New Hampshire - Day 28 - Berlin & Randolph

White Birches Camping Area
Saturday, 28 July 2018

today's route

Today I went first to try to find the Old Man of the Valley, which is supposed to be between the campground and the Maine border just down the road.  The website I'd found said I'd see a sign by the road with a small parking area that would lead down a trail to a rock formation of a man's profile.  old-man-of-the-valley  I drove all the way to the Maine border and can say that the only signs designated hiking trails - including the Appalachian Trail.  They all had cars parked in the lots, and I assumed one or more cars had transported dogs, and I just couldn't face taking me dogs down another single lane trail with dogs - especially if I didn't know for sure which trail led to the rock formation.  And I wondered if the sign had been removed because the rock formation was no longer there - this website dates from 2009, after all.  So regretfully I gave up on the idea, even more disappointed because the Old Man of the Mountain no longer exists.  I know time moves on but I'm not sure why.

My next goal was the town of Berlin.

I was interested in seeing Berlin (emphasis on 1st syllable) because in 1930 it was NH's 4th largest city, with a population of double what it has today, thanks to the rise and fall of the fortunes of the paper mill industry.  I was curious.  Also I'd heard it has a Russian Orthodox Church and I wanted to see what that was doing in a small northern NH town.  Here's the link to the information about the town's history.  https://www.berlinnh.gov/discover-berlin

Of course I got lost trying to find the orthodox church and found a regular Catholic church - St. Anne's - which is beautiful in its own way.  And in getting lost and then found I saw most of downtown Berlin and can say they're having financial problems.  That town does not look like it's figured out how to reinvent itself yet and, in fact, looks a little dingy and dismal.  Especially compared with the other towns in the area.  Hope they can get it together.

St. Anne Catholic Church

And I did find the Holy Resurrection Orthodox Church, built in 1915.

Maybe you can tell that this church is high on a hill, but what you can't tell is that so am I.  I had directions to the church - up the hill on Mt. Forist Street, left on Russian Street, right on Petrograd Street.  So I did all that - but that hill was like a San Francisco hill (straight up) and by the time I got to the top (Russian Street), I discovered Petrograd Street went up even farther and there was no chance at all I was going to try that.  So I stopped in what I'll bet was a small church parking area and took this photo.  The turrets were gold, but they don't really show up with the sun hidden.

Do the street names give you an idea of how the church came to be built?  The paper mill industry needed lots and lots of workers - many of whom were cutting down the trees (using axes of course) to be used in the mills - and they imported workers from all over the world.  Berlin ended with substantial foreign communities, one of which was Russian.

The last mill now operates in Gorham down the road - but since it's only about 5 miles down the road I guess the distinction matters only if it changes the tax base.

Anyway, after this we were all ready to stretch our legs and have some lunch.  I found 3 different parks in town - 2 with prominent signs saying "No Pets Allowed" and 1 with an equally prominent sign saying "No Dogs Allowed."  I mean who are these people?  I parked by a park anyway and walked the dogs along the sidewalk and tried to keep them off the grass. 

Next I went in search of Randolph.  I'm beginning to think every state has a town of Randolph.  This one has a population of 318, I learned online, so I wasn't expecting much, but after driving for farther than I'd expected and still not having found anything I stopped at the only store I'd run across.

Inside I found an older woman and told her I was looking for Randolph but wasn't sure where it was and she said, "It's here.  This is Randolph."  She said it stretches for 3 miles.

She wanted to know what I was looking for and I explained that had been my father's name so I was curious.  And I asked her if she liked living there and she said she loves it.  She's lived there since she married 55 years ago and she loves it.  When I asked what she liked best, she said, "This is God's Country.  Just look at the mountains.  This is where God lives."  So I took a photo of the view across the highway from the store.

This is actually the worst view of the mountains I saw along the drive - she probably had a better one from - say - the 2nd floor of the building.

And I have to agree, it's easy to think you're closer to God there, even for those of us who are non-believers.  Speaking of which, back down the road I found this tiny building with a sign in front saying Randolph Church 1884.

So I guess I've been to Randolph, NH.