On the Road: Snow Business, White Mountains NH

After spending a hectic couple of days at the Boskone Convention in Boston, Gynn and I drove north. We stayed a night with family in Merrimack NH, and then it was back on the road. Our destination: Some winter hiking in the White Mountains.

 We'd both hiked the Flume Chasm when we were kids, always in the Summer. We were eager to see what it would be like frozen over. The Flume, part of Franconia Notch State Park, is officially closed, but when we arrived there were several cars parked there and a group was just putting their snowshoes away. We didn't have snowshoes yet, but the snow was not really deep. We followed the footprints to past the boarded-up visitors' center and hit the trail.

We made our way to the covered bridge that spans the Pemigewasset River. From there, we headed up the boardwalks, to the Flume Gorge itself.

 At the gorge, we saw a group of ice-climbers taking on a shear wall of ice on one side of the gorge.

The trail was closed off at this point, so we doubled back and found another path that led up the other side of the gorge.

Making our way to the top we came to a cave-like formation with a thick layer of ice as its floor.

The river flows through these rocks during the warmer months.

We were pretty exhausted after our hike, so we headed for our lodging for the night, Applebrook Bed & Breakfast in Jefferson NH.

 Innkeepers Joy and Tom McCorkhill were warm and welcoming, and the inn was beautiful inside and out.

There were homemade chocolate cookies (prize-winners at the Lancaster Fair), hot tea, and a fire in the wood stove.

The inn was filled with books, and there were boardgames in the common room. The movie selection in the TV room had a nice geeky quality to it.

Our room was on the second floor in the tower, and we had a view of Mount Washington.

The picture below was taken from a little way down the road from Applebrook, but it gives a good sense of the scenery that we woke up to.

For our second day in the White Mountains, we decided to try some snowshoeing. We drove to Intervale and rented snowshoes and bought a day trail pass for the trails maintained by the Mt. Washington Valley Ski Touring & Snowshow Foundation.

The trails are reserved for cross-country skiing and snowshoeing. They pass through pastures and woods and along the banks of the Saco River.

Here is Gynn, modelling her snowshoes:

We hiked about 15 kilometers total, stopping for lunch about half way when the trail emerged onto the main road in North Conway. On our way back to the outfitter's, we passed some interesting old farm machinery rusting in the woods:

We were pretty sore and exhausted when we finally made it back to the outfitter's and turned in our snowshoes. We did a quick drive through North Conway, checking out the shops and the tourist crowds, and paying a visit to Charlie's Comics, Cards, and Games in North Conway. Good store with a very wide range of products from roleplaying and boardgames to video games to new and old comics to coins and trading cards and supplies.

Spent an evening relaxing and doing some reading and writing at Applebrook, before setting out the next morning to brave the dangers of the roads on our way back to Merrimack and then on to the Cape.

The trip was lots of fun, and we're looking forward to a chance to get back to the White Mountains sometime soon!

Until then, see you the road! (And be sure to brake for moose!)