NOTE: NO INTERNET, NO PHONE, so we cannot post the blog until we move somewhere with a connection. We are keeping up with it on a daily basis, just cannot send it out until later. Then it will be a group of them all at once. Oh well……
Day 49 – We were awakened by Loons calling from the Pond; a beautifully haunting melody. This would be a great morning wake-up alarm clock sound! There is no internet signal, nor a cell signal here. We will need to check e-mail, texts, and phone messages today when we go out to explore the area. We’re at the top of a hill; you’d think there’d be a signal here – but no.
We were up before 7 a.m. It was mostly sunny & 56 degrees. We slept well, the girls are content here, and it’s quiet (except for a few hours mid-day when 3 kids are let loose in the playground, but what are playgrounds for, right?). We took a morning walk around the campground to check out the sites; several campers have left, leaving only two other campsites full, besides ours. Tomorrow we have to move from our site since others have reserved it. We decided to move to site #15 tomorrow (the site next to this one). It’s currently available for the next couple of weeks. Site #9A is the most private campsite, but it’s only available for one night before being reserved again.
Had our coffee and headed out, the views from the road going down the hill were amazing. Got a good cell signal at the bottom of the hill, and all was clear on the phone, e-mail, and text messages. We headed east towards Errol, NH on Route 26. Our first stop after going thru Errol was Lake Umbagog State Park which was located very near the Maine border. Full of campers, lots of activity, very busy. It was a shock to us since we’re coming from such a quiet, almost empty campground. It’s a small campground, but has a few more sites than where we are at Coleman. The campsites were close together without much privacy, at least those near the very large Lake. Those away from the Lake did have some trees for shade but most of the campsites there were close together and smallish, for tents. Almost every site was full. They did have water & electric hook-ups at some sites. (We stayed at this campground awhile ago in the Fall when they weren’t nearly as crowded. But we certainly couldn’t get in for a longer stay without a reservation this summer.)
Then we headed back to Errol and drove north on Route 16 to check out the boat launches. The Androscoggin River runs along Route 16 & there were a couple of launches there. This is a fairly busy area, close to where you put in to ride the rapids. But you can also take tributaries to Umbagog Lake from the Androscoggin. Further north it is the Magalloway River that runs alongside Route 16. Here it is more quiet and remote. We’ve seen Moose here previously – you have to drive carefully & pay full attention to the road and surrounding trees. We didn’t see any Moose this time, though. There are a couple of boat launches up here. This is our choice for kayaking, more primitive, and we’ll be back soon.
Turning around & heading south on Route 16, going through Errol and beyond for several miles, there’s Mollidgewock State Park. We drove through the small campground. It’s right beside Route 16, but there were trees between that road and the campsites. Almost all of the sites were right on the Androscoggin River. Very pretty. The campground was about half full. Plenty of groups of teenagers, scouts maybe?, camping in groups of tents. This campground was mostly tent camping with a few sites big enough for a RV (#2, #18, #19, #27 could fit us). The sites were fairly close together, some out in the open with no shade. There were no hook-ups, and no dump station. There were water spigots. Lots of activity – a clean up crew – we talked to one of the rangers; there was a “microburst” Saturday night which flattened tents & wiped out many trees. They were cleaning up the damage which appeared to be fairly major.
Okay, two campgrounds scoped out & where we were camping at Coleman was the best so far. Next we went back to our campsite at Coleman and had lunch, checked on the girls, and took a short break. 79 degrees, a little humid. We headed back down the hill & Rob called his mom to check on her – she was doing well. Then west on Route 26 to Colebrook, the nearest decent-sized town. We got gas, then drove north on Route 3 to not far from the Canadian border to Lake Francis State Park. This is a pretty remote area; we figured this campground would be fairly empty. But the draw of a large Lake & some campsites with hook-ups seemed to make a difference. The sites on the Lake were of course, occupied; they all had water & electric hook-ups. Not much privacy but better than Umbagog. There were some empty campsites, without hook-ups, inland in the woods. Some of these sites were nice, but many weren’t big enough for RV’s. Still, a nice campground with possibilities at a less crowded time of year, with a Lake site reserved in advance. There was a dump station & water was available at spigots throughout. This campground had more sites than the other three we’ve visited in northern NH. We decided to stay at Coleman & reserved online Site #15 for the next five days. We may stay longer, and so far this site is available. More campsites are reserved over the weekend, so it will probably get crowded & noisy. We’ll see.
We drove back to the RV. Haven’t seen any Moose yet, but we did get a report of one at our land in Maine. We had dinner & read our books until bedtime. Very quiet & still out.