Where are Cheryl and Dennis?: New Hampshire and the White Mountains

October 4, 2021 – We spent Monday and Tuesday completing the siding on the addition at Camp Mechuwana. It turned out great! Each evening we had dinner with Ellen and Buzz.

Wednesday morning we set out for our next stop, Campton Campground in Campton, NH. I was having trouble finding a campground for this coming weekend that was not fully reserved because of Columbus Day weekend. This campground had a lot of first come first served sites so it was no problem getting a site. It was near a couple of things I had found do see and do.

We found out about the Fryeburg Fair from a restaurant owner who said she was having trouble getting lobster because of the fair. When I checked it out I discovered they had all kinds of neat events including ox pulling, horse pulling, sheep shearing and harness racing to name a few. Fryeburg was 60 miles away from Campton campground but one way to get there was on the Kancamagus Highway, a beautiful 30 mile road through the White Mountain National Forest. We found out about this road from a waitress at another restaurant.

I wanted to see the ox pulling which started at 10:00 so we hit the road at around 7:30, picked up breakfast at Dunkin and were on our way. The drive on the Kanga was spectacular and the autumn color was brilliant. There was a large backup through one of the towns so even though we thought we left early enough we didn't arrive at the fair until shortly after 10. However we were able to catch a good portion of the ox pulling. Later we watched horse pulling and harness racing and enjoyed the fair food. The weather was awesome with clear blue skies and temps in the low 70's.

There were several interesting places that I would have liked to see in the area including Franconia Notch, the Flume Gorge, The Basin and Lost River Gorge as well as do some hikes along the Kancamagus. However with the weekend coming up being peak leaf peeping season as well as a long weekend we opted to avoid the crowds and seek other things to do.

Friday we explored the area close to the campground and took a nearby hike and visited the town of Waterville. On Saturday we drove a circle tour taking I-93 north to St. Johnsburg then followed the Connecticut River south on secondary roads down to Hanover then back across New Hampshire to our campground. It was a nice drive and we avoided the crowds. We were surprised in Hanover when we ended up driving through the campus of Dartmouth College!

Sunday was another hiking day. We did a short 1.8 mile hike to Rainbow Falls. The parking lot was full at the second hike we were going to do so we ended up finding an Appalachian Trail crossing and hiked a few miles on the AT.

On our final day in New Hampshire we decided to revisit the Kancamagus Highway highway to do a hike at Lincoln Woods. There was still a lot of traffic going thru the town leading into the park. When we got to the Lincoln Woods parking lot there were cars parked up and down the road. Too many people for us so on to part B of our plans for the day. We headed back toward town and Loon Mountain to take the gondola to the top of the mountain. We were able to get a ticket for the 1:30 time slot. It was an enjoyable ride to the top and the views were amazing. We spent about an hour taking in the sights from the top then road the gondola back down.

Where we are parked: Campton Campground, White Mountain NF, Campton NH - 58 sites, May-Oct, All ages, Tents, 50 ft max RV length, 666 ft elev, Accepts Big Rigs, tables, grill, water, toilets, showers (Note: this description comes from the Allstays campground website, we found the road in the campground very narrow with lots of trees close to the road. I would not consider this campground big rig friendly)

Campton N.F. Campground