Note: This is a "blast from the past" post as we work our way backwards to catch you up on our previous destinations. Please remember that we will not be doing any current postings for the next couple of months as we're visiting with family and friends in California.
Visited October 3 - 5, 2020
By Marty
From the Country Bumpkins Campground (nice name, right?) we drove a short distance back to Franconia Notch State Park where we parked the Beast and waited for our brother-in-law Rick to arrive from Boston (Sudbury to be more exact.) Rick will be joining us for a few days as we continue our exploration of New Hampshire.
At Franconia Notch SP we hopped on the bikes and pedaled an incredibly beautiful 20 miles on the Franconia Notch Bike Path.
It was a beautiful Fall day in New England!
NH State highway 109A sign. So what... right? We have seen many states that use an outline of the state for their roadside state highway signs. New Hampshire has taken a different approach. The sign is essentially a square with the left side cut into the profile of a man's face. But what man? Abe Lincoln? Pee-wee Herman? Bob Dylan? Tom Brady? Nope. None of the above...
It's the Old Man of the Mountain!
The Old Man of the Mountains was a series of five granite cliff ledges on Cannon Mountain that appeared to be the jagged profile of a human face when viewed from the north.
The image was adopted as the New Hampshire state emblem and can be found on NH license plates, a postage stamp, the NH State Quarter, and numerous other places.
A cherished landmark of the White Mountains, sadly, the ledges collapsed on May 3, 2003.
At the top of the photo above you can see Cannon Mountain where the Old Man was once visible. The image is visible in the base off the steel post (where people continue to leave flowers in memory of the Old Man). But this is no ordinary steel post...
This post is one of seven "profilers" in Profiler plaza at the Old Man of the Mountain Memorial. Each of the profilers create the image of the Old Man back on the mountain when viewed from a precise location that is marked on the plaza. How clever is that?
To learn more about the Old Man of the Mountain and Profiler plaza watch this video:
After leaving Franconia Notch State Park our destination for three nights was Paugus Bay Campground in Laconia NH, chosen for it's proximity to Lake Winnipesaukee in central New Hampshire. Feel free to say Winnipesaukee aloud or silently as many times as you like. It's so soothing, kind of like therapy for your mouth!
Lake Winnipesaukee (I can't help myself!) is the largest lake in New Hampshire. There are 264 islands in the lake and the distance around the lake is 182 miles. Our first order of business was to rent canoes and explore the lake up close on this mildly chilly early October day. Rick and Mary are in the canoe in the distance.
This is the last photo of Rick and Mary wearing dry clothes...
An inconsiderate fisherman motored past us at excessive speed, creating a wake that tipped over (Tippecanoe is another fun one to say) Mary and Rick's canoe. Fortunately we were fairly close to shore and were able to make it there, right the canoe, and head back to the dock. Fun day!
We toured Canterbury Shaker Village in Canterbury, NH. At it's peak in the 1850's there were 2,000-4,000 Shaker believers living in 18 major communities in the eastern USA. As of today there is only one active Shaker village: Sabbathday Lake Shaker Village, in Maine. Canterbury Shaker Village and many of the other Shaker settlements are now museums.
Why did the Shaker sect fade away? The Shaker faith practiced celibacy and forsook marriage, thus the only way for the community to grow was through converting others to the faith. Predictably, in my view, becoming a Shaker was a tough sell and ultimately there weren't enough new converts to maintain the community.
From the Canterbury Shaker Village website:
Canterbury Shaker Village was established in 1792 when followers of founder Mother Ann Lee formed their seventh community in Canterbury, NH, which remained prominent for 200 years. The Village has operated exclusively as a museum since 1992 when the last Shaker sister in residence, Ethel Hudson, died. The few remaining Shakers live at the Shaker Village in Sabbathday Lake, Maine. At its height in the 1850s, 300 people lived and worked in over 100 buildings on 3,000 acres at Canterbury Shaker Village.
The religious group that we know today as the Shakers was formed in 18th-century England when dissidents from various religions, including English Quakers and Methodists, formed a religious society based on prophetic doctrine. The group, formally called the United Society of Believers, were known as Shaking Quakers, or Shakers, because of their use of ecstatic dance in worship.
The Shakers emigrated to the United States in 1774 and eventually established nineteen self-contained communities from Maine to Kentucky. Canterbury Shaker Village is one of the oldest, most typical and most completely preserved of the Shaker Villages. The Village contains the oldest, Moses Johnson-style Meeting House in its original location, built in 1792, and the only 18th-century Dwelling House, began in 1793. Overall, the Shakers were the most successful communitarian society in American history.
The Shakers’ revolutionary Christianity shocked their contemporaries. They challenged almost every mainstream ideal of American society during their time. Shakers believed in communal ownership, pacifism, dancing in worship, equality of the sexes, celibacy, and living simply. Most Protestants of the day found that bringing dancing, whirling, and clapping into a sacred space and elevating it above the word of God, spoken by an ordained minister, was sacrilegious. But to the Shakers, the dancing signified a communal, not individual, relationship with God, which was a powerful symbol of the Shaker cultural system.
Despite the monastic characteristics of their communities, the Shakers were not primarily a contemplative religious society. According to founder Mother Ann Lee, the Shakers devoted their “hands to work and hearts to God.” They believed in community ownership, but were aggressive entrepreneurs, launching industry after industry, developing and adopting new technologies, and reinvesting the earnings into community enterprises to encourage greater growth and productivity. At their height, they were highly successful in competing with the outside world. By the 1830s the Shakers at Canterbury were rich in buildings, land, cash, wood lots, livestock, produce, industry, community possessions, and community skills. The Shaker “brand” quickly became known for quality, integrity and reliability. Shakers cared for the poor and used resources and profit for social good.
The Meeting House was the first building erected in the community. Built in reverent silence with no talking louder than a whisper the Meeting House was completed in 1792.
The Church Family Dwelling House, built in 1793, is the largest building in the village and historically served as a focal point for the community.
The photo above and the four immediately below are from the grounds of the Shaker Village.
We saw this on the way to the Shaker Village and stopped to check it out. I'm sure it will be quite the handsome building after renovation.
We had a very informative visit to the Wright Museum of World War II in the hamlet of Wolfeboro, NH. The 30,000 s.f. museum is really well done with over 14,000 items in it's collection.
On our drive to Wolfeboro Janell spotted this gnome community. We were running late so we made a point of stopping for a close up look on our way back.
The scale may not be apparent, even with the big blue house in the background, but the gnomes were about 6" inches tall and the red door in the tree about 2' tall.
After visiting the WWII museum we hiked up Mount Major to get a birds eye view of Lake Winnipesaukee and a few of the 264 islands.
(Winnipesaukee...Winnipesaukee...Winnipesaukee... you're getting sleepy... very sleepy...)
More of the fabulous Fall color!
Cairns are a BIG deal in New Hampshire. You probably can't read the text but it basically says "don't mess with the cairns!"
NH cairns are substantial and built with the express purpose of guiding hikers up and down the mountain. It is a misdemeanor to remove or damage a cairn. In the New Hampshire mountains granite is everywhere and the trees thin out substantially as you hike higher. Therefore traditional "trails" are often not possible. Stacks of rocks (cairns) placed strategically are the visual guide for the path up and down the mountain.
A New Hampshire cairn
Loved the Shaker village and narrative, very interesting! Can’t believe the tipped canoe -outrageous!! Fall colts are fantastic😘
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