New Hampshire 2012
Campton
5 August to 19 August 2012
Local Map
Click on pinpoints for local information
Photographs and Commentary
Click on picture to enlarge
This summer we decided to spend a few weeks in one place and just "hang around." We selected New Hampshire because we have not done any touring around the White Mountains and Lakes Regions for almost thirty years. We selected Campton as a base because the Branch Brook Campground is owned by a former colleague of mine and it was centrally located to the two regions.
Our plan was to ride around in the mornings and then head back to the campground to read and relax. I had no intentions of maintaining a daily page for this trip and took only a few pictures (my total output was barely the same as the average daily picture count on previous trips). In the batch of pictures that we did take were a few that I decided to post (albeit a few weeks after we returned), so I created this page.
Branch Brook Campground
In August 2011, tropical storm Irene rampaged through the Northeast. Branch Brook Campground did not escape its wrath. The brook flooded a good part of the campground and our campsite, shown below, was covered by about six feet of water. The raging waters washed Turkey Jim's Covered Bridge (a historic landmark built in 1883) off its abutments and slammed it into the bridge that provided access to the bulk of the campground, essentially destroying it. The access bridge was replaced and there are plans to rebuild the covered bridge.
On our fifth day in the campground the area was hit by a series of thunderstorms that produced a lot of rain. I kept a wary eye on the brook as it filled with fast running water. It peaked at about two feet above the previous day's flow, a level that kept it at least two feet below the bank on our side of the brook.
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The abutment on which Turkey Jim's Bridge rested
Above and Below, remnants of the covered bridge
Bath, NH Village Green
Brick Store, reportedly the oldest country store in the U.S.
Two Mount Washington Cog Railway trains at the top of the mountain
A Train moving up the mountain
Detail of the center track which is engaged by the cogwheel on the train to allow the train to go up and down Mount Washington
New Hampshire has quite a number of covered bridges, several of which were damaged or destroyed by Tropical Storm Irene. The Bath Covered Bridge, built in 1832, is the longest covered bridge in New Hampshire and one of the oldest in the U.S.
The Sweetwater Covered Bridge, built in 1849, is outside of Bath
Jackson Covered Bridge, built in 1876
While photographing the Bath Covered Bridge I noticed this home with unique guest house, a Boston and Maine caboose
The Bath Public Library and its exterior "reading rooms"
