Family Adventures in New Hampshire
This weekend I took Eli on his first backpacking trip. We stayed at Ethan Pond and hiked Mt. Willey.
We left around 7:30am on Saturday morning and headed over to the Ethan Pond trailhead in Crawford Notch. Eli, as always, was super pumped for this trip.
Continue reading “Dave/Eli Backpacking Trip – Mt. Willey”
This weekend I got to spend some 1×1 time w/ Aaron and hike the two Hancock’s. I attempting these several years ago w/ my friend Dave in the winter and had to abort. Mt. Hancock is 4,380 feet and Mt. South Hancock is 4,278 feet.
Continue reading “Mt. Hancocks w/ Aaron”This weekend we celebrated Eli’s birthday at Kimballs on Friday night. We then headed up to the Lodge for the weekend.
Saturday was rainy, so we didn’t do much, but it was nice to just relax.
On Sunday, the weather cleared up and we hiked the Coppermine Trail, which leads to Bridal Veil Falls.
The hike starts about 10 minutes from the Lodge, about a mile from the Franconia airport. The hike is a very easy grade 2.5 miles to the falls. Along the way there are lots of entertaining aspects like a shelter, bridge, and water for most of the way. At the top we dipped our feet in the water, threw rocks, and climbed to the top by the base of the falls.
Overall this hike was a huge hit for the kids, I’d definitely give it a 10/10. I bet it’s amazing in the spring during the snowmelt.
Pics soon!
This weekend Eli and I hiked and skied tuckerman’s ravine!
On Sunday, we got up at 4:45am. We ate breakfast, packed our bags, and got out of the house around 5:45am. We arrived at Pinkham Notch around 7am.
Eli was so excited to do Tuckerman’s!
As we started to make our ascent we quickly shed off our outer layers. The temps must have been in the 50’s at the base. About a mile in Eli put on his Yaktrax and I put on my crampons.
At about 11am, we reached the Hermit Lake Shelters. This is about 2.5 miles from Pinkham Notch. From here we could finally see Tuckerman’s! The view below is of some of the trails to the left of Tuckerman’s.
From the shelter, it was about 0.7 miles to the base of the ravine. We started to get a glimpse of the Left Gully on the hike up.
Almost there. We heard to avoid the lunch rocks this time of year, where there are giant ice falls the size of cars.
We made it to the base of the ravine! Eli had a huge burst of energy and at this point and could tackle anything.
This is the famous Tuckerman’s photo. If you look closely on the left you will see a person climbing up.
We agreed to go half way up Left Gulley to the ice fall and ski down from there. We quickly changed out of our hiking gear and into our ski gear. I’m not sure I’ve seen him this excited before.
We started our ascent of Left Gully. Eli did a great job of digging into the snow and making sure he had good footing. If you make one mistake here you are falling all the way to the bottom.
As we were ascending one of the people above triggered an avalanche that was headed right towards us! We quickly moved to the side (not trivial since we were on a steep incline). After most of the avalanche came through I snapped a pic and video.
Now we had no pre-made footholds and Eli had to dig in with each step since he was leading the way. He was really reaching the end of his energy at this point.
So, we found a decent place to strap in. I got Eli all geared up and then he waited for me. Some of the dots at the bottom are people.
Eli and I both made it down to the bottom in a minute or two. I found it a lot more challenging on the snowboard with the heavy pack. There really wasn’t a ‘dryrun’ to see what it was like with all the weight.
At the bottom we had some snacks. You can see some people hiking up in the left side of the pic. The right side was filled with waterfalls and crevasses.
We skiied the line on the left starting at the waterfall.
We took a quick break, put our hiking stuff back on, and headed back to the shelter.
At the shelter we transferred back to our skiies and got to ski down the Sherburne Trail for about a mile. At that point we had to transfer back our hiking gear again and walk down to the bottom.
At the bottom we saw an awesome waterfall. 
Once we got the bottom we had an amazing dinner at Moat Mountain Brewery, ice cream at Friendly’s, then drove home.
