This morning was sunny very early and then the clouds rolled in. Then it started raining a little. Huh? The weather forecast had predicted sun? We were thinking we'd go back to Mt. Washington to hike, not a good day for that if it's raining.
With the rest of the days plans up in the air, we headed out to the North Conway Farmer's Market so see if they had anything we needed. We found a number of goodies and by the time we were done the rain was letting up. It was still cloudy though so we wandered the stores in downtown North Conway, since we'd been wanting to check them out!
Last year I had 5 Nepali children in my classroom - 2 who started the year with me and three more who joined as the year went on. It became a bit of a joke between me and the registar in our school that I wouldn't accept children who weren't from Nepal! We went into a mountaineering store and there was a trekking map of Nepal! Then we went into a fair trade clothing store and there were racks of skirts, scarfs, and bags all made in Nepal! I bought I skirt that was made in Nepal!
After we finished browsing we returned to the campground and had brunch with our farmers market finds - fresh eggs, an amazing sticky bun, and blueberry bread from the farm stand. Dad also fried up some old potatoes.
By now the rain had stopped and the clouds were kind of breaking up. We decided it was too late to head out to Mt. Washington so we headed back out the Kancamagus Highway to Franconia Notch State Park.
Franconia Notch is unique because the interstate runs right through it. It's a little like Glenwood Canyon in Colorado. The mountains in Franconia Notch are a lot more rugged - more jagged peaks and exposed rocks - than the mountains in the other notches.
We decided to hike up to Lonesome Lake. It was about a mile up there and there was an Appalachian Mountain Club (AMC) hut at the lake. There are several AMC huts in the Whites - they are places you can hike into and you can pay to stay and get dinner and breakfast. Like a backcountry hotel!
The trail up was very nice! Lots of rocks, but no rock scrambling or hand over hand climbing! The woods were mostly pine forest with lots if moss! Lonesome Lake is ironically named - being as it's a short, easy-ish hike there was no shortage of people to share the experience with!
At the lake there was a trail that went to the hut, and then it turns out it went all the way around! We walked to the hut and there were lots of people enjoying the sunshine by the lake! We walked up to check out the actual buildings - all the rooms are shared bunk rooms! The room I stuck my head in had room for 7! One was a triple decker bunk bed. I can't imagine paying over a $100 a night to sleep with 6 strangers (I mean, new friends...) otherwise I think it would be fun to do a hut-to-hut hike in the Whites! I need find 6 other people who I could stand to share a bedroom with and who like hiking...
After the hike we drove back to North Conway via the Kancamagus. This time we learned that the best views are heading east! You are going downhill when you are driving east so you get to see more!
It was almost 6 by the time we got back to the campground so we got Mom and went into North Conway for dinner at Horsefeathers - it was yummy! And then, of course, ice cream. We went to the Trails End location in Intervale and the flavors we got tonight weren't as good as what dad and I had gotten the other day!
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