Manchester and Lincoln

We’ve had a fun day in New Hampshire! Our flights went off without a hitch and we landed at about 10:30 AM in Manchester. The temperature in Manchester was reported to be 50 degrees but by the time we left the terminal it was noticeably warmer than that. Still it was cool enough for me to switch my shorts for jeans. Getting our car from Enterprise proved a long wait, as there were many in line in front of us who didn’t have a prepaid rental as we did. Eventually, though, we were on our way, destination: Lincoln.

We’d heard about the hiking in Lincoln from the friendly volunteers at the Manchester airport. Lincoln is 90 miles north of Manchester, though, so we’d have some time to spend on the road. We stopped at a charming restaurant in Concord called the The Common Man, where we each had heaping plates of food for about $10 apiece.

Back on the road, we passed a whole lot of nothing until we got to Lincoln, though the mountain vistas heading into Lincoln were impressive. We’re here a few weeks before the leaves really change but there is still plenty of color to be seen, especially in the northern part of the state that we visited.

Our destination in Lincoln was the Flume Gorge in Franconia Notch State Park. The Flume Gorge is a spectacular gorge which is about 20 feet wide and very deep. After a moderate hike to the gorge, we walked on a narrow boardwalk hugging the base of the gorge while a small stream flowed down the middle.

Pictures simply do not do this place justice. The scale easily gets lost. It was fun looking up these sheer granite walls stretching a few hundred feet above us to see the blue New England sky and brilliantly changing leaves above. My 18mm camera lens was simply not wide enough to capture it all.

Kelly and I took our time walking in the gorge, stopping to take pictures of each other many times. We stopped enough that a group of five wisecracking older folks wound up reaching the points of interest about the same time we did. The first place was the “bear cave,” where I felt bound to recreate the bear roar that Travis’s soccer team does after each game. From then on I was known by the group as “the bear” and we all enjoyed our frequent encounters along the rest of the trail.

Not far from the gorge area, Kelly found a path just off the main one with a sign announcing “Wolf Den.” This led through a modestly tall, narrow gorge that seemed to dead-end at first glance. The sign said there was a way through if you’re willing to climb, so she and I went in, turned down a pitch-dark narrow pathway, and were rewarded with a totally-awesome squeeze through to the other side! It certainly wasn’t for the claustrophobic (I had to squat and couldn’t fully turn around with my backpack on my back), but if you were thin and agile enough to make it over one rock blocking the opening, you felt a great sense of accomplishment. It was one of the most enjoyable things we did in a day full of them!

The rest of the path down was a nice walk through the forest, with an interval spent snacking on trail mix and cracking jokes. We followed our five friends on the way down, getting one of them to take a picture of us.

The two miles we hiked seemed like many more by the time we returned to our car, the climbs seemed to take their toll. Still, at 5 o’clock we had enough light to enjoy the countryside again as we headed back to Manchester for dinner and our hotel.

After checking in to our hotel, Kelly and I walked downtown Manchester, checking menus of the many restaurants we found. Wanting to save our big meal for tomorrow’s planned lobster feast, we opted for a modestly-priced Mexican restaurant called Margaritas. We got margaritas before Kelly ordered a shrimp quesadilla and I ordered a steak burrito, but something went wrong with burrito order, prompting our waitress, Kelly, to offer to get the manager to provide some compensation. About a minute after she offered that, another server brought out my burrito. I really hadn’t waited that long, so I half-jokingly asked for another margarita on the house. Waitress Kelly went off to report my request and Kelly and I began to eat.

The manager soon appeared and expressed his regret at the botched order by offering us a voucher for our next meal to be complimentary. When our waitress returned, we explained that we weren’t planning to return as we are from North Carolina, the waitress cheerfully told us that Margaritas has stores “as far south as Connecticut.”

Thanks, that does us a lot of good! It was the first time I’d ever heard anyone call Connecticut “south!”

On Waitress Kelly’s next visit, Kelly asked her if she knew of any cool coffee shops in Manchester. She told us that the Panera Bread in nearby Bedford is the coolest she’d ever seen! It was clear at this point that Manchester is not exactly a teeming metropolis! Our waitress was friendly and earnest, though, (and entertaining!), so we gave her a good tip and said goodbye.

Manchester seems like a gritty little town. It feels safe, the people are friendly, and it has a lot of cool old architecture but the hipster crowd has yet to arrive. It also seems like a larger percentage of people here smoke, which is surprising considering we live on the mythical “tobacco road.”

Now we’re going to rest up for tomorrow’s adventures. Tomorrow’s forecast calls for a 100% chance of rain. We’re going to make the best of it with a trip to the coast, a lobster meal somewhere, and perhaps a visit to a locale political museum (which you know will be right up my alley). What a great time we’re having!