Overall I was so proud of Eli today. He didn’t complain the entire trip, and was so determined to make it to the top. I’m sure we will both remember this trip forever.
Well, I haven’t been doing as good of a job of keeping the blog up to date over the past few weeks.
We’ve been up at the Lodge each weekend in October though.
On the first weekend, we had an extra day off for Columbus day. On Sat+Sun we had our friend Jenn and her two kids up. In the morning we hiked Mt. Willard. It was a peak foliage weekend and the trail was packed!
On the second weekend, we had my parents up. On Saturday night Michele and I took advantage of the babysitters and had a date time. We went to the Woodstock Brewery, which was a lot of fun (and really hopping!) Also, we got some good projects accomplished, including repairing our broken sofa bed (thanks Dad!) and getting that upstairs.
On the third weekend, Michele’s brother, David, came up to visit. Most of the crew hiked Mt. Osceola.
Cannon will be opening in one month and we are very excited to get the ski season started!
We took a week off from the Lodge to do some stuff around the house, go to some kid bday parties, etc.
This weekend we headed up on Friday night, as usual.
Saturday AM, Michele and Aaron headed out to climb Cannon together. This was Aaron’s biggest hike yet. The Hi-Cannon trail is about 5 miles round trip with over 2500 feet of elevation gain.
While they were out hiking, I took the other boys out for the morning. I had the great idea of hanging out at Loon to check out the gondola and the various other summer activities. Well, it turned out that was a mistake, because it was the Highland Games at Loon this weekend. This is a huge Scottish festival and the place was mobbed.
After waiting in line for over a half hour, we decided to turn around. We had lunch at Enzo’s, ran some errands, checked out Boise rock and then headed back for nap time.
During nap I started chopping some wood, and built a wood holder.
Michele and Aaron got back to the Lodge just in time to head over to our neighbors house. We got to meet a couple neighbors, which was great!
On Sunday we went to the Woodstock Cascades, which is an awesome watering hole. We swam there and had lunch. Then we headed back home and enjoyed the rest of the weekend back home!
Here’s some pics from the weekend!
This weekend Michele was finally not in Florida. She headed up to the Lodge with the boys on Thursday. Andrea, Nathan, and Hazel were up Friday night until Saturday morning. Dave came up Friday night.
On Saturday morning we did Polly’s w/ the Watson’s. After that we did the Basin. After the Basin the Watson’s headed home and we went back to the Lodge for Tommy’s nap time. After nap we just hung out at the Lodge the rest of the night. The kids have been building a hiking trail in our backyard, which has been keeping them occupied and enjoying outdoors.
So far hiking as a family has been a challenge. There is usually lots of whining, fighting, both parents and kids getting frustrated.
On Sunday we decided to try again and do the Lonesome Lake trail. This trail is 1.2 miles from the Lafayette campground to Lonesome Lake, then another 0.4 to the hut. The trail is easy to moderate grade the entire way.
Early on in the hike we decided to split up, Dave took Eli and Aaron, and Michele took Tommy. This turned out to be the ‘hack’ that solved our family hiking dilemma. Dave could hike at a faster pace with the older kids, and Michele could take her time w/ Tommy. Also, when the kids are split up they don’t fight and whine as much.
It turned out to be a great hike. We had excellent views of the Franconia ridge and everyone had a good time.
At least for now, it turns out the best way to have a family hike is to not hike together as a family! We’re hoping this turns around soon!
Vacation week at the lodge went by super fast! Michele ended up getting to the Lodge Friday morning at 2am, after spending a week and a half in Florida for work.
In the morning on Friday, I had a contractor at the house, so Michele took the boys out to play. In the afternoon we checked out the Littleton Pool. It was huge and had a high diving board, so the kids were happy! The kids were beat after staying up late so many nights in a row, so we decided to skip the Franconia fireworks and just do a movie night.
