July 5-7, 2011

The 5^th through the 7^th of July we spent in the Lincoln area. This area is just south of Franconia Notch, the home of the “old Man in the Mountain”, the rock formation that became New Hampshire’s “mascot” for years. He succumbed to rain, freezes, and wind on May 3^rd 2003.Here’s where he used to “hang out”.We traveled to an old iron furnace in between the roadway and the river in Franconia. This furnace, still standing was a site for the smelting of Iron for bar iron for farm tools, cast iron cookware, and the fabrication of Franconia stoves. The industry thrived during the first half of the 19th century. The community had a nice display of artifacts for the time as well.

We went down the Kancamangus highway. This highway is about 35 Miles long, and we went in from the western side. We’ll do the other side when we cover eastern NH, later this month. The highest point is about 10 miles in, and this shot, (on a hazy day) was taken from there.

We continued up to Littleton the home of Chutter’s, the world’s longest, (122”) candy counter. They have every type of candy, both new and old that I’ve ever seen. It was hard to tell who was having more fun, the kids or the adults! If you look at the picture, shot about half way down the counter, you’ll see some of the varieties they had, and above you’ll see a before and after shot of the Old Man.

From there we continued around a loop to the west to Bath the home of America’s oldest general store, The Brick Store. We bought somev really smokey peperoni they made there, and some "really aged" Chedder. Both delicious. That's the new truck with the Kayaks on it sitting in front.

Just around the corner from there we found a pretty long covered bridge.This one is the longest covered bridge in New Hampshire, and one of the oldest. It was restored in 1988 not for beauty, but for function, it is vital to the town of Bath for access. Lord knows how they get fire trucks across!

We wrapped up our time in Lincoln with a little Kayaking. We had been tipped by a local of a place in the national forest called Long Pond. It was supposed to give us a pretty good chance of a moose encounter. It was down a very well maintained dirt road. and absolutely beautiful. Liz got out in the lead because she thought she had seen a loon dive when we were unloading. They have always been special to us because of our sitings on our honeymoon canoe trip. Turned out she had, and he was down at the far end. He played with us for probably about 45 minutes, and would have continued.

We're still looking for that elusive moose. Great trip!