas that evening…! Woohoo!

It was really nice to not turn a TV on for a week and we enjoyed playing board games in the evenings…

The next morning we spotted this turkey and chick (?) along the road…

We checked out after three nights in the cabins and headed up to North Conway where we’d settle in for two additional nights at a bed & breakfast. Along the way we decided to check out the Lower Falls on the Swift River and hike the 3 mile Boulder Loop trail. It was actually a pretty tough trail…much harder than I had anticipated…

Covered bridge over the Swift River…

Marisa and Kai at the Lower Falls…

A cairn garden across the river…

So Kai decided to build his own cairn…

The dreary weather kept many people away for the weekend - to our benefit…

After exploring the Lower Falls, we headed up the road to hike the Boulder Loop trail out of the Passaconaway parking area. On the way, we spotted a moose…! (And he spotted us apparently…LOL!)

The loop looks pretty tame…but it was quite the workout…evidenced by the tight contour lines…

The rain started up a bit, forcing us to don raingear for the hike…

It got hot on the hike though with the humidity, so we shed layers when the rain allowed.

The sheer cliffs are pretty impressive (it made Mommy nervous) and the views would probably have been spectacular had we not been in cloud most of the time…

We headed down from the top…what felt like a longer trail than on the way up…

Kai showing off his feats of enormous strength by leg pressing this boulder…wow…!

A brief shelter from the rain…

We continued our drive to North Conway and spotted a bear along the way - unfortunately my auto-zoom wouldn’t cooperate…

Once in town we treated ourselves to Mexican food and some fried ice cream for dessert!

We stayed at the Old Field House Bed & Breakfast…a really quaint place north of the hubbub of North Conway…

After a nice night at the B&B (air conditioning! hot water! electricity!!) we got up and had a great breakfast prepared by the owners…

Our trail for the day would be the fairly difficult Kearsarge North trail up to the firetower on top. The 6.2 mile roundtrip trail with 2,600’ of vertical elevation gain would be Kai’s most ambitious hike ever. It is a relentless climb…even I was impressed… I allocated around seven total hours for the up and back…but we did it in a bit under that…

The trail starts out on a fine bed of pine needles and the slope is shallow. In my mind though, I’m thinking “we are gonna pay for this grade later…” and sure enough, it ramps up after the first half mile…

As usual, the trail is very well blazed and maintained, with fallen trees sawed and moved off the trail and nice paths cleared when possible…

Soon enough, we had to start going up. And up. And up.

This was a very fun trail because it went from pine forest to these massive slabs of smooth granite at the midpoint, then on to alpine forest, and then a really jaggedy rock section - it was quite a diverse hike…

Scattered all throughout the hike are blueberry and blackberry bushes that will be ripening in the next few weeks. I’m sure the bears will love it…!

Taking a break and waiting for Kai and Marisa to catch up…

The footing on much of the trail was pretty slippery with regards to the roots. This is a pretty rugged trail that requires some careful foot placement or you risk a nasty fall or trip. I was very concerned for Kai, but he managed to do very good with his balance and foot placement (but he did need a lot of reminding on what not to step on).

The “slab” sections look a lot more slippery than they are. Going uphill was no problem…but coming downhill you had to watch your downslope foot placement because the added weight could (and did) cause some slips…

After three hours of climbing, we finally topped out and Kai led us over to the firetower…

The firetower is no longer in use (since 1967) but has been maintained very nicely. It is beautiful and on a normal day the views from the top of North Kearsarge would be incredible. Unfortunately, we were in cloud…and it was cold and wet, so the warm, dry firetower was a welcomed lunch spot to rest and refuel…

We all signed the summit register and Kai discovered some “gifts” in the tower…

Never has a Daddy been so proud…!