On Saturday we were originally planning to do a hike or go to Whale’s Tale. Unfortunately the weather did not want to cooperate and it was a wash out. Instead Michele took the boys rock climbing at the North Country Climbing Gym.
On Sunday we headed out early. On our way back we stopped at Loon for a ‘touch a truck’ event, which was a big hit, then had Enzo’s for lunch.
Below are some pics from the week:
We are all starting to adjust to life on vacation together at the Lodge, just me and the 3 boys!
On Sunday, we packed up the car in the morning and headed up north. We had lunch at Enzo’s in Lincoln. Lincoln is very touristy, but it’s becoming a popular pit stop on our way to and from the lodge.
After dinner, Dave, Ursula, and Lily came up to visit. We just spent the evening catching up and then they headed out Monday AM.
On Monday I had a couple contractors coming in the afternoon, so we couldn’t have any big outings. We did Echo Lake beach in the morning. Tommy is a total fish once we gets acclimated to the water. Eli isn’t the biggest fan, and Aaron is somewhere in the middle.
I had 2 contractors come, one for installing a security system. It turns out our insurance is mandating us to get a system since it’s a vacation home. This is turning into a big expense that I wasn’t planning on.
Later on we had a roofing contractor come and take a look at our leaking roof. He had installed the roof recently, found the leaking spot, and said he’d fix it for no charge. Awesome!
In the afternoon we were looking to kill a couple hours, so we headed to the Sugar Hill playground. The kids were super cranky. We then went to the Iron Furnace in Franconia and found an awesome spot on the Gale River to throw rocks. Turns out there’s no better way to cure cranky kids than throwing rocks in the water.
On Tuesday we headed out early for a full day at Santa’s Village. I was a little worried about this trip, having all 3 boys to myself in an amusement park. Especially after our recent Story Land visit, it was clear the 3 kids all wanted to go on different rides.
It turned out to be a great day together. The boys were very well behaved, and we stayed there the entire day. We got to go on almost all the rides and even the water park. The ride lines were pretty short all day, which was a big plus. Overall I’m a big fan of Santa’s Village over Story Land. It’s much more low key.
I’ll add pics to these posts once I get back from vaca!
This week was Eli’s birthday. At his request, we celebrated at his favorite mexican restaurant, Casa Blanca in Billerica.
For his birthday Eli got a 3D printer, which he was very excited about. Unfortunately we didn’t really get to play with it, because it was a Lodge weekend!
We kicked the weekend off by heading back to Uhaul to pick up another truck. We had a garage full of furniture to ship up to the Lodge, our final big load!
We picked the truck up, loaded it, and headed up North on Friday night.
On Saturday, Michele and I spent the morning unloading the furniture. It turned out one of the sofas we purchased was broken. What a pain in the butt! We’re going to try to get them to swap it out, or repair it ourselves. Also, 2 other couches we purchased were the wrong color. Lesson learned, never receive furniture wrapped up in the packing material. We thought it would make the move easier, but we didn’t get to inspect everything and are now stuck with it!
After unloading, we returned the truck and then nap time. After nap we made an attempt at the Lisbon pool, but it was closed again. We really need to figure out the hours at this place.
We then drove around exploring the Gale River in Franconia, looking for a good place to get wet, but failed. We ended up at the playground in Franconia to let the kids release some energy.
I’ve been chainsawing every chance I get to increase the view, progress is coming, though slowly. Here’s a view from one of the bedrooms:
On Sunday we made an attempt at hiking to the Lonesome Lake Hut. This was Tommy’s biggest hike so far. The last hike failed, mainly due to him wearing old sneakers and there being wet rocks. This time he had new boots, so we were hoping for the best.
Unfortunately, the Lonesome Lake trail was closed part way up, and had a detour that was pretty steep. This turned out to be too much for Tommy to handle, so we headed back around 3/4 of the way up.
At the base we had a snack and the kids climbed trees.
After nap, we packed up and had dinner at our favorite pizza place in Lincoln, followed by ice cream of course!