NH Peaks

We love to cross country ski whenever we can take time off to travel and find a snowy locale. It sounds simple enough, but finding snow, even in New England, has been tricky the past few years. We keep trying to get to Bend, Oregon where everyone raves about the snow as well as the town. But Oregon is a far piece from NC, and we just don't seem to be able to make it happen. This year I wanted to xc ski over the MLK holiday and came across the website for Jackson NH, a whole town devoted to cross country skiing. They have a touring association in town as well as a very helpful website. We stayed at an Inn I found on their website (the Inn at Ellis River). The Innkeepers served a terrific breakfast and were just nice, nice people.

We spent the 1st day skiing at Bretton Woods,west of Mt Washington-enjoying our granola bars and peanuts right alongside all of those hearty New Englanders with their pb&j sandwiches. I'm pretty sure we could cure the obesity epidemic if we could get more people out skiing with all of those frugal Yankees who show up in their old tights, wool sweaters, bike gear, and boots from the 70's-whether they fit or not. I have never seen so many members of the same family tackle a sport at once, then sit down to granola, sandwiches and a thermos of coffee only to march back out to do it all again. It's pretty cool really. I, of course, was happy just to get my heart rate up, see so many peaks covered with snow, and give my slider-glider muscles a real workout.

We skied the Great Glen trails just east of Mt. Washington on the 2nd day. Their beginner trails were a little more advanced beginner for us as we tried to remember the intricacies of slowing down and turning all at the same time. It's tough when your last lesson was 3 years ago, but it did come back. Fortunately we got some spectacular views of the Presidential mountain range in the morning because the clouds moved in later in the afternoon obscuring the peaks altogether. Neither our car nor our bodies climbed Mt Washington, but I'd love to go back for that someday. One interesting variation on the famous "This car climbed Mt Washington" bumper sticker was a car with one that read "The owner of this car RAN Mt Washington." Now that is one tough feat-almost 5000 ft of up in just under 8 miles. Can you imagine? I'd love to do that race someday...