What a…uh…view… I half expected some of Stephen King’s “Mist” creatures to come flying out of the gloom…

After warming up and eating, we donned our raingear and sweaters for the slog back down…

No…I didn’t let him come down this alone…just a picture moment. I hovered over him like a proper Daddy Bear should…usually just a step in front of him so that I could catch him should he trip. It was actually quite challenging to keep one eye on him, one eye on my footing…and Marisa had the same challenges when she was towing him along…

Descending “The Slabs”…

Some of the blueberries are starting to ripen…

It took about 2+30 to descend the mountain…and when we hit the flats just short of the parking lot I actually had a few tears in my eyes I was so proud of Kai. These are memories that I’ll have forever and I hope he will too. Marisa and I are so damn lucky to have him…

We headed back to the B&B and made a beeline for the hot-tub to soak our chilled and aching bones…

The B&B has a fun game room for kids (and adults) with all kinds of table games…a really great family place…

That evening we walked up the road a few minutes to Tuckerman’s Restaurant and had a fantastic meal. I highly recommend the meatloaf, garlic mashed potatoes, veggies, and capped off with some Stella…

For our last day we had to be back down in Manchester to catch our flight at 6PM, so we wanted to do a short hike and explore the popular Diana’s Baths just outside of North Conway. A mega-tourist attraction, we tried to get there early. Kai at breakfast with his new moose and bear (Conway and Sawyer)…

The breakfast patio was a nice feature of the B&B with tons of birds coming to visit the feeders…

On our drive to Diana’s Baths we were able to spot North Kearsarge after the weather cleared up (of course it was sunny on our last day)…the firetower barely visible on the summit…

The trail to the waterfalls is only half a mile…a really nice stroll through the woods. We got there early enough to avoid the crowds, but they were starting to really swarm as we were leaving…

The water was freezing and Kai enjoyed splashing around. I have to admit - the air ambulance pilot in me was pretty horrified by how unconcerned most of the other parents were with the falls and drops and slippery rocks in the area. Both Marisa and I agreed that the place was really cool and we were glad it was open to the crowds, but man…I’ll bet injuries there are fairly common.

Even just watching Kai crawl along the lower rocks I was wincing waiting for him to slip and clock his head…but he didn’t fall at all…it was a stressful hour for us though…

It is undeniably beautiful though…!

Our trip down to Manchester was uneventful. We stopped at a little town along the way and ate a fantastic meal at the Hobbs Tavern and Brewery in West Ossipee…

Mission accomplished…! All family members intact and headed home…!

What a great time. We could seriously live in that area (well, maybe in January we’d have to rethink that)…and can’t wait to go back and visit. The trails are just awesome…and the people are so nice and trusting and just very refreshing.

BeachAV8R

6 Likes

That wooden bridge reminds me of a few movies… but for the life of me, I can’t remember #old age or # too much beer.

looks like a fantastic trip.

Oh wow, what a fantastic place to walk around! I’ll have a walk around the local coast here next week and show you the best in my direct vicinity, which is not much compared to these vista’s ;).

Glad to see you also let him have fun on the rocks on his own, despite the stress and risks of clobbering his head!

Great pics Beach! You were in my neck of the woods - I went to college at Plymouth State and have been to the Covered Bridge restaurant (or whatever it is called now) many times. North Conway was and still is a regular visit for us from Portsmouth.

The Kanc is beautiful this time of year for sure, but the driving does get hairy in the wintertime!

Wow! When you say “hike” you really mean it. What a trip. Beautiful! Actually, I take hikes, you and your family explore. :+1:

I half expected to see Teasle and Galt chasing Rambo through some of those areas…

Wheels

2 Likes

What I imagine @BeachAV8R is like with his new camera:

3 Likes

I super-zoomed on your house @TheAlmightySnark and I knew you were posting that.

1 Like

Want some coffee then? :wink:

1 Like

You don’t have any French vanilla creamer in your refrigerator.

PS - That is a nice mug though.

1 Like

It’s the best of mugs! My very favourite!

1 Like

I’m… I can’t even…
But I’m sure I’ve found my people. :smile:

2 Likes
2 Likes