White Mountains (NH) 6 day ...

The air here is as good as one might expect from mountains and woods, and the park is also blessed with myriads of mountain lakes and streams. We spent a whole day at one such lake, doing absolutely nothing - just sitting, looking at the blue water and the waves (a little windy), surrounded by strong, green woods and moutain peaks. All this you can have without actually getting out of your car - the parking lot is feet from the water's edge. In fact, as the van's fresh water supply is only 7 Gallons, I wound up refilling it by simply carrying my AquaTainer to the lake and dipping it. As for dumping grey water... well, for that there were some gravel fields.... I figured, a little biodegradable soapy water (we use CampSuds) won't hurt.



In the North Conway/Conway area there is a plethora of kayaking opportunities, and a very friendly driver took us and two cayaks to a nearby river drop-off, and picked us up 5 hours later. The river is an easy paddle this time of year, and it was a lot of fun to navigate and leisurely sail down with the flow. There were even a few sandy beaches along the way, we stopped at one to take a photo and swim to cool down (the sun is strong and I think it hit almost 80F that day)


There is certainly plenty of hiking one can do around here, and we, being wussies from New Jersey, picked the one titled "Easy 1 mile hike". Of course, the locals have their own concept of easy, and it was an "easy" 1 mile each way, up at 45° continuously, propelling yourself up steps which were just over a foot tall. The view, however, was quite large and open. Took at least an hour to get up and then another hour down.





The spot where we were left undisturbed the entire week is actually labelled "No RV's or Buses this lot". Good thing that we're neither - I guess there are advantages to having an inconspicuous van after all.






Oh and they have covered bridges! Actually quite a lot. I don't know what the fascination is with covered bridges, but we drove on them, walked on them and stared at them. And then we left.

If there is anything to complain about in this park, it's the distances.... you wind up driving almost an hour if you want to go anywhere - like town, which is either Conway/North Conway (on the East) or Lincoln (on the West side). But then, you come out to a place like this to get away from crowds, from population density, and consequently, from having a convenience store on the nearest street corner.





Oh and if you do get desperate enough for want of a shower (and we did choose a good time of year for that - it was basically about 70F there during the day), you can always head over to Diana's Baths (a series of waterfalls and pools in enourmous rocks).

Food

Having in our equipment a two-burner propane stove and a full set of pots and pans, we could technically prepare just about any meal. That is true, of course, only inasmuch as one is willing to perform the tasks required to achieve unrestricted culinary success while standing bent over the sink, moving items on the available tabletop surfaces constantly in order to make room for the next thing you are doing, rinsing/washing things using a tiny (but predictable) projectile of cold water, and negotiating carefully with your partner with regard to the physical position either of you are to occupy throughout this process, as there isn't enough room for two at most stations. All these things can be determined to be unsatisfactory, or, at one's choosing, entirely amusing - and choosing the latter is highly advisable if you plan to survive a stay inside a vehicle for more than a few minutes. Speaking of staying in one vehicle - having warm weather outside really helps matters, when it's too cold to sit outside, morale is at risk.

So about food - I learned to make pancakes! I've never actually made pancakes before, and even though these were from a pre-made pack (and required only oil and water), they were fun anyway. And hey, the mix is organic and even has Hemp! We also made rice and beans, some packed soups, and a series of PB&J sandwiches, for which, of course, nothing but Organic Maranatha Peanut butter and a fruit-juice-sweetened jelly will do


I have to admit that a lot of our eating was not van-based.... We explored the local eating establishments, and two were shown to be of particular interest to the Organic/local food connoisseurs:

Polly's pancake house‎ (about 20 miles North of Lincoln) serves stuff made of largely organic and local grain, and has a lot of whole grain choices. It doesn't look like a new age type of restaurant at all, but instead resonates with the "Hearty/Wholesome/Traditional" ideals. Worth a visit. We also bought some of their pancake mix and made it at home (requires eggs and stuff), and it was quite good.

Flatbread (North Conway). This place has the works - all types of organic choices, brick oven, you get to see the pizza made, the meat is free-roaming, etc. Good pizza, if I cared for pizza at all. (Which I do when I'm sufficiently hungry)

Sunsets and Sunrises

This is something the East Coast has that the Midwest... well, they don't have clouds or pollution, so they just get the "OK no sun.... OK sun.... the end" of a sunrise. We get beautiful colors here, for whatever reason.