h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

White Mountains, New Hampshire – October 4, 2006

We cross the State line into New Hampshire. The first sign over the border says, in HUGE letters, "Live Free or Die!"...the second sign says "Vehicle occupants under 18 years must wear seatbelts"...we both burst into laughter and wordlessly unfasten our seatbelts...we could learn to like this place...

The tree colors are brilliant and getting better...They usually peak in mid-October. I have a leaf guide and have identified an American Beech and a Sugar Maple...Rain and overcast are expected until Thursday. You need sunlight to capture the brilliant colors properly.

We are in the area called the White Mountains. There are some interesting things not to see here. We walk 1000 yards at one stop to see the “old man of the mountain”. That is a famous rock outcropping that looks remarkably like an old man’s face. Unfortunately the 48 foot tall feature fell off two years ago. You probably read about it. There are some very confused Japanese tourists wandering about looking for the face.

The sun peeks out enough to yield some colorful leaf shots. We have lived our entire lives in Florida so these autumn colors are very remarkable for us. We drive on some unpaved US Forest service back roads and find a lovely campground called Russell Pond high in the mountains.

I long for wildness….
Woods where the
woodthrush forever sings,
where the hours are
early morning ones,
and there is
dew on the grass,
and the day
is forever unproven…
-Thoreau

Here are some pictures of an autumn New England.
http://good-times.webshots.com/slideshow?ID=554550735

I spent a very pleasent weekend in New Hampshire, around North Conway I think, not many years ago. It's really pretty there. I remember parking by a ski-site close to Mt Washington and taking a quick walk. I managed to see a beaver building a dam on a mountain trail not far from the road. I also remember drinking Dr Pepper for the first (and last) time while I was there. Strange the things you remember.

Bill Bryson says in one of his books that NH was mainly farmland in the 1800's. It returned to semi-wilderness when the interior of America opened up during the latter part of the nineteenth century. You can still come across stone walls built by the earlier settlers in the middle of the extensive forests there.

We flew into Boston every few years to rent a car and explore New Hampshire and Vermont for a four-day weekend in mid-October. We usually went to an inn on a hill in Vermont called The Woodchuck Inn...I stumbled upon one of those abandoned settlements here in New Hapshire on a small unpaved road a few years ago...there was a old graveyard with a number of Civil War stones...leaves were strewn about and it was surrounded with red maples...I'm looking for something like that again or a single huge orange tree in a town square next to an old white church...I can see the picture in my mind...we hope to follow the fall back to Florida...I want to get more pictures of the New York gorges with the leaves turned color...I suspect the leaves turn color in Ireland and England this time of year?

Phred, I have never managed to spend the autumn in New England. That must go on my list of things to do.

My mother-in-law was from New Hampshire. And she thought ~I~ had a quaint accent.

funny...I didn't notice an accent...waiting for someone in suspenders to say "Heyup", rather than yes...

Yes, the trees are just starting to turn, but there's still a lot of green about. We don't get anything like the fireworks display of colour that you get in the US. It's probably got something to do with the types of trees and the soil - I'm not sure. The leaves tend to go brown and yellow - not so common are the vivid reds you see.

Did someone have on suspenders? All I saw was t-shirts, beards, shorts and jeans. Lots of beards.

Just so you won't be disappointed..........."heyup!"

I was just up in the Eau Claire area of Wisconsin and Jim and I happened to hit right as the fall colors were peaking. Amazing. By the time we left three days later, all that amazing color was starting to fall from the trees. Came home to sere lawns, the drought here continues unabated.

A very tall and rotund person stood in line at the wine store. He was wearing wide red suspenders and jeans over faded long johns...as talked to the cashier I heard him exclaim, "eeyup!"...so I can leave now...

And you aren't even in the Ozarks.