New Hampshire

8/26/25 – R&R, laundry, and food shopping.  Friends from our Arizona community shared the following:

A cow got into our gated community and decided to cool off in a golf course pond! There isn't even any livestock nearby! We heard it escaped from the meat processor a mile down the road. It survived its swim and residents raised money to send it to an animal sanctuary!

A haboob (dust storm) coming across our community

8/27/25 – We went to Franconia Notch State Park where we did a 2-mile walk through the Flume Gorge area, which had pretty woods, waterfalls, and…

The Flume - a unique gap that water flows through

A natural pool that is 150' in diameter, 40' deep, and has 80' cliffs

Two covered bridges. This one was made from ONE 175' pine tree saved from the British before the Revolutionary War.

The visitor center told us more about the Old Man rock formation. 

The Old Man is a natural formation that was discovered in 1805. It collapsed in 2003.

Now we know what the shape on New Hampshire road signs is!

Our next adventure, a brief distance away, was a hike on the Appalachian Trail. 

We hiked 4 miles (and 1300ft of elevation) of the 2200-mile Georgia to Maine trail

The area had a lot of giant rocks with tree roots growing over them

Over dinner in town, Google told us hikers usually do the trail NOBO (northbound), but other options are SOBO (southbound), or Flip-Flopping (start/finish in the middle to avoid crowds).   It takes an average hiker 6 months to complete the trail.

8/28/25 – Another day of R&R with a 5-mile run on the snowmobile trail that Pat found on 8/25.  We saw a black bear cub cross the trail and stand next to a tree ready to climb.  We didn't see mom but after a quick glance, we kept moving!!

We head to Vermont tomorrow.