As noted a couple of days ago, we had a seven day, six night vacation in upstate NY and New England. We spent two days camping at Rogers Rock campground on Lake George, then stayed for two days with friends in St. Alban’s VT, and then camped two more days in Franconia Notch, New Hampshire.
It was a great trip. We took 368 digital pictures(!?). But I’ve only posted 38. YIKES!
While at Lake George we hung around at the lake
And went to Fort Ticonderoga. The fort was located strategically at the bottom of Lake Champlain, put there to prevent movement from Champlain to Lake George. Here’s a view from the fort looking southwest toward “Mount Defiance”.
And here’s the view of the fort from Mount Defiance. When the British occupied Mount Defiance with cannons the colonists were faced with an untenable position and withdrew. However the British didn’t occupy the fort, which enabled 25 year old General Henry Knox in 1776 to go from Boston to the fort and move all the abandoned cannon to Boston (an incredible feat at the time, moving 120,000 pounds of iron in winter from upstate NY!) forcing the British to abandon the city.
There are very nice gardens associated with the Fort, which is maintained by privately by the Pell Foundation. The gardens are where the original French occupiers had their food gardens.
After two days, we were off to St. Albans VT., with a stop at Ausable Chasm. The Ausable river runs along a small fault, which evidently led to the development of the Chasm, and is worth a visit. We walked the first part of the chasm and then the boys tubed, and we rafted the rest of the way.
This is called “The Elephant’s Trunk” –
And then on to St. Albans, Vermont, which is about 15 miles south of the Canadian border. We stayed with Giles and Carole Boissonneault, the parents of our great friend Amy, who died in February, 2002 of cancer. How we met Amy is one of those four beer stories… but I’ll limit it to a couple of sentences.
Amy was with a small group of Vermont woman, doing prolife work all over the northeast and frequently stayed with us. Around 1997 I convinced her to move to NY and work part-time for me, while continuing her work.
Late in 2000 Amy found she had cancer and moved back to Vermont. Her loss at the age of 35 was a terrible blow to many people, not just her immediate family.
Carole and Giles are great folks, as is Amy’s Aunt, Pauline. The following are all taken at Pauline’s bed and breakfast Back Inn Time.
Here’s the five of us on the porch. Pauline is in front of Brigid, and seems to have her “game face” on.
Here’s Pauline in a lighter mood, as she inspects the wine –
And here she is with Giles –
Martini night …
but just having a sniff!
Pauline’s B & B is lovely –
Tim had a great time at Carole and Giles house, as he was able to A) sit on a small Harley and B) play with a snake
Our second day in St. Albans another Vermont friend Laurie Hurley took us to a birthday party for one of her nephews, who turned one. Laurie is the oldest of ten children, so they have BIG family gatherings. This is Laurie with her nephew, Aedan.
Next day, we drove off to New Hampshire, along with Laurie (we’d brought along a second tent, so Brigid and Laurie got the four person Dome tent, and we got the three man Eureka) and stayed in the Lafayette campground in Franconia Notch.
Laurie, Joe and I went off on what became a six mile hike, while Brigid and Tim went swimming. Here are the trekkers.
Joe fully equipped for a pretty vigorous hike – with his iPod –
This is Lonesome Lake, a mile and a half into the walk, including a vertical rise of maybe 800 feet. At this point we were on a portion of the Appalachian Trail.
Joe is what you might call a high tech camper. Here he is in the evening with a portable battery that can be used to charge devices, along with his phone, iPod, and headlamp.
The last full day was Tuesday, and started with swimming and kayaking at Echo Lake – Brigid took this picture. You can see the Notch (in other words, a pass) between the two mountains in the distance, and the small figures barely visible to the left are Tim and I in a kayak.
Perfect synchronization from Laurie and Joe
And then came the unexpected highlight of the trip, from the point of view of “sightseeing.” We drove over to the Presidential Range of the White Mountains of NH, and then did the drive up Mt. Washington, at 6,288 feet, the highest mountain in New England. It was scenic and at times spectacular. I would recommend it to anyone. The views on the way up were excellent, and above the tree line – the “Alpine Zone” – the terrain was very rugged. They give you a CD to play in the car as you go up and down, explaining the history of the area.
People hike up the mountain – Brigid asked one of the rangers how many might do it in a day, and he said on a busy day as many as 500. It takes about 8 hours, and I am not sure of the actual distance – one guy said eight miles, another said five. 139 people are known to have died making the hike – falls, hypothermia (the weather is unpredictable and can change in a few minutes), and heart attacks. The last death in August 2006 was a fifty year old woman who had a coronary. There’s actually a large poster at the top listing all the deaths, the names of the people and the causes.
The temperature at the top is usually in the 40’s or 50’s in the summer and it is very windy. Hence the fleece jackets – it was about 90 degrees at the bottom of the mountain.
The drive up is eight miles, as the road is constantly switching back.
Rugged terrain!
Here we are at the top, sans the photographer (me)
Despite the terrain and weather, there are creatures at the top – Tim got this picture of a deer mouse a few yards from the summit
Wow. If you got this far you looked (or glanced at) 38 photos and I don’t know how much text! Almost as bad as watching someone’s vacation slides, but at least YOU can hit the fast forward!
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