White Mountain National Forest
July 3-10, 2022
There are a plethora of songs about mountains that I could have included in today’s post but I chose this one because we recently saw FOALS in concert last month. They opened for Paramore at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee and they were a very fun band to see live. Also, this is just a really cool virtual reality music video that you can drag around to change the point of view on. I like it a lot.
We spent a good chunk of time at White Mountain National Forest, the first time we both spent a full week in any one location. Which isn’t even fully true because we camped in the forest for part of the time and stayed at an Airbnb for the other part. But that’s just semantics.
Some of my absolute favorite memories from the trip were during this week. It was nice to take some time off of work and unplug in the forest. Hiking is one of my favorite hobbies (although I do not claim to be good at it) so I was in a great mood. We didn’t really do typical 4th of July celebrations and I kind of liked it that way. I was (am) still pretty angry about Roe v. Wade being overturned so I wasn’t in the mood to celebrate last July anyway. Good news, though! A judge in WI ruled that the 1849 law that went into effect last year does not apply to medical abortions and Planned Parenthood resumed services this week. This is a big win for reproductive rights.
Anyway, back to last summer. It was great to be in New Hampshire, where James’s parents grew up. I don’t know if it’s just because of the association and family ties that he has there, but it just felt so homey. We were north of where they lived but they spent a lot of time in the area and shared some memories with us. We had to laugh about the “Live Free or Die” slogan and mentality there, but the state was so beautiful, especially in the summertime. It was just so GREEN and there was so much water and life. I left feeling like New Hampshire is highly underrated. Our lives were basically just hiking and exploring nature for the whole week. Can’t complain.
First we stayed at an Airbnb in a town called Berlin. It was a small town and not necessarily a tourist destination but it was close to White Mountain National Forest so it was perfect for us. There’s not much for vegetarian food out there so we did some grocery shopping and cooking at the Airbnb, worked when we needed to and hiked and explored the forest when we could.
Then we camped at Dolly Copp campground at White Mountain National Forest and spent the 4th of July hiking to Dome Rock, which was a nice 2.8 mile moderate hike with great views. We went chasing waterfalls and found several in the area—Crystal Cascades, Gordon Falls, Glen Ellis Falls, and Thompson Falls. There’s just something about waterfalls that fills you with wonder. I don’t care what TLC says, I’m going to keep chasing them! We also did a hike that involved trekking through a river… Which I complained about for the rest of the hike because I don’t like soggy socks. But looking back, it was honestly one of the most memorable and fun experiences we had!
We spent some time in a cute town, Gorham, and found an awesome brewery called Big Day Brewing, which had delicious beer. We also stumbled upon a cafe called White Mountain Cafe and Bookstore, where I obviously had to buy a book and a latte. These were great places to get some work done when we had to log on for a bit. Thankfully, we didn’t have to work very much that week.
One of my favorite things that we did—and the reason I look back so fondly on this week—was find a watering hole along the side of the road to go swimming. There were a bunch of people vacationing there, presumably from Boston because of the accents. We did a quick Google search to find a place to swim, saw some cars with Massachusetts plates on the side of the road, parked there, walked on a path through the woods, and set out our beach chairs on some rocks. James was in his happy place with his frisbee and the water. After our swimming day, we did a short hike around the campground and cooked dinner and s’mores at the campsite. It was just the best day.
The following day, we did a longer hike called Mount Willard Trail. It was a challenging yet rewarding hike and we saw someone with a Milwaukee Bucks hat that we got to talking to, also from Wisconsin. We picnicked by a beautiful lake and saw a scenic train go by and wished we had booked tickets for it. I guess we have a reason to go back! On our way back “home” we stopped at Moat Mountain Brewing Company for dinner and it was a great way to end a fun day.
Last but not least, we went to the famous Mount Washington, the highest mountain in Northeast America and “Home of the World’s Worst Weather.” We did not hike it (another reason to go back). Turns out you can also drive up the mountain via the auto road—America’s first man-made tourist attraction—or have a tour guide drive you up. We decided to give our car brakes a rest (err, break) and opt for the tour guide. It was fun to meet other tourists; we had people from Poland in our group! We learned that Mount Washington is famous for being a place where extreme weather conditions collide. The fastest wind recorded by humans took place at Mount Washington at 231 miles per hour. Kind of crazy! It was hot as heck at the bottom but we had to wear jackets at the top. We also learned about a man who climbed Mount Washington every day and asked for a job in the Observatory and eventually got one because he happened to be in the right place at the right time. And persistence, probably. He hiked up the mountain to work every day and stayed overnight when the conditions were too dangerous to hike down. Talk about doing what you love! The Observatory was definitely a highlight. James is a big weather fanatic and it was fun to see how excited he got about all of the information in the museum. Like a kid in a candy store.
