Moose River VT to White Mtns VT

It was 15C at 8am when we set out on a nice drive to Lancaster VT via #2, then south on #16. We saw a moose and her calf, but we were too slow for a picture.

After stopping at a Gorham McD for a basic breakfast, we happened to drive by a couple of places that rent ATV’s. After casual comments like “we should do that sometime”, we thought "if not today, then when?", so turned around and rented one for a 2 hour ride!

We rented what’s called a UTV, that’s one with 2 side-by-side seats and a steering wheel. We got fitted with helmets and away we went, right down the highway (legal there) on our way to the trailhead a couple of miles away.

It was fun at first, the buggy had lots of power although quite noisy. The trail got quite rough in spots, with lots of rocks. It was nice getting into White Mountain back country though. I think the single-rider ATV’s would be better for trail use, easier to manage the bumps on one of those. It was an interesting experience but we won’t be in a hurry to repeat.

Our jaunt was well-timed, as it started to rain about 10 minutes after we handed the UTV back in.

Then we headed on down #16 to the North Conway shopping area, with LOTS of traffic. Cath wanted to visit an April Cornell store in the area, but we didn’t know exactly where it was, and the GPS didn’t either. Cath did spot it though, and in spite of traffic was able to hop out while I carried on and came back. The little 2-way radios that we used in pre-cell days came in handy to reconnect when I got back and parked nearby, as we had no phone service in the US this trip. This was also a good example of where a trailer would have made the stop pretty much impossible.

Cath found some good sales, and used US cash given to her on her last birthday.

We decided to camp at a White Mtn National Park Campground for the night, a first for us. We stopped at an info place for info and a map, and ended up at Blackberry Crossing site 6, $22. It was a nice large site, though the cg services were pretty basic (vault toilet, nearby water taps). By 2:30 we were all set up and ready to go shopping again. It’s an outlet area, and has a new Camping World store nearby too.

So we set off to the Camping World store, and an L.L. Bean outlet. It was raining when we came out of the Beans outlet, and that continued through the evening. Beans (not L.L.) and bacon for supper. 

Today's route: