Days 80 & 81: White Mountains, NH

We've taken to calling what we've been experiencing lately "snot-nosed" weather.  It never gets warm enough for very long, and the perception is your nose in continually running.  It is not the sort of weather we would choose to ride in, but we're hoping it might finally start to warm up fairly soon.

Monday was forecast to be another windy day for my 25 mile ride over Kancamagus Pass, but we decided to press on anyway.  There are a number of USFS campgrounds along the route, so we opted to get up over the pass and head for the one lowest in elevation before the next big climb.  That was Hancock Campground ($24, primitive, but bathrooms with flush toilets).

It was a pretty cold, miserable day, with a headwind of 20 mph in places, plus stronger gusts.  But fortunately our campsite was pretty well sheltered from the worst of the wind.  We managed to scrounge up enough free firewood to keep a fire going for more than four hours before deciding to give up and go inside.  We timed things perfectly, as it started to rain almost immediately, and kept it up for hours afterward.  We had the generator on until we were pretty much out of fuel, which gave us a chance to turn on the mattress pad and warm up the cabin.

Tuesday started out cool, but we were seeing more blue sky than we had in a while.  We lingered at the campsite until after 10 am before Alea set off on her 15 mile ride up another pass and to the last USFS campground for a while.  We are camped at Wildwood Campground ($18, primitive, flush toilets).  It has still been windy, but not nearly as windy as the preceding two days.  Plus the high has made it into the upper 60s and our campsite has a sunny exposure.

There's some blue sky up there!

We should be in cell coverage for the next few days.  The past few days we've been lucky to find coverage for an hour or two each day.