Thursday we drove into Exeter and walked around the downtown area a bit before heading on westward. Found a wonderful toy store and picked up a little surprise for our nephew's daughter whom we will see in Boston on Friday. Each day, now, the leaves are getting prettier and no exception in Exeter--everyone says we're still a week or so away from the real peak, but we're just loving seeing more and more vibrant colors each day!
Drove on to Manchester and rode 10 miles on the other end of the Rockingham Recreational Trail. It was a good ride, but there were more rocks on this section, which meant we had to be more focused on making sure we didn't hit the bad places, distracting us sometimes from being able to look at all the colors, but we still got to see a lot of beautiful scenery!
Next we continued westward across New Hampshire and stopped to hike up to the summit of Pack Monadnock Mountain. It's an elevation gain of about 900 ft. in just under a mile and a half--not as steep as the Ute Trail in Aspen, but some pretty good uphills in places. Lots of rocks and roots so we had to take it slowly to maintain our footing. Up at the summit there are great 360 degree views, including Boston in the distance, as well as Mt. Washington. We took the roadway back down and there were some really pretty stretches with the leaf colors on this route.
We'll do a little more in this area for the first part of the day and then head into Boston to spend the weekend with my brother and his family; it will be great to see them!
Some shots of downtown Exeter, first is the town hall
Love the name on this building!
Trisha trying on some googly glasses in the toy store--whaddya think??
Along highway toward Manchester
Where we picked up the bike trail, on this beautiful lake, with a marina and big park around it
Scenes along the bike ride
Seems like everywhere we go we see these lovely lakes, ponds and streams with such still water to give these brilliant reflections of the colors
Trisha stopped when she saw a whole lot of bittersweet along the trail so she could pick some--brought back memories of when she was a young girl and she, her mother and grandmother would go out on her grandmother's farm every fall to collect bittersweet to decorate their house
This little tunnel under a road was something--it's basically a great big corrugated steel pipe, but filled with rocks; it was a bit slippery and quite dark inside, but we made it through without falling!
Some shots from our hike up Pack Monadnock Mountain at Miller State Park
Views from the summit
In the top of the observation tower at the summit with Mount Monadnock between us
Heading back down the road
A little blurry since this was shot out the window while moving, but it was a beautiful sunset as we were driving to the campground where we spent Thursday night
Drove on to Manchester and rode 10 miles on the other end of the Rockingham Recreational Trail. It was a good ride, but there were more rocks on this section, which meant we had to be more focused on making sure we didn't hit the bad places, distracting us sometimes from being able to look at all the colors, but we still got to see a lot of beautiful scenery!
Next we continued westward across New Hampshire and stopped to hike up to the summit of Pack Monadnock Mountain. It's an elevation gain of about 900 ft. in just under a mile and a half--not as steep as the Ute Trail in Aspen, but some pretty good uphills in places. Lots of rocks and roots so we had to take it slowly to maintain our footing. Up at the summit there are great 360 degree views, including Boston in the distance, as well as Mt. Washington. We took the roadway back down and there were some really pretty stretches with the leaf colors on this route.
We'll do a little more in this area for the first part of the day and then head into Boston to spend the weekend with my brother and his family; it will be great to see them!
Some shots of downtown Exeter, first is the town hall
Trisha stopped when she saw a whole lot of bittersweet along the trail so she could pick some--brought back memories of when she was a young girl and she, her mother and grandmother would go out on her grandmother's farm every fall to collect bittersweet to decorate their house
Some shots from our hike up Pack Monadnock Mountain at Miller State Park
Love these pictures!!! Thanks again so much for sharing.
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