Burlington, Vermont
After leaving the Adirondacks of New York state we continued east and just on the other side of Lake Champlain is the biggest city in Vermont by population. So what town are all these people gravitating to? Burlington, Vermont of course, population 42,000! More and more we are finding ourselves gravitating toward civilized areas. We enjoy having things like internet, public transportation and restaurants with vegetarian food and craft beer. Burlington delivered on all of this, too bad it was a little too hot there for living in a van, high 80s and high humidity. We stayed in a town beach park which has camping as well. The beach is on Lake Champlain and there is a bike/pedestrian path that runs right through the park to downtown, and also a city bus that picks up not far from camp at Burlington High School. Campground location was great but the bathrooms and showers certainly left something to be desired. We walked the mile and a half into town, did some shopping, had some food and beer and took the bus back to camp. If I had to live in New England, I think I could live in Burlington.
White Mountains of New Hampshire
On to New Hampshire. Growing up in Connecticut my parents had a vacation home in the White Mountains of New Hampshire which I spent many a weekend at before they sold it. Since we were passing through the area I was eager to see if I could find the house. I did find it and my first reaction was that I couldn’t believe it was the same color. I always thought the colors were ugly – gold with burgundy trim – and it looked the same 40 years later! However, the whole area is now very wooded with overgrown trees everywhere. I remember it being more wide open. Just as we are driving our big silver van down this dead end dirt road in the middle of nowhere, New Hampshire, a lady comes out on the front porch of the house and decides she is going to set a spell. Feeling awkward, I turned the big van around as fast as I could and I did not get a picture of the house.
In New Hampshire we stayed in Franconia Notch State Park. We managed to get one short hike in which went to one of the huts that is managed by the Appalachian Mountain Club. The Appalachian Trail passes through the area and the club manages huts where through hikers can stay overnight, have dinner and breakfast and be on their way. I saw these same types of huts in France when I was hiking in the Alps. There is certainly a lot of hiking in this area of New Hampshire, but as always we are limited to a few days and are hampered by the weather among other things.
Mount Washington
Since we are in New Hampshire one thing we wanted to do is ride the cog railway to the top of Mount Washington, the highest mountain east of the Mississippi at 6,288 ft. Amazing how low these elevation numbers are compared to the west. What is not low is the cost of the cog railway at $70 per person. But when will we ever be in NH again? At this rate I would bet on never. I have a childhood memory of being on top of Mount Washington and all I remember is it being white, cold and windy. Tim and I tried to pick the best day where there may be some clearing, so maybe we could see something but it ended up being the same as my memory, white, cold and windy. They say average wind speed on Mount Washington is about 50 MPH and that is what it was the day we went. The highest wind speed recorded anywhere in the world observed by a person was on Mount Washington in 1934 at 231 MPH! It is certainly a strange place to experience.
Next up is the only National Park in New England, Acadia National Park in Maine.
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