I’m up early, out the door and into town to get some internet time to catch up on some of my writing. The hotel internet is junk. This reminds me of Europe, when I would wake up and walk to get coffee and write my blog while the family slept. The day starts out looking good, much like almost every day up here. I can’t really say enough about the weather up here.
I go back to the Met for coffee but it’s not open until 7:00, so I sit in the car and tether to my phone to write. Not the most comfortable position in the world but it’s not bad and having internet at all is a good thing. It’s somewhat absurd how much we rely on being connected for things. Even if you don’t use it for social media, having access to weather, hiking trails, bike trails, food, coffee, and ice cream is somewhat priceless.
At 7:00 I’m done and I go into the store to get some coffee, plus a chocolate muffin. I’ve had enough of the free hotel garbage breakfast.
It strikes me that in early August, it’s almost already fall here. The morning air is crisp, pleasant, just super enjoyable. The days are warm and once the sun starts to set the temps drop back to that nice cool level where you can maybe even wear a jacket at night. I love this time of year. Back home it is still 950 degrees every day.
Back at the hotel I wake up the family and join them for free hotel breakfast, where I eat some fruit which is at least good. The coffee is so bad I can’t even pretend.
Today is a reverse day, biking first then hiking. The bike will be a new place, the Marshall Conservation Area. As I’ve said to people about North Conway, it’s really hard to piece these trails together but this network is somewhat compact and in 1 place. That makes this ride a bit easier.
The trails here are solid standard XC. There’s nothing “OMG hold your hat” worthy like the Hurricane or Red Tail trails over on Black Cap. But there’s also no outlandish climbing here. The trails are fun, something you can do every day without needing to eat your Wheaties or drive a car to the top. Solid set of trails with a few nice bermed out trails and a jump line, plus various other features littered in the park.
The Strava link can be found here.
Trail recap for future reference looks like this, with just the main trails listed:
| Trail | Comment |
| Lucille’s | This is an easy connector trail that circles the park. Good for getting between places fast |
| Shumway | Great downhill run with flowy turns, jumps, and berms |
| Muzzy | Short but great downhill run with 4 legit drops. Really awesome fun |
| Quarry | Advanced blue, some technical features plus some rough terrain |
| Lager’s | Also more of a connector but with some real trail bed and occasional feature. |
We head back to the room and eat some lunch in the room before heading out to hike. We had made sandwiches and some of us eat, some of us don’t. I eat Simon’s leftover pizza from the night before. Then we hit the road for a longer drive to Maine to check out something new. A new state on the trip! I have been to Maine many times before but probably not in 12 years or more.
The drive is cool, but also weird. We go from a fairly built up area of North Conway to a pretty poor area quickly. There’s almost nothing out in some of the places we go. The houses are spaced far apart mostly, but here and there you find a clump of really run-down houses together.
Eventually we find our destination and we’re hiking Maine! Today the loop is Blueberry Mountain, which needs to be done in a specific direction because there’s a scramble up at one point, which would be a tough descent. The start of the trail is flat, but before long we start to pitch up and the elevation adds up.
Soon the trail goes vertical and we’re going up stone steps, which soon turns into raw boulders that end up being a scramble up to the top. While the hiking is tough, especially in the sun with the heat, you gain elevation quickly and before you know it, you’re at the top.
Once you near the top, the views are just incredible.
And like that, we are atop Blueberry Mountain.
A little further on and we pick a bald spot to eat some lunch, which is a sandwich for those of us who did not eat, or just some cherries for those of us who did. These cherries are some of the best things ever today.
The way down is pretty easy, and while it would have been easier to climb this way it would have been boring. It makes the descent pretty stable. It also allows us to hit Rattlesnake Pond which is not really a pond so much as a water hole at the bottom of a waterfall, or a flume as another hiker calls it. Doing this at the end is much better than the other way around.
I take of my shoes and jump right in. It is freezing cold but it feels amazing.
Shortly after the boys also jump in and D wades in slowly, which I think is harder than just taking the plunge. Either way, the water is frigid and yet refreshing. It’s also an incredibly popular spot. It’s hard to believe so many people even live in this area but this is such a cool spot I get why you would come here. Unlike NJ, there is not garbage all over the place.
On the way out we find a small gorge which is downstream from the flume. A cool bridge brings you over it.
The Strava link can be found here.
The drive is almost an hour to get back, which we do mostly by memory as we have no internet. We shower up and decide on dinner, which is Thai tonight, from Bangkok Cafe. We get 4 dishes and pick them up right in town and bring them to the park to eat. The food is good, not great. It does the job.
After dinner we sit in the park and watch a soccer match on the grass, just enjoying the cool evening settle in. The sunset is splendid.
Then we hit McKaella’s Sweet Shop for ice cream. Zac gets the chili chocolate and for some reason I follow suit. It’s ok but I would never get it again. He doesn’t eat his and I do not finish mine. The other kids like theirs and D only eats a bit of Zac’s and does not get any of her own.
Then we drive back to the hotel and crash out for the night. Day 10 complete!
Traveling Normandy 