Summer 2004 - New Hampshire and Nantucket
After the Oshkosh Air Show, I went back for a week and then it was time for a family getaway. My family has a valley in New Hampshire in the town of East Madison, and I spent all my summers there as a boy at Camp Tohkomeupog. I've yet to build on my piece of the property, but my Uncle Bob's family has a cottage built on top of a former camp stable, and they generously make it available to others. So the plan was to go up to the valley for a few days and see Mom and Annita, and then spend a couple of days introducing Ciára to Nantucket, one of our favorite places to visit.
 On our way up in a Cessna 182 RG, Ciára enjoys a bottle and a stick used to check fuel levels - she used it to whack me on the head now and then. |
 She doesn't stay awake long, and soon both ladies in the back are asleep. |
 After landing at Portland Maine and getting a rental car, a 45 minute drive brings us to East Madison. Ciára's happy to be out of the car and runs up to the porch. |
 She particularly liked the dog sculpture, spending a lot of time petting him. |
 I had the bright idea to take Cath and Ciára up Mt. Tohkomeupog, a small mountain in the valley. Though I used to climb it every year from the time I was five, it's gotten steeper. Halfway up, it started to rain a little, so we spent some time at a shelter cabin at the top (built by campers including my Uncle Bob way back when) waiting for the rain to stop. |
 Ciára was out cold by then. Cath was a little annoyed - hiking is not really her thing - but she soldiered on and we got down safely. |
 The view from the shelter. Although the mountain is not terribly high (less than 2000 feet) by NH standards, there are good views to the northeast. |
 The next day, I decided we'd go up Mt Washington the easy way, on the Cog Railway. This privately owned railway has been operating since 1869. It's operated with steam locomotives driven by coal. The round trip is about three hours including a short stop at the summit. I've climbed Washington 8 times and never ridden the rails, so this was a fun thing for all of us. |
 On the first incline. The smoke at the top is another train running ahead of us. You can tell that the tracks are old, as they're not terribly straight. None of that Amtrak continuously welded rail here! |
 Climbing a mountain is not easy. The center track is engaged by a big gear (the "cog" in cog railway) that sticks down from the engine. |
 Cath and Ciára in the railway car. Not a lot of room, but Ciára loved the ride. |
 As we get up towards the summit, we run into clouds. Some hikers are heading up, tracing their way along the trail marked by large stone cairns. Once my group got lost on this very trail in a snowstorm in July (yes, snow in July), but we came across the railbed and followed it to the summit. |
. A break in the clouds gives a view of the Northern part of the Presidential Range, Jefferson, the three Adams, and Madison. Mt Clay isn't visible (it would be off to the left). I remember doing the Range as a three day trip, and once in a single (and very long) day. On the three day trip, I vividly remember going to sleep on some very old matresses in the Madison Springs hut, with the wind blowing outside and Marshall Tucker playing on a fellow camper's cassette player. I was snug in my sleeping bag, with a belly full of dinner and heavenly smashes (now called s'mores for some reason), and the moment was perfect. I hope that Ciára will enjoy camping when she grows up and goes to Waukeela camp, and has her own perfect moment in the hills of New Hampshire. |
 A view to the northwest on the way down |
 To the south, the Lakes of the Clouds hut (named after the small lakes on the ridge). I once watched a hut worker (with legs like tree trunks) carrying up a potbellied cast iron woodburning stove on his back to this hut. At another hut there was a working foot-pumped organ, also brought up by human power. |
 Perhaps the M&M's I gave Ciára on the way down were a mistake, as they were both messy and revved her up! |
 As luck would have it, by the time we got to the bottom the clouds had cleared. You can make out the TV and radio antennas at the Summit. The Observatory at the top has observed the worst weather in the world, including a gust measured at over 230 MPH. |
 Ciára's back in the pack for the walk back to the car. You can see the unique angle on the engine's boiler, this keeps it more or less level when climbing the mountain. There's a section where the grade is 37%! |
 At dinner with Mom an Annita that evening, Ciára does her Elvis impersonation. This "shnicklenose" face is one of her favorite expressions, usually indicating "I'm about to be a pill". |
 Ciára takes a turn feeding her Gran. |
 The next day, I take a canoe out onto our lake. All the lakes up here are a result of glaciation, and as such are usually spring-fed, with rock or sand bottoms. The water's incredibly clear, and there's very little muck on the bottom. The leaning pine on the right is called King Pine, and marks a swimming goal - before a camper is allowed to waterski, he must have swum from the waterfront to this pine and back - around 500 yards all told. |
 Looking back at the Camp waterfront. I learned to swim here beginning when I was five years old, and eventually became an instructor and lifeguard |
 This bridge was built by me and my Uncle Ted and several other campers in 1982, after a hurricane had destroyed the previous one. I was thrilled to find it still standing. |
 The next day, we headed for Nantucket, and soon after takeoff, Ciára was in her normal pose. |
 The RG has a small mirror hanging down from the right wing, so that the pilot can confirm the landing gear is up or down. It's a pretty neat reflection. |
 On the way to Nantucket, Boston Approach had us off shore a ways - here we're approaching Provincetown at the northern tip of Cape Cod. |
 In Nantucket town, Ciára reacts to the price of an estate - several million dollars. |
 The best breakfast on earth - cobblestone eggs, with fresh lobster, poached eggs, and special hollandaise sauce. Only at Arnow's restaurant in Nantucket. |
 Ciára gets to meet the ocean at the Children's Beach in Nantucket Harbor. It was nearly impossible to get her out of the water. |
 Exploring the beach a little. |
 Ciára enjoys a ride on the slide at the beach. She's now very tall and loves to run around. |
 Soon after dragging her (kicking and screaming) away from the beach and park, she was OUT. |
 Back at the Beachcomber, Ciára enjoys a bath. One of the few hotels that welcome children of all ages - a crying child in the night tends to dampen the B&B experience - I highly recommend them. They shipped us our video camera right away when we discovered we'd left it behind. |
 This was a great day!
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We learned a few lessons on this trip:
- Go one place for more time, instead of two places in six days.
- At least one day must be devoted to resting, particularly if hiking takes place at any other time.
- Nantucket is too crowded in high season - best to go in the spring or fall.
