New Hampshire - White Mountains

Mount Washington Hotel

A few weeks ago Carrie suggested doing some hikes along the Appalachian Trail, which is a zillion miles long and runs through many eastern states. Given that life on the road is complicated slightly by the existence of a certain Lily, we decided it was better to find decent lodging as opposed to tenting this time around.

We decided to head to the White Mountains in New Hampshire. This is an extensive mountain range that includes Mt. Washington. We drove up Mt. Washington during a New England trip six years ago, so we didn't feel the need to do that this time. Besides, we were going there to hike a bit, not drive.

The fall colours in New England can be absolutely stunning, usually around the end of September or start of October. This year was no exception...

Unfortunately, we arrived a tad late. Upon inquiring on our arrival last week Monday, we learned that we were five days too late, and since then the weather had been dismal with lots of wind, so the leaves, while still pretty, were largely on the ground by this point. Oh well, our trip six years ago was around the same time of year, and the colours then had been amazing. So we've seen things at their best, just not on this particular trip.


We drove from Ottawa on Monday. We stayed home during Thanksgiving weekend for various reasons, and Carrie's maternity leave means we have the flexibility to take off during the week, which is quite convenient. The drive took 7.5 hours, thanks to a baby who likes to eat and poop regularly; I suppose we'll have to adjust our travel ideals from now on.

We hit the border an hour after leaving the house; I'd taken our passports along, as well as Lily's birth certificate (as we hadn't gotten her passport yet). I asked Carrie to prepare the documents for the border guard. And Carrie says, "Where's her birth certificate??" It's that long sheet of paper there, I point out. Says she, "No, they don't look like that!" And followed some frantic visions of being turned away from the land of the free at this early stage. I had a few seconds to explain that "Live Register of Births" is as valid a title as "Birth Certificate", and no, not every province's birth certificate needs to look the same (Carrie's is from BC). And all went well, with Lily having neither to show her face nor answer any questions.

Booking a decent place had been surprisingly difficult. It turns out that it was Columbus Day weekend south of the border, and New England gets overrun by Bostonians, New Yorkers and whoever else wants to get out of the city. Probably a good thing we didn't come for the weekend, as it may have been far too busy for my liking. Anyway, we got ourselves an old but nice place with a full kitchen and a queen bed that folds up into the wall. And no, we didn't stay at the hotel pictured at the start of this post.


The weather forecasts had been all over the place, and expectedly so, as weather can change very rapidly in the White Mountains, and the weather in any one spot may be a very local event. As a result, we could plan all the hikes we wanted but we never knew whether they'd work out until we got to where we wanted to be.

Our first hike was the Arethusa Falls trail on Tuesday. We had a baby carrier and a wrap with us, but Carrie ended up using just the wrap on every hike.


The lousy thing about the wrap is that the wearer has an extremely warm baby against her, which gets uncomfortable and sweaty after hiking awhile.

Lily in her bear cub suit, dead to the world (that posture can't be great for her neck). The suit garnered a lot of comments from passersby.


The falls drop about 200 feet, though it hardly looks like it. Note Lily on my arm. I carried her like this for a while to give Carrie some heat relief.


It took about an hour each way; on the way back Carrie decided on a detour along a creek. It was rather steep, to put it mildly. We were glad we hadn't taken this route on the way up.


Once back at the hotel, we made dinner and then headed to used the on-site pool (and the laundry room--the one downside to using cloth diapers when travelling). The indoor pool and outdoor jacuzzi were deserted, so we had the place to ourselves.

Earlier that day, we'd headed to the nearby town of Conway to visit a cigar store that I just happened to know about. And that night, amid the skunks scurrying about the lawn, I sat outside and read a book while enjoying the fruit of my shopping labour: a stick and a bottle. It was a necessary exercise, as I needed to know whether to buy more of this particular cigar.


Wednesday arrived with lousy rainy weather, so we spent much of the day driving through the forest and state parks. We saw the only wildlife we'd see all week: wild turkeys; given the time of year, fitting enough from a Canadian perspective, I suppose. We also visited Conway, which has a lot of outlet stores--but we suspect that the goods sold there are made specifically for outlet stores and priced at a "discount". At any rate, we bought very little that day. Oh, except for a couple of outfits for Lily. And some cigars of course. For, um, Lily.

(It's almost sad when you stay in the US for 5 days, may take home $800 per person duty-free, and then can't figure out what on earth to buy to advantage of this nice high limit.)

Thursday was okay weather-wise, so we did a couple of hikes. The first was up Mt. Willard trail, which, thanks to Wednesday's weather, started kind of wet...

...and muddy...


The thick layer of leaves on the ground often made for unstable walking over hidden obstacles.

Further up the trail we were treated to some snow!


The view at the end was excellent, if a little lacking in colour.


The second hike of the day was the Liebeskind's Loop via some other trails. This hike took well over two hours, and we finished not too long before dark.


Lily did very well and never acted up on the trail. Little trooper!


On Friday we left for home after a leisurely checkout. Not five minutes down the road, we decided I might regret not taking more cigars home, so we turned around and headed back to Conway, which was the other way. Talk about dedication, huh. I spent half an hour in the cigar store with Jonathan the proprietor, while Carrie fed Lily in the car. In all, I took home just over 50 cigars, which I'm not sure is a good thing, since we could taken 50 each over the border. But they're not the cheapest thing around, so that combined with the fact that my humidor is only so big made it easy enough to restrain myself.

The return was uneventful besides some surprising snowing conditions going through Vermont mountains. We bought gas at about $1 a litre in New York just before hitting the border; we won't see that price again for while.

Home sweet home.