New Hampshire - Day 24 - boulders

Wellington Camping Park
Tuesday, 24 July 2018

today's route

Today I had 2 objectives: a CCC museum in Bear Brook State Park and boulders in Pawtuckaway State Park.  I managed to miss both of them.  The life of a tourist ain't easy.  Plus, I managed to find myself on roads that weren't on either map I had, which I figure took some doing.

I went first to Bear Brook State Park, knowing they didn't allow dogs in the park but prepared to talk our way in anyway.  That part turned out to be pretty easy; it was finding the museum that was tougher.  My first clue I was going to have trouble was at the main gate where the ranger, when I explained I wanted to see the CCC museum, said I wanted to see what? which didn't bode well.  But she was very young and I thought maybe she was new and this wasn't something she'd heard about.  She gave me great directions to get to her colleague near the campground.

the first ranger had clearly not read the signs in her own park

The colleague, more my age and obviously more experienced, told me I'd passed it and gave me not great directions to get to the right road.  I finally found I should have turned at the sign for the maintenance facilities, where they also had the museum buildings, the sign said.  And I found it all right.  It said CCC Museum.  And there was a very large sign on it saying Closed for the Season.  Right.  Late July IS the season up here.  I mean, this isn't Florida and it's seriously unlikely any museum (except maybe a ski museum) would be open for the winter but not the summer.  I deduced it was just flat closed for some reason.  And I was very disappointed, having read it's one of the most complete such museums.

So I then tried to head for another state park almost next door.  I'd read that the boulder field in Pawtuckaway State Park was special, and I found some information online that I now can't find and don't know why.  So take a look at this blog https://blog.nhstateparks.org/adventures-in-boulderland/ for some good photos.  These boulders, called glacial erratics, came from somewhere nearby (one of the pieces of information I can't find anymore) and got brought here by the Laurentide Icesheet about 18,000 years ago.

The information I did find online gave me the impression I'd have a bit of a hike to find the boulder field if I went to the park itself but could find some decent boulders if I instead went to the boat launch and walked in from there.  It was finding the boat launch that became the adventure.  I'd mapped a route that would take me from the first state park to the next but, as usual, ended up on the wrong road - one that is absolutely not on either of the maps I have - and then another wrong road - ditto - and finally on a right road that led (after a few false turns) to another right road and then, just as I was despairing of finding the boat launch, I saw a universal boat launch symbol on a sign hidden behind a bunch of leaves and would have missed it except I was going so slowly because of the narrow and winding road I was on.  But trustingly I turned down the boat launch road - a fairly steep hill - to discover the highway department was doing road work and had completely torn up the road surface so it was loose piled dirt, and the roadwork equipment was huge and hard for me to squeak by - but I kept telling myself that if boats on trailers could go down here so could I.  The road seemed like it took forever and I couldn't believe they'd make a road to a boat launch that was so long, but all along the road there were signs saying do not park along roadway, so I knew there must be a lot of people there sometime and FINALLY we came out at the bottom of the hill and sure enough, there was a boat launch and a parking area and a Launch Host On Duty.

Other people there also had dogs but they all seemed to be going out on boats so I took a chance on taking mine down a marked trail nearby.  I did see boulders, though none were of the size in the main field.

I wanted to get the dogs in the photos to give an idea of size but knew there was zero chance either of them would stay still if I tried it.  Gracie would run at the slightest unexpected sound and Dexter would chase chipmunks.  But I did measure one of them (a boulder, not a dog) and it was as tall as I am - call it 5½' high.

The very persistent mosquitoes were starting to get to me and as we went back along the trail we met several different batches of hikers+dogs.  And my dogs acted as I'd been afraid they would - trying to run and jump on the other dogs, so I did the best I could at getting off the trail and into the underbrush and as far from the trail as possible in the time available.  As I told the dogs when we got back to the RV, that's why I don't take them on more walks than I do.  Actually, if I had them separately they'd probably be fine - they usually are - but together they turn into a pack and it's usually trouble.  A shame, really.

Anyway, I did get to see some big rocks, just not what I'd hoped.  But I also got to see some picturesque New Hampshire backroads I didn't know about.  And by the way, thank goodness I bought a compass in the gift shop at the Pres. Franklin Pierce Homestead.  I'd have had a much much harder and more frustrating time getting found again after I kept getting lost.  It kept me basically heading the right direction.  I adore that compass.

And by the way, on the way out of the boat launch area I clocked the distance to the road and found it was only a half a mile!!  It had felt like 2 miles at least.  Ah well.  It's all a learning experience.