This has been a week of contrasts. From eating RED lobster in Maine to hiking in the WHITE Mountains of New Hampshire, all under a sunny warm BLUE sky.
Our last two days in Maine were spent shopping and touring. On Tuesday we visited the world famous LL Bean Outdoors store in Freeport, Maine. If you are into hunting or fishing or boating or camping or hiking then this is the store for you. Crammed full of everything you could ever possible need and more. Wendy found some nice comfortable shoes there and I enjoyed crowd watching.
Our last day we visited Boothbay harbour, one of the famous tourist traps along the coast. A pretty setting and a great base for cruises, but spoilt by tourism. We also visited some old towns that were not spoilt by tourism. some dating back over 300 years.
Afterwards we boarded a cruise ourselves as we were going to see Puffins. There is a small colony 5 miles off the coast and we motored over to them and watched them fishing and careening themselves. We were not close enough to take any good pictures, but they were lovely through the binoculars. Afterwards we had a lobster dinner at the wharf with lobsters straight out of the boats and into the pots of boiling water.
Next day we waved goodbye to Maine and crossed the border into New Hampshire and headed inland to the White Mountains. They are part of the Appalachian Range that stretches from Quebec in the North to Georgia in the South. We stayed in Ossipee in the Lakes district of New Hampshire and 30 miles from the White Mountains.
Our first day was spent on Lake Winnipesaukee, a lake that was the setting for many of the scenes from the movie ‘On Golden Pond’. It is a beautiful lake with over 240 islands and holiday homes dotted all around the 175 miles of lake edge. we took a cruise on the lake to admire the lovely homes from the water.
Every home has its own jetty and most are more mansion than shack. The weather has been glorious all week. Temps in the low nineties (low thirties Celsius) and blue skies all day.
Yesterday we drove to Mt Washington the highest peak of the White Mountains and drove up to the summit. On a clear day you can see the the Atlantic Ocean over 120 miles away.
It was a cool 52F at the top which was not too bad considering it was 92F at the bottom. It is hard to comprehend that in the last ice age that this peak and all the land in Canada and down to Kentucky was covered in ice sheets. The summit of Mt Washington alone was buried under 2000ft of ice making a total ice depth of 8000 ft. The lakes in Canada and Northern USA including the Great Lakes were all created as the ice melted and water formed in the depressions created by the immense weight of the ice sheets. And there are lakes everywhere in New England.
There is a steam powered rack and pinion railway that climbs up the mountain as an alternative to driving up.
Today we went for a long hike in the Franconia Notch area of the mountains. Notches are what New Englanders call Mountain Passes. We explored a valley called the Flume Gorge and walked up a boardwalk in a narrow gorge. There were lovely covered bridges over the river and the light and the sounds were magical.
The walk was about 2 miles but it passed quickly as one lovely vista after another hove into sight.
It was a Sunday and the crowds were everywhere. Luckily we had got there early and avoided the main rush.
Scattered all around the forest and indeed on the top of Mt Washington are huge boulders called Glacial Erratics that were carried there from along way away by the glaciers that covered the land 50,000 years ago. Then as the ice melted they were dumped where ever they lay.
Lying contently on the ground and slowly, very slowly disintegrating as the acid leaching out from the lichen ravages them.
Tomorrow we head south to Cape Cod and then to Rhode Island where no doubt the temperatures will be hot, and the crowds will be swarming as it is close to Boston.
