Weekend in New Hampshire

Waterville Valley, NH (view of Town Square - across the pond)

We decided a couple months ago to try and rent a winter seasonal apartment in New Hampshire - Waterville Vally. The winters in New England are long, so we thought a nice vacation place would help us get through the winter blahs. I wasn't too optimistic about finding a place, since we wanted to find a 'pet friendly' place. Toules has to come along on our weekend getaways too! I looked a little online, and didn't really find anything. I decided to send an email to a realty company, and asked if they had any pet friendly rentals. The company actually sent me back a handful of listings to my surprise! We went up in early October, viewed a couple units, and picked one! We're all set for winter in New Hampshire!!

pictures of our new apartment building

This past weekend was our first weekend visiting our new pad. It was a beautiful fall weekend - temps in the 50's & 60's. We actually did a couple errands at home before heading north (I convinced Chris to try and rake a few leaves again...same result as the weekend before). We also decided to run our weekly 10 mile run at home, so we could concentrate on hiking and mountain biking in NH (it was a great run - one of our fastest times of the season! 1:29)

We got to Waterville Valley in the early afternoon, checked into our new apartment, then went on an afternoon hike with Toules. He was in heaven - squirrels everywhere!

Waterville Valley ski area

Dinner at a great restaurant in the Town Square to complete our day.

Town Square (lots of shops/restaurants/hockey arena)

Since it's the time between seasons (no snow in NH yet), it was very quiet and peaceful weekend. Very little traffic on the roads and on the hiking & mountain biking trails.

Sunday started off with a short hike with Toules. It was a hilly hike, and you have to cross a stream a few times. After crossing the stream the 2nd time, Toules & I balked at the 3rd, and we headed back down. I wasn't prepared for a technical hike, and breakfast was calling!

After breakfast, we headed out on our mountain bikes. There are a ton of mountain bike trails in the area. Waterville Valley has a very large cross country ski trail system in the winter, and in the spring, summer, and fall, they are open to mountain bikes. So as long as the snow isn't flying, then the trails are open to mountain biking and hiking.



lots of streams in the area!

Chris is a natural on a mountain bike, since he spent so much of his youth & early adulthood on dirt bikes. He has great balance, and naturally knows how to adapt to the varied terrain. Me, not so much. Also take into account my balance issues, and it was an interesting day. I wasn't so bad on the climbing (although I definitely had to push my bike up the super steep hills), but the steep downhills were scary! Fortunately, there weren't many of those!

Chris standing at the top of the really steep hill.

We definitely got a good workout, and I'm ready to get back out there and keep practicing. I hope the snow stays away for a few more weekends.

Ahh, felt good to relax our tired feet & legs after a long weekend.