Category Archives: scenic drives

A New Hampshire Adventure, What’s Joe Got to Do With it?

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What’s Joe Got to Do With It?

My good friend Joe is 13 years younger than I am. He refuses to believe that I’m not as spry as I once was and cuts me no slack. I can’t wait until he’s my age and see how much his joints hurt! That being said, Joe is headed back to Sunny Florida. He was up in the Northeast for 2.5 months  on a job search. During that time he got a reminder of what the weather is like 8 months out of the year…cold, gray, snowy, rainy. But before he left he sent me another challenge. http://www.onlyinyourstate.com/new-hampshire/waterfall-roadtrip-nh/

The Ultimate New Hampshire Waterfall Roadtrip

Everyone knows that you need water to have waterfalls and what better time of the year in the Northeast than after the spring rains and snow melt? Saturday was a beautiful day with temps predicted to hit the 80’s. I looked at Joe’s Ultimate New Hampshire Waterfall challenge and decided I’d tackle at least part of it. Since its a 5 plus hour drive to even get to the White Mountains I knew I wouldn’t be able to get in more than 2 or 3 stops. I didn’t follow the stops as outlined in the article as I’ve been to some. I wanted the easiest stops since time was limited.

Lincoln, NH

I arrived in Lincoln, NH at just about noon. Although I wasn’t really hungry I knew my first stop would be Sabbaday Falls and I didn’t want to chance having my blood sugar drop after hiking up to the falls and back. (As a diabetic you have to be aware if these things)  For a cheap, quick stop I grabbed a cheeseburger at MacDonald’s. I know yuck.

Time to head up the Kancmagus Highway.

Finding Sabbaday Falls

Even though it has been 6 years since my New Hampshire vacation, the Kancamagus still felt  like an old friend. I recognized so many places along the way to the  Falls. As I drove the Kancamagus rose, eventually reaching an elevation of just under 3,000 feet at its highest point at Kancamagus Pass on the flank of Mt. Kancamagus near Lincoln, NH.

Sabbaday Falls is on the downside after you pass this high point. Coming from Lincoln you’ll see a sign for the Falls and Picnic Area on the right.

http://dustyroadsphotos.zenfolio.com/p247808837

It’s a Nice Walk

The parking area was packed with cars and as I prepared to hike up to the falls I met lots of dogs  and their people, families and serious hikers. One photographer with his tripod over his shoulder charged past me in a big hurry. I’d soon see why.

 

 

 

Let’s go Maple Sugaring!

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Let’s go  Maple Sugaring!

After breakfast at Raff’s Cafe in Haverhill, we headed out to see how many  Maple Sugar houses we could visit in one day. Joe had downloaded a map with all of the places taking part in the Maple Sugar Festival. We decided to start with the southern-most farms first and work our way north if we had time. The closes farm looked to be the Robb Family Farm in Brattleboro, VT. We plugged the address of 827 Ames Hill Rd. Brattleboro Vt. into my On Star and were given an drive time of 2 hours , 6 minutes.

Getting there.

As we pulled out of the parking lot we noticed the overcast sky. Driving to Haverhill I’d passed through bands of rain, like squalls. It would be raining then dry then rain again. Joe checked the weather app but it did not give any indication of storms, just gray, cold and overcast so off we went!

Turns out the route wasn’t very direct. The old Maine phrase “Can’t get there from here” kept running through my mind as we backtracked south on RT 495 until we reached RT 2. Soon we were traveling along the scenic Mohawk Trail. A nice trip to make when spring finally gets here.

We picked up RT 91 north and pulled off at the first exit in Vermont. It had started to snow or maybe rain. It was hard to tell. I guess the weather term is “wintry mix”. The views from the visitor center were scenic but we didn’t linger for pictures because of the weather.

Something to do on another trip.

Vermont Arrival

It didn’t take long to reach Brattleboro. On Star led us through the village and onto a little dirt road. The road was snow covered by now and starting to get muddy in places. Fun! First time going “mudding” in my Equiniox!

We could see the plastic tubing running along the trees by the side of the road so we knew we were headed in the right direction. Plastic tubing  replaced the traditional buckets for commercial production in the late 1950’s.

Topping a small rise in the road we saw a large farm house on the right. The sugar shack was on the left with clouds of steam billowing from the opening in the roof. This was a traditional Sugar Maple Scene right out of Currier and Ives!

There were plenty of cars parked along the road. It made me wonder what kind of traffic there would have been on a nice day? Time to get the car parked and go inside. Let’s see what this Maple Sugar Festival is all about.

Moose up the Road Apiece!

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Rangeley, a town in Franklin county Maine has a population of around 1200 until the tourists come to town. Rangeley is the center of the Rangeley Lakes Region, a major resort area.

It looks like a June vacation will be an excellent time as far as the weather is concerned. Watch me jinx us by making a statement like that! But really. When I check the average temps the average high in June is 69 degrees and the average low is 47 degrees. Nice sweater weather. Of course they did have a record high of 90 degrees and a record low of 27 degrees. There’s been no snow in June and only an average rainfall of less than 5 inches. But if it rains there’s a bowling alley. We can all go bowling!

I want to go to Maine in June for the moose. The moose is the state animal of Maine. Moose spotting becomes an activity late spring to Mid-summer. Seems to me June falls right in the middle of that range. The best time for spotting moose seems to be early morning or evening and noon to 2 pm. Sounds like moose like to have lunch too!

Calves are born in late May to early June right on track with our June vacation . I can visualize the photos now. Early morning has such beautiful light!

One of the activities I’m thinking about is a Moose Safari. There are both walking safaris and water safaris in canoes or kayaks . I know how to canoe but I’ve never been kayaking. That would be a new adventure. Plus there’s plenty of hiking trails. Also sounds like a lot of waterfalls on these trails.

One location in particular that caught my eye is The Hunter Cove Wildlife Sanctuary, sitting along Route 4 between Rangeley and the town of Oquossoc, the sanctuary offers nearly two miles of looped, flat, hiking trails leading through moose country. The sanctuary, as well as the lakes, is home to deer, foxes, loons and other bird and animal species.

I’m used to wildlife sanctuaries. I visit them in Massachusetts all the time so this might belong on my list.

I’m ready for June to arrive and my Maine wildlife adventure to begin.

The Longest Dirt Road In the World

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(I’ve mentioned this adventure a few times so while I recover from my cold , I thought you might enjoy seeing the original post. Call it a Re-Run)

I believe this was the day after Mount Rushmore. Sandy had wanted to see some Native Americans and I suggested we take a drive to Badlands National Park. The White River Visitor Center is staffed by members of the Oglala Sioux Tribe.

Looking at the Park Map it seemed that the visitor center we wanted was on the southern part of the park. Sandy had also discovered that she had left her souvenirs from Mount Rushmore in the gift shop and wanted to go back there to see if they still had them there. She had her receipt so I figured we could go to the visitor center and then back track to Mount Rushmore.

This was the first morning that we didn’t have a tour scheduled so we didn’t have to rush to get up. We decided a break from Jimmy Dean was in order and we walked over to the Perkins Restaurant next door for breakfast.

Southern End of the Badlands

After a leisurely meal we headed to the car and south to find the Visitor Center. It was a little confusing at first but eventually we arrived and true to the advertisement it was staffed by Native Americans.

The displays were wonderful and the staff great to talk with. They answered all of our questions. One of the staff said they were having a Pow Wow at Pine Ridge and suggested we go there next. We could see Wounded Knee at the same time as they were all in the same area. We just had to drive across the Pine Ridge Reservation.

I left Sandy to get directions and headed out to the car. I met another Native American Staffer on the way in. He stopped me and said “Snow tonight”. I laughed and said “ Oh no, I hope not!” he laughed too and just said “ Yes, snow.” Sandy and I laughed about the snow predication as we climbed into the car.

Sandy said to take a right onto a dirt road that ran right past the Visitor Center. We had learned that because the reservation is considered a sovereign nation , that they do not get federal funds to maintain roads or other infrastructure. Therefore almost all of the roads on the reservation are dirt. Still, this one seemed to be well maintained and graded so we set off at a fair clip.

Pronghorn racing through the field

As with everywhere we had been so far the scenery was just amazing and there was wildlife everywhere. This continued to amaze me because seeing wild animals out like this during the day just doesn’t happen in the northeast. Spotting a deer during the day is unusual in spite of road kill to the contrary.

Deer by the roadside

Now remember it had rained hard the night before. I’d had the pleasure of driving from Mount Rushmore to Rapid City in the dark and downpour. So Sandy and I are chatting as we drive along this dirt road when all of a sudden it was mud. The car swished about a little and I made note to watch more carefully for the puddles. Most of them didn’t look like much but looks are sometimes deceiving. Sure enough, we began to hit more and more muddy patches finally hitting the biggest mud puddle of all!

Muddy road

I tried to swerve around it but it covered the whole road and the car just slid sideways into the middle of that mess. Water flew everywhere and our white car wasn’t white anymore. There was even mud on the sunroof. With a little fish-tailing we were able to get ourselves out and on our way again but first I had to stop to laugh. It was the funniest thing that had happened the whole trip and it really tickled my funny bone.

Our muddy White car

I don’t know how long we drove but it seemed to be forever. I pretty much figured we’d gone in the wrong direction but we’d been driving for so long that I wasn’t going to back track. Sandy said the Staffers probably saw us drive off in the wrong direction and said something like “stupid white women”. Well after that mud bath that just hit me funny again so I had another laughing fit.

Just as we were joking about being lost on the reservation forever we bumped onto pavement. We drove through a small settlement and then saw a sign for one of the main roads. As we pulled onto it, Sandy said she wanted to get out and kiss the pavement. That set off another round of giggles.

Longest Dirt Road in The World

I did take a picture of the dirt road. It seems to go on forever. In additional to the road just going on and on, there’s nothing on it. There are no little villages or stores or gas stations or signs. You just drive. It must have been what the first settlers experienced when they began to cross the prairie.

I should mention too that we made it back to Mount Rushmore and Sandy went into the gift shop where she had made her purchase last night. She showed her receipt and they replaced her souvenir.

But we never did find the Pow Wow. Going to one is now on my bucket list for a return trip but we had a lot of fun driving the “Longest Dirt Road in the World”.

Next Post: Thunder Falls

Wolf Island Rd

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In an effort to find local places of interest I’d spent last night on the internet. I was amazed at the number of supposedly haunted locations right around me. Apparently Taunton is right smack dab in the middle of the Bridgewater Triangle. More about that in a later post. I don’t want to get off today’s subject.

I’m not real fond of the paranormal, at least experiencing it. I’m happy to watch Ghost Hunters and re-runs of Destination Truth but I am not keen to go ghost hunting myself.

So back to Wolf Island Road. A recent article called it Massachusetts’ most haunted Street! It warned everyone to stay away, especially at night. That’s fine with me but in daylight I might be willing to explore so off I went to find Wolf Island Rd.

I expected a lonely, narrow road winding through a deserted wood. Something to support the “spooky” reputation. What I found instead was an angry 6 ft tall man out to protect his neighborhood.

Ellis Cenetery

I was stopped in front of the Ellis Cemetery (dated 1872.)  I was impressed with how well maintained it was. Nothing spooky here,  when I got a tap on my window. Tom Simpson introduced himself and got straight to the point. What was I taking pictures of and why was I there. I explained about my blog and that I was following upon on a ghost story for lack of a better word.

Tom explained that he has lived in the area all his life and no one has been killed in any car accident. Just like that he debunked the myth of the fatal 1970’s car accident with the phantom car.

The other myth I was aware of concerned the murder of Wampanoag natives and their ghosts. Tom admitted that although he knew the myth it was before his time.  What he did know is that  he has been out there many nights, even on Halloween and has never seen anything supernatural.

He told me about the increased traffic every time a paranormal myth circulates or is resurrected. The beautiful cemetery gets vandalized by “ghost hunters” especially this time of year when the ground is soft.

Wolf Island Rd

So what I found was not a dark and lonely road but a nice place with nice homes; a lady walking her dog and a guardian angel looking out for his neighborhood.

Ghost stories may draw readers but let’s remember that there are people living there now. Would you want strangers traipsing through your back yard searching for ghosts? I wouldn’t either. Between you and me I don’t think there’s anything paranormal going on there but you might not want to run into Tom Simpson on a dark night either! My advice, look for someplace else to search for the paranormal. But if you absolutely must go to Wolf Island Rd, do so with consideration and respect.