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Published: August 23rd 2010
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The Kancamagus (the Kan is pronounced like kangaroo and the rest is pronounced ka-may-gus) Highway is reputed to be one of the most majestic byways in America. This obscenely popular area of New Hampshire is surrounded by over-hyped pay to play tourist attractions such as Ziplines, Moose Tours, Monkey Trunks, and Storyland. We decided to take the more natural route of enjoying the scenic area by spending our two weekdays off of work to do some camping and hiking.
We thoroughly researched and then chose to stay at the Hancock State Park Campground, on the West side of the pass, but found that the campground required at least a 50’ walk from the parking lot to the campsites, so we opted for the lethargic car style camping offered at Big Rock Campground just across the street. This campground does not appear to host any semi-epic activities such as cliff jumps into Upper Lady’s Bath or convenient excursions to nearby waterfalls, but the bathrooms had plenty of toilet paper. I made sure to get my $20 worth per an evening and used the facilities as often as possible. Many of the campsites were vacant even thought it was mid-summer (August) and
the weather was perfect. It should be noted that when we left the area on Friday afternoon, all of the campsites/campgrounds were taken/full.
The first of our two-day extravaganza in the mountains had us doing a twenty-mile walk to the top of Mount Bond. The NH State Parks have incorporated self-serve fee stations at all of its parking areas in the White Mountains. A one-day pass is $3 and a one-week pass is $5. We opted for the one-day pass, but then proceeded to self-assign our parking hang tag as a one-week ticket, and we had no issues with parking fines, so the option to cheat the system is there, if you feel so inclined. Our hike thru the Pemigewasset Wilderness took a grueling nine hours of painfully continuous walking, albeit on moderate terrain, considering the fact that about five of the preliminary miles were on an abandoned railroad track. I am used to hiking in Colorado where magnificent views often surround you throughout an entire trek (and parking is free), so it can be a bit of a mental buzzkill to have to hike for over four hours before seeing anything but trees, streams, mushrooms, and frogs. The
Bondcliff Trail to Mount Bond provides you with panoramic views of the White Mountains for a good hour of the hike. Most of the people on the trail were backpackers and visitors to the AMC Galehead Hut, so it was a relatively unpopulated hike. The cold water of the Pemigewasset River served as a refreshing end to our long day of walking, and the one pound of spaghetti that we ate while sitting at a park in the quaint village of Woodstock, NH really topped things off for us.
Our second day on the Kancamagus Highway was spent doing wheelchair worthy walks at various roadside pull-offs. Aside from our stop at the top of the pass, one highlight of this day was our short walk to Sabbaday Falls. It is a beautiful well-polished outcrop of rocks with water streaming from different angles and a variety of warning and caution signs that threaten you with fines if you don’t proceed with restricted behavior. That is where I noticed the first of two overtly biblically correct signs, of which indicated that the river was formed “thousands of years ago” instead of describing the scientific understanding that the river was, at the
latest, created tens of thousands of years ago, after the retreat of the last glacial period. We later did the Church Pond Loop Trail, which is located in the Passaconaway Campground. This is one of the only hiking trails in the area that doesn’t require that you pay a parking fee, but there is only room for two cars. The trail was once well maintained but it is now abandoned. The hike might have you bushwhacking and stomping thru the mud, but the pond and view at the end of the trail are well worth the hassle.
We finished up our day at the Rail n’ River Trail which is at the site of a historic reconditioned homestead. We also did the Lovequist Loop Trail, which takes you along the Swift River's Rocky Gorge and around a simple lake that is colored an odd hue of day-glow brown. We stopped at the Café Noche restaurant in Conway, NH on our way home. The food was great, and it was fun to watch the incoming traffic patiently (and not so patiently) wait for their turn to move a few feet along the road and then quickly stop; an action that
was repeated over and over throughout the evening. This experience was especially fun because we were going the opposite direction that evening, so we knew we would be avoiding the aggravation of the weekend crowds.
Downloads NH State Parks Campgrounds Kancamagus Topographical Map Pemigewasset Wilderness Loop Trail NH Travel Guide
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