1/1-1/3/17 - Apple Hill, NH; Loon Mountain; Meredith
Current Location: I-95 S at the GA/FL line (yeah, I know, a bit delayed)
We may have gotten used to the cold (but where I’m writing this is 75 and bright sunshine so that’s easy for me to say). This segment of the trip involved a drive back across Maine, skirting directly past Sunday River and continuing on to New Hampshire. We actually only realized about halfway through the drive that we were on the exact same roads as a few days earlier. Snow was still piled high along the sides of these country roads but the lack of nearly any other vehicles made it an enjoyable drive. Due to the holiday and lack of daylight we had called head to a year-round campground and were directed to just take any site availably and stop by in the morning to pay. Arriving at dusk we were surprised to find this more of a mobile home park than a campground and there were only really two sites available. We backed into the snow covered site and chatted with “the locals” while we shoveled around the van for snow management purposes. All things considered it was easy and a quiet night.
The following day we drove the 30 minutes or so south to Loon Mountain to get some skiing in. Rooney and Hobbes were a big hit in the lot as we were parked near the steam train that transported guests around the base area. The skiing was fun, albeit slightly icy in sections. We kept busy wandering around the mountain and had some great views of Mount Washington on the gondola ride up. Lift lines were decently long in sections as it was still the holiday but overall the mountain had a lot of terrain to explore. We headed south after a quick stop in Lincoln NH for a One Love brewery. We ended up at Meredith Woods Campground which had a few departing seasonal people but otherwise really quiet. We fell asleep to a rain, sleet, freezing rain pattering on the roof. The following day we could have explored another ski area about 30-45 minutes away but a steady freezing rain allowed us to slow things down. We had a leisurely morning and partook in the hot tub/indoor pool at the campground. We finally created the website and generally lounged for most of the day. This kind of day is something we are going to have to consciously work into the schedule every week or so.
Eric