Glen, NH - Tuning Up

Guess why we’re in northern NH? Yep, you guessed it. Gary has a t-shirt that says ‘The mountains are calling and I must come’ which encapsulates our goal here. We have other things to do also but hiking is the main one. We started out today heading west to get to Franconia Notch which is also rte 93. Here you an find the Old Man in the Mountains, the Flume, the Basin and some excellent hiking.

Many, many years ago, I had some friends who were backpackers and who asked me if I would like to come with them for a 3-day trip. Being young and dumb and not really knowing what I was saying, I said ‘sure.’ They strapped a huge pack on me, gave me a few poles and pointed me up the hill. Up, and up and up. Neverendingly up. What is the point of this I wondered. Do people do this for fun? This isn’t how we find fun in Iowa. But, I was committed and followed the plans.

Then we got to the top, the summit, the ridgeline. And, I understood. This is what it is all about. There was the world spread below my feet. I could see for miles. Pretty cool for a little Iowa girl. Give me some more. And, they did. We hiked up to Mt. Liberty, Mt Lincoln and Mt. Lafayette. At night, we had to hike down one of these to a hut. Hike down? All that means is that we’ve got to hike back up in the morning. Shucks. We cooked dinner and then retired to the hut. It was ‘U-shaped’ (I think) and had two layers. I slept on the upper layer between one of my friends and someone else - who knows who this person was - but I’m sure it was a guy and that we introduced ourselves to each other. Gotta follow all of Miss Manners rules, even in Appalachain Huts.

Morning brought breakfast, a hike back up to the ridge line and on down the trail. Great fun.

Today, we were going back to that area to hike - just a day hike,though.

Our first stop was at these cascades.

Our second stop was at the Mt Washington Hotel. A beautiful hotel in the shadow of Mt. Washington. I got this picture online since today it was too hazy to even see Mt. Washington in the background. (BTW - that’s our goal for Wednesday - no, not the hotel, the mountain.)

The UN established the International Monetary Fund here and they had preserved the room where the paperwork was ironed out and signed.

Very nice hotel. Look at this main entryway.

we walked out onto the veranda and could barely see the round top of Mt. Washington in the holes in the clouds. Playing hide and seek.

Next we stopped at the Flume but, since we had seen it twice in the long distance past, we decided to head right for the hike and walked a mile to the trailhead for the Liberty Springs trail.

Very nice trail, woodsy, mossy, a cool bridge over the stream tumbling over rocks worn smooth over the ages,

two well-placed logs - perfect for sitting on for lunch.

We started late since we had done some touring and also didn’t want to go too far since we didn’t want to wear ourselves out on this hike since we were hiking to the top of Mt Washington on Wednesday. Why wear yourself out on the tune-up hike and die on the real hike?

But it was fun. Maybe next time, we’ll finish it.

I’m sure you’ve all heard of the Old Man of the Mountain. Symbol of New Hampshire. On all the license plates. You could even see it on the New Hampshire quarter.

We saw it many years ago and were surprised at how small it really was. It was a small clump of rocks on a cliff and you had to be in the right spot with the sky in back of you to see it. But, it was pretty cool. .

Well, it is no longer. It has been a long time in falling and has been held in place with iron rods, steel cables and lots of hope for many years.

Here’s a more recent picture showing how it was still being worked on and a second picture showing how it looks now.

Brian Fowler, President and owner of North American Reserve and Mining, conducted an in-depth study of the Old Man in 1976 when the highway below it was being built and knew it better and anyone. He is now conducting an ‘autopsy’ to determine why it fell. But, his current theory is that it fell in 5 acts.

Here’s a great picture from Wikipedia showing the mountain as it is now with what it used to look like superimposed over it.

New Hampshire is still mulling over what to do about their license plates and the symbolism that the Old Man implied. But, he’s gone now and we can only see him in pictures.

We took the Kancamangus Hwy back to the RV. Beautiful views and we’ll be back here in a few days.

In the far background, hovering over all and hidden by clouds is Mt Washington.

The Sabbaday Waterfalls are also along it. Here are the lower falls.

and here are the upper falls rocketing over the stone before they turn a right angle, plunge down under the bridge and surge in to the pool at the bottom of the lower falls. Pretty cool: two falls, a right turn and a gorge cut through granite.

But there’s lots more and we’ll explore the rest in a few days. One of he great Scenic Hwys in the US. If you ever get to NH, drive this.

This campground has free wi-fi if you sit in the right spot in the picnic center. We’ve seen people toodle over there with their laptops and iPads to get the signals to sent out their e-mails or catch up on news or Skype. But - and this is a neat thing - I can get on the campground wi-fi right where I sit in the RV since the picnic area is right across the field from my window. Poor Gary, he sits on the other side of the RV facing the wrong way and can’t get on at all. Until he realized that if he sat at the same table where I sit, he can get on. I guess that means that he’ll be crowding me on my ‘desk’ now.

Our neighbors have 4 brown town hanging on their line. (This campground is between the Saco and Ellis Rivers and everyone in near or on the water tubing, sitting, swimming, or standing in a circle chatting) I like that - brown towels don’t show the dirt. Cool. On the other hand, we have pac-towels, same color but these don’t need to hang, they dry so fast.

 

“How fabulous down was for those first minutes! Down, down, down I'd go until down too became impossible and punishing and so relentless that I'd pray for the trail to go back up. Going down, I realized was like taking hold of the loose strand of yarn on a sweater you'd just spent hours knitting and pulling it until the entire sweater unraveled into a pile of string. Hiking the PCT was the maddening effort of knitting that sweater and unraveling it over and over again. As if everything gained was inevitably lost.”

                                        

                                                         Cheryl Strayed, Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail