Leaf Peeking in Peak Leaf Season

Wow, wow, and wow again!   Yes, we know that New England in the Fall is supposed to be fantastically beautiful, and we've seen LOTS of pictures which confirm that, but we honestly hadn't expected to be quite so overwhelmed by how fantastic it is 'in the flesh'.   It's what one American woman we've chatted to recently might call 'wicked awesome'.   And, of course, we also know (not least because we live in its second most heavily wooded county), that England's autumn colours are fantastic too.   But, let's put it this way:  take the best stretch of the most beautiful autumnal scenery you can think of in the UK, and imagine that multiplied by a hundred, and then a million (we're not exaggerating - we've 'done the math', as they say!).   The sheer height and depth of the tree-covered hills and mountain ranges, the vastness of its gorgeous valleys, and the length and stretches of tree-fringed or tree-tunnelled roads, really are leaving us gasping at every scene. What a treat!

Colors of Fall in New England

We'd left Cape Cod on Tues (9 Oct), having had a wonderful meal the previous evening at the lovely Olde Inne at Yarmouth Port, and travelled up on Wed to where we're now staying in Intervale in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, via a one-night stopover in Salem (not to be particularly recommended, unless you're heavily into witch-related touristy tat-shops, though we enjoyed an evening meal at the funky Mercy Tavern). 

Mercy Tavern. Salem

The weather on Wednesday was about the best we've had this trip, Austin apart (and it seems from the weather forecast, maybe the best we can expect from now on).   We'd stopped en route from Salem for a wonderful, typically American brunch in a typically-American road-side diner (Miss Wakefield's Diner at Sanbornville, New Hampshire), and decided it was too warm not to have the roof of the car down as we travelled into New Hampshire - around 27 degrees of sunshine, with bright blue skies.  This added SO much to the experience - that heady scent of pine trees which greeted us as we drove into the cacophony of colour (even for those of us who don't have synesthesia), is something I'm sure we'll never forget.   Just a shame that it seems the weather for the rest of our stay here is not going to be quite so welcoming: it's already plunged to around 11 degrees, and forecast to go lower still this week, dammit.

Miss Wakefield Diner

We're staying in a fairly basic wooden cabin in a wooded part of Intervale, right beside the Eastern branch of the babbling River Saco. 

Our Cabin by River Saco, Intervale, New Hampshire

Our first full day's excursion yesterday took place in pouring rain for most of the day, which meant we barely got out of the car. 

Nevertheless, the scenery all around the roughly 150-mile White Mountain Loop still kept us breathless with awe and excitement.  Part of the route took us along the spectacular Kancamagus Scenic Highway, which opened in 1959 and is named after a Sagamon (Chief) of the Penacook tribe during 1600s, whose name translates as 'The Fearless One'   [This was a controversial naming decision, given that Kancamagus had chopped to death, on his own table, Major Richard Waldron, one of the English military settlers.   However, as proponents pointed out, this had been in revenge for the treachery of Waldron, with whom Kancamagus had tried to live in peace for many years, but who subsequently tricked the Penacooks by inviting them to a feast, at which he promptly seized most of the tribal guests and sent them off to Boston in chains, never to be seen again.   Yet another uplifting story illustrating just how England got its glorious empire!]  'No petrol for the next 32 miles' reads the sign at the Western end of the highway.  No gas, no stores, no houses - nothing but a hundred thousand acres of autumn colour, and colonnades of birches - white as bone!

During the Loop drive, we also passed by Bretton Woods Hotel, home of the international conference called for whilst WWII was still raging - by, amongst others, the British economist John Maynard Keynes - to discuss the re-building of the post-war international economic and trading system, to try and avert the kinds of issues which had led to the war itself.   This was the Conference, I even managed to recall from my Economics studies many years ago, which established the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (now World Bank).

Our second-day's excursion, again by car because of intermittent rain and high winds, took us round a 120 mile Woodland Heritage Trail, which included equally spectacular scenery as had the White Mountain Loop, but also several of the famous covered bridges which dotted the landscape. 

Covered Bridges

We pulled in at one point to look at the 171 ft  Nansen Ski Jump right beside Highway 16 - a very strange location indeed.) This was first used in 1936 for the ski-jump trials for the 1938 Olympics, and last used in 1982 - but why it was ever sited right beside a major Highway is baffling indeed. 

Nansen Ski Jump

We'd also stopped briefly just before that at the Milan Hill State Park, a massively scenic campground with a 45 foot fire-tower at its highest point.   From its viewing tower, we were able (despite the best efforts of the strong and very cold wind), to enjoy an expansive 360-degree view, not only of New Hampshire's mountains, but of mountain ranges in the neighbouring States of Vermont and Maine, and also Canada.   Amazing!

Views of and from the Fire Tower at Milan Hill State Park

Between Milan and the town of Gorham, the route paralleled (now there's a new verb!) the mighty Androscoggin River, along which we spotted dozens of compact clusters of wood that rise up from the middle of the water.  Are they beaver dams, we wondered.   But nope.   We learned that these eye-catching clusters are 'boom piers', artificial islands that were used by lumbermen to separate logs by ownership during the colourful and dramatic annual log drives, as the owners floated the logs from the forests far upriver to the mills in the town of Berlin.   Stamps that identified the owners were hammered into the end of the logs and they were sorted into the 'sorting gaps' along the river.   The log drives finally ended in 1963 but the boom piers have been left as a reminder of this New Hampshire heritage.

Androscoggin River with its Boom Piers

Street Art in Berlin (New Hampshire!) showing art exhibition by students of
Plymouth State University (New Hampshire!) illustrating local trades and attractions

Advice That We Were Always Happy To Take. (They're Big!)