White Mountains, NH

When we were mapping out this trip we realized that we'd managed to never spend time in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. We looked into the area and it looked lovely so we decided to make it a stop on our way to Canada.

We got to town in the mid-afternoon, grabbed some lunch at a local cafe and then headed for a trail we'd heard about from the hotel clerk. He said it was easy, quick and had good views. Hotel clerks are liars, y'all! This was not easy or quick, but the view was lovely!

Starting out

Still smiling at this point...

Did the hotel clerk work for the mosquitos? They
loved my visit.

The views of the valley weren't bad, though!

We were on a big rock on top of the mountain looking down. Amazing.

Excited to have reached the top! 

See how many tries I have to take before
I get a decent photo? 

He enjoys himself immensely. 

The hike was a little strenuous on the way up, but not terrible. We just weren't in ideal shape. We probably stayed at the top a little bit longer than we should have soaking in the views of the valley. The sun was going to be going down soon and the trail was very shaded so it was going to be tricky foot placement if we didn't hurry. Well, we hurried and it still got REALLY dark back on the trail. This has never happened before, but it actually felt longer going DOWNHILL than it did climbing! I starting thinking we may end up camping out there with all of our supplies. What supplies? Oh, that's right, we had NOTHING. I prayed more than I'd ever prayed on a hike. I just wanted to safely reach that rental car.

Eventually, we did. I broke out into a praise song from my days at IWU.

SO RELIEVED

Note: It looks bright in the photo above because we are off the trail and out of the woods. The trail was very dark and full of roots that made every step matter. It was a great hike, but not one I'd ever do again at dusk. I'd also wear bug spray. 

We stayed in Lincoln, New Hampshire which is not a large town. We went to the local pizza place and were pleasantly surprised at how good it was. Truth be told that was a hard hike and we were really hungry, but it was good nonetheless. We took a little stroll around town after dinner (we'd clearly not gotten enough activity with the hike) and enjoyed meeting some fellow travelers.

Happy Camper!

The next day we decided to do a little more exploring of the area and its state park before heading to Canada. At the base of the beautiful waterfall at this site is a granite pothole 20 feet in diameter. It is believed to have been eroded 15,000 years ago while the North American ice sheet was melting. The Basin has been smoothed by small stones and sand, whirled around by the Pemigewasset River.

Franconia Notch State Park's Basin

Obviously Jackson had to get in

It was gorgeous 

After we hiked around for a bit, we got on the road to Canada. We knew this would be our long haul day and just buckled up, put on a good podcast (Malcolm Gladwell's Revisionist History) and got miles under our belts. We hit one gnarly rainstorm that slowed us down, but otherwise had no major issues. The border crossing was a little slower than normal just due to volume, but the Canadian folks were friendly as always.

Trying a local joint for dinner

We made it to our new home for the next couple of days, Quebec City, and headed out to find some dinner. We went to St. Hubert which was a very popular restaurant. I had no idea why. It was just not good food and it was pretty pricey, but we made it. We knew that this was the French part of Canada, but erroneously assumed that everyone would speak English, too. NOPE. It was VERY French and we were lucky to get a waitress who knew a little English. We were amazed that we were only like an hour from the border and the language barrier was so intense.

Jackson powering through a questionable
rib with odd BBQ sauce

We had spent a lot of time driving so we hit the hot tub at the hotel and retired early. We have a big day of exploring old town on the schedule for today!