Today, we drove west toward the White Mountains in New Hampshire. After picking up a take-out lunch from an Umbrella grocery store along the way, we decided to have a picnic lunch at Sebago Lake State Park. Unfortunately, when we got there, almost all the facilities were still closed and the park was mostly empty (too early in the season). We ate our lunch at a table by the lake and then walked along the lake trail for a while before departing.

Next, we stopped by Pondicherry Park in Bridgton for a short walk. The park has several walking loops and, as one might expect from the name of the city, several bridges. Afterward, we tried to go kayaking, but the kayak rental shop was still closed for the season

We briefly stopped at Westons Beach in Fryeburg only to discover that it was more of a sand bar in a river than a beach, but there were plenty of trash cans, so I used the opportunity to clean up the rental car a bit.

As we entered the mountains, we stopped at the Pinkham Notch Visitor Center, which was full of hikers with giant backpacks. At first, we just assumed they were hardcore day hikers, but upon further consideration they might have been hiking the Appalachian Trail.

Around 5:30pm, we made it to Mt. Washington Auto Road. The auto road allows drivers to make the harrowing drive up Mt. Washington at only a fraction of the cost of the cog train. Sadly and fortunately, the road was closed by the time we arrived, so we decided to skip it since I am a terrible driver and we had already been on many taller mountains at various points in our lives.

Instead, we drove along the beautiful Kancamagus Highway toward Lincoln. The National Forest Service set up some very nice scenic viewpoints of waterfalls and rapids along the highway. We were fortunate to arrive at the Pemigewasset scenic viewpoint just in time to watch the sunset behind the mountains.

At the suggestion of the owner of tonight’s motel, we ate dinner at semi-famous Woodstock Station brewery and restaurant.