Camp site at Mountain Lake Campground

A beautiful day again. Turned out to be a work day for us. I finished cleaning the mini-blinds. Started them a week or so ago and just had the two in the bedroom to do. Then cleaned the bedroom windows, taking out the screens and cleaning them really good. Had a hard time getting them back in. Then Mike washed all the windows on the outside and I washed the inside. After that I went to the pool for a while and relaxed. Steaks, potatoes fried with peppers and onions, and corn for dinner. Tomorrow we leave for Eagle Point on Schroon Lake in the Adirondacks to visit my sister and her husband, Dan.

Another beautiful, sunny day. I worked on the computer for a while. We’re catching up on e-mail, banking, blah, blah. Backed some stuff up. Decided to do the laundry and grocery shopping today. Glad that’s over with. Went to Whitefield to do the laundry. Right next door to the Laundromat is a Dunkin Donuts. Yum… Sandwiches for dinner. Got a lot of leftover pork roast.

Mon, Aug 27

Lancaster, NH: A beautiful, sunny day. Left our campground at Twin Mountain and headed north to Mountain Lake Campground. Although at first glance I didn’t like this place much, it really is a nice campground. We’re in the pines on top of a hill overlooking the lake (more like a large pond). There’s a dock, beach, swim dock, paddle boats, and kayaks available for our use. They have a nice heated pool. Of course to them heated is probably 70 degrees. We’re 5 miles from Whitefield and 4 miles from Lancaster. Both really cute towns. We have full cable and wi-fi. So we can get caught up on some stuff. After we got set up and I did some cursory cleaning, I put on shorts (wow! shorts!) and sat outside and read for a while. The lake is like glass it’s so still. Pretty view. Burgers and salads for dinner tonight.

The Basin

Sun, Aug 26

Twin Mountain, NH: Cloudy, foggy, and cool this morning. Not a promising day to go to the top of Mt. Washington. So we headed back to the Franconia Notch to see The Basin and The Old Man of the Mountain. Stopped and had a wonderful breakfast in Twin Mountain. We both had steak and eggs. Really good. The Basin is just a geological formation worn by water which formed this basin in the rock. Pretty hike though. The Old Man in the Mountain was a bunch of boulders jutting out from the top of one of the mountains in the Franconia Notch which looked like an old man in profile. After years of trying to stabilize, the boulders came down during the night in 2003. Then we drove over another notch west of Franconia. Saw two bucks. On the way back to our campsite we drove up the road past the campground. Turned into a dirt road pretty quickly. The dirt road was better than the paved road. Followed a pretty stream all the way. There are more hiking trails up here—one which followed the stream. Most of them go up the mountain. And no switchbacks. No thanks. Tomorrow we leave this beautiful campground and go to Mountain Lake Campground—only about 20 miles north of here. Not a really great commercial campground (most of them aren’t), but we’re there only 3 nights.

Sat, Aug 25

Twin Mountain, NH: Started out sunny. Mike made a fire and we sat around with our coffee and tea and it started sprinkling. Moved our chairs back under the awning. Stopped raining. Back in front of the fire. That went on for a while. We burned all the wood we had left so we didn’t have to take any with us. Won’t be having a fire for a while. Finally started clearing somewhat. We decided to hang around the campsite today. It’s so pretty here. Played Trivial Pursuit outside on the picnic table. Played twice—I won both (cough, cough). Finally. He beat me twice the other day, so now we’re even. Just sandwiches for dinner. Another little thunder storm rolled in. We’re nice and comfy. Feel sorry for the people in the tents.

The Palms in Dixville Notch

Loon and her chick--Northwoods Area of New Hampshire

Fri, Aug 24

Twin Mountain, NH: Rained most of the night last night but this morning was sunny and warm. Trying to decide if we want to drive up Mount Washington today or not. Mike still wants to take the cog. I’m not sure if I want to spend an hour and a half of terror on that thing. I told him he could take the cog up and I’d drive up and meet him there. Well, by the time we got going the clouds had obscured most of the mountain tops anyway. So we decided to head up into the north woods region of New Hampshire. Drove north to Errol, NH, and most of the drive was along a beautiful river which I couldn’t pronounce. We actually saw a bull moose. Right after seeing a sign for “deer crossing” this moose pops out onto the road. Guess he didn’t know he was in the “deer crossing” area. He was big. Also saw a loon and her chic in one of the many ponds along the way. Had a late lunch at the Northern Exposure in the little town of Errol. Good food and friendly people. Drove through Dixville Notch which was the most rugged and beautiful place. Right after going through the notch was a beautiful, old hotel complex called The Balsams. Out in the middle of nowhere. Back to our pretty campsite and laid back for a while. It turned out to be a very warm and humid day. Trees are starting to turn though. We didn’t get back until 5:30 or so. Solar panels must have gotten some sun because the battery is at a good level.

. Mt. Washington Hotel

Thu, Aug 23

Twin Mountain, NH: Up this morning and Mike had a fire. Pretty chilly. Decided we’d go to the Mount Washington Hotel today and have lunch. Arrived there and at the gate we were told we would have to go to the Bretton ski area and park there and take the shuttle back to the hotel because of the construction going on. So we did that and had a pretty good lunch. The hotel is very big and wonderful little nooks and crannies everywhere. After lunch we drove through the Franconia Notch and stopped at “The Flume” and hiked up to the gorge. This thing was discovered by a 93 year old woman who was fishing in the stream. 93!!! They didn’t believe her at first. This is a very rugged area—steep with lots of boulders. I can’t imagine a 93 year old woman climbing around there. Anyway, it was a very pretty gorge and the return trail to the visitor’s center was littered with glacial erratics—some huge—with trees’ roots twined all around them seeking some soil. Very pretty trail. Back to the campsite. Mike played on the computer for a while and I finished my book.