Upstate NY

By Jen.

Dates: 10/13/2020 - 10/15/2020

When we lived in Charlotte, I would have Jonathan drive me to the airport, where I would catch the free shuttle to the AA Flight Training Center, which was just across the street from work. It was often quicker than trying to drive myself through Charlotte traffic. As I was a regular customer, I got to know two of the shuttle drivers pretty well. The morning guy retired to Charlotte from upstate New York, and he loved it here. However, he did mention how beautiful it was up north, including mentioning the area around Whiteface mountain as being gorgeous. So, I put it on my “Places to Visit” map, and we made our way there after Vermont.

On the day we started off into the heart of upstate NY, it was rainy. But it felt a bit mystical with the fall colors and low-lying clouds.

Upon arriving in the Whiteface Mountain area, we started planning what we would do. Figured we should try and drive to the top, and then right before we got to the road, we discovered it was an expensive toll road. With the weather, we decided we should wait until clears.

So we continued driving and found a place to camp.

 

Jones Pond.

Check out the beautiful trunks! Maroon vs mint green!

 

Found out that there was a Lake Placid to which we could walk. With fond memories of watching the horror movie with my family, I knew we had to stop. 

No monster crocodile in sight! Also felt too cold for them.

That might be Whiteface Mountain there in the background.

 

Looking for other things to do, we thought maybe a bog would be interesting, so we made our way to Bloomingdale Bog. 

We found evidence of beavers and the old railway.

 

 

Next up was The Flume. The colors! I love fall colors!

 

 

 

 

 

There was a decent amount of distance between this POI and the next, so we started our way south. Upon trying to find our next campsite, I found a slew of campsites in a place called “Moose River Plains.” I was intrigued, so took a slight detour to go through there. I am glad we did. We checked out the Lost Ponds trail, and Helldiver Pond.

Somebody had just celebrated the season.

More evidence of beavers at Lost Ponds.

Check out how close this tree is to falling into the water!

A grouse!

Our next campsite at Brown Tract Pond.

[We are way behind in posts, so... Happy Easter!]

Vermont Ventures

By Jen.

 

We continued our way westward, passing into Vermont. We decided to check out Groton State Forest.

 

We made a brief stop at Ricker Pond.

Since the road was closed before 9 am, we had to walk a mile up the road to see the view from Owl’s Head.

We made our way to Devil’s Hill, named for its steepness, to look out on the bog.

Our GPS kept trying to send us down these county roads that could hardly even be called a jeep track.

 

Next on our list was Lincoln Peak. After some research, we decided to take the Long Trail from Lincoln Gap Road. We had chosen our camping spot the night before so we would be close to the trailhead, but when we tried to go up the road from the east side, the road was closed. We did some research and discovered that it was open on the other side, so we drove around and then back up. So much for well-laid plans.

 

The trail started off pretty good.

Then it got pretty steep, requiring some light bouldering.

The views from the top of Mt. Abraham were pretty great, but it was hard to enjoy them. By this point, we had discovered that we had not dressed warmly enough and were freezing in the chill breeze.

Our plan had been to continue on to Lincoln Peak, but decided we were too cold to do so. We hurried back the way we came, warming as we reached lower altitudes.  Then we were off to New York.

New Hampshire

Working our way westward from the coast had us passing through rural New Hampshire. Despite being settled very early in nation’s history, significant parts of NH are public land (likely due to its incompatibility with most kinds of agriculture). The more the better for us wanderers, though. Unfortunately many great areas are owned by private groups.

Despite this, we wanted to drive up Mount Washington. There is a significant toll, but we decided it was worth it. However the first day was very cloudy, so we delayed one day. Thankfully the parking area had great WIFI.

The next day was looking much more promising, so we queued up early to make the drive. 

The signs were also promising. 

However, it was not to be. There had been snow, so they would not let us go beyond the snow line. In addition, they had some arbitrary rule against “heavy” vehicles. Too scared about liability on the steep downhill. So, rejected, we turned again westwards towards Franconia Notch SP.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

With plenty of miles hiked, we called it a day.  This is a popular ski destination, but for now it was fairly quiet, COVID notwithstanding; you can see ski runs on many of the slopes. Thankfully, it wasn’t a long drive to a secluded pond camping area.

 

 

The next day was another modest hike, in attempt to remedy our desk-trained bodies. 

 

 

 

 

Next up, Vermont.