October 12th-15th, 2009
I always had this urge to do a fall foliage tour before...couple that with the fact that I have this day by day calendar of the "1000 places to see before you die" where White Mountains National Park came up on a day in September, I therefore began planning an excursion to the New England area.
I decided to bring along my long-time friend Ashley and her furry companion Tucker. Though it was my hope to leave by 4am on Monday morning, I assumed we'd be behind schedule from the beginning.
I reserved a "rustic" cabin atop Black Mountain in New Hampshire for 3 nights so we could be one with nature and enjoy the scenery every chance we got. The description on the website said it would be a 1.3 mile hike up 'moderate grade' in order to reach the cabin. When we finally reached the trailhead at 7pm on Monday evening, it was pitch black dark, and I had some fears about the potential wildlife that may be joining us on our hike. Nonetheless, I grabbed my flashlight, we put on our terribly heavy packs, and started up the trail. After an hour of tiring climbing up what I would call 'steep' grade, we still had not reached the cabin. Being an avid hiker in the wilderness of Alaska, I knew we had to be close and I wasn't really too worried. It wasn't until we were going on 2 hours when I started to panic. 1.3 miles could not take that long, could it? After calling some people with no avail, I told Ashley that if we didn't reach the cabin in the next couple minutes, we'd have to do some serious considering of what to do next. Thankfully, not a few minutes later, we reached the cabin and were welcomed with a bunch of firewood to warm our cold and sweaty bodies.
When we awoke the next morning, we were greeted with 3 inches of snow on the ground as it continued to come down. I don't mind cold weather and I had slept relatively well, it was just going back down the hill that worried me in the slippery conditions. We headed back into town in the afternoon to see what there was to do. We got some advice from the ranger station, showered, and drove around the town a bit. We knew it would be a good idea to head back up the mountain earlier than the previous night and believe it or not, it took us only an hour the second time.
Though the second night spent in the cabin was a bit more rough than the first. I could not keep the fire going and was incredibly cold throughout the night. I decided that we'd spend the next night in Vermont instead and we'd plan our day in the morning of all we wanted still to do in NH. As the next day arrived, we packed our things and said goodbye to Black Mountain Cabin. We were let down as the Mt. Washington Auto Road was closed because of ice and decided to drive to Maine just to say we were there. We then went on a little hike to a waterfall and shopped in the cute downtown district. From there, we headed off to Vermont to stay somewhere close to our next destination: The Great Vermont Corn Maze.
The corn maze was incredibly awesome. I'd say it will probably be the best corn maze I'll ever take part in in my life. AWESOME.
After we left the corn maze, we made our last stop before heading home at the Ben and Jerry's ice cream factory. Filled with our free samples and a bit of sadness for saying bye to New England, we headed home.
One day I will be back again. Hopefully earlier in the season!
