We planned to go kayaking in the New Hampshire Lakes Region

We are way behind in getting travel posts published this summer because we're having too much fun traveling! So we won't be confused about when each "wandering" happened, we'll start each blog with its actual date.

September 8, 2022

We woke up to 60 degrees and foggy skies this morning. We've had a lot of cloudy skies lately, so we were glad when the fog cleared and we got our first look at blue skies in four days. We drove thirty miles through the New Hampshire forests to the town of Wolfeboro. We will be in the Lakes Region of New Hampshire today. That's the area in the east central part of the state, just south of the White Mountains where the best lakes in the state are. We came here to go kayaking, but first we are going for  a ride on the Cotton Valley Rail Trail. Being in the Lakes Region, it is fitting that the bike trail would take us beside more than one lake today.

This trail was recommended by our friend Mary, who has given us much good advice this summer. This is another of the rail-to-trail routes that we have come to love. But this is the first one that we have seen that left the metal railroad rails in tact. That complicates things for bikers. Part of the time the trail runs beside the tracks.

But very often we were riding right on the track, with the metal rails on both sides of us. We were glad to be here in the middle of the day and in the middle of the week, when we met few bikers. On a busy weekend, it would be mighty unhandy to have to meet lots of bikes on such a narrow trail.

Mary had warned us that the crossings can be hazardous when the trail zig-zags from between the rails to beside the rails. That side-ways ride over the tall rail can trip up a biker.

We were glad to report to Mary that they have installed black pads at most of the trail changes to reduce the chance of bike crashes.

While this is a great bike trail in the summer, it is also used in the winter. Snowmobiles, cross-country skiers, and sledders all use this trail in the winter.

We got off our bikes on several occasions to enjoy the lakes that we were riding by. After all, we are in the Lakes Region, and we are looking for a lake to go kayaking on today.

Even on the hottest summer day, this bike ride would be tolerable since it has good shade most of the time.

With the shade and moisture comes mushrooms. Denisa had to get off her bike to take a few mushroom pictures along the trail.

The beginning and the end of our bike ride was at this very still section of water along the back bay. We had ridden 13 miles by the time we returned to the parking lot beside the bay to finish our ride. Would this be a good place to go kayaking?

No kayaking is allowed here, because other boats are using this calm bay now. We saw this interesting regatta of sail boats in the water. What's going on?!?

A very nice local gentleman answered all our questions, and then allowed Mark to operate his sailboat. Actually, he offered the controller to Denisa first, but she was afraid that she would somehow find a way to sink it.

The boat in the foreground is the one that Mark is steering now. These are model yachts, and people meet here at the park in Wolfeboro on Thursday afternoons at 1:00 to race them. This category of boats can weigh up to 16 pounds, and are 46 inches long. They have a motor, but it isn't used to propel the boat. The motor is used only to move the rudders and sails to make use of the prevailing winds that will propel these sail boats.

Six boats and their owners showed up for today's races. Some days they will have up to a dozen. The smaller, less complicated boats also meet once a week to race, and they may have as many as 24 competitors. Buoys are placed in the water, and the course is different every week based on the winds and number of racers. The judge is seated in the chair, and she counts down sixty seconds before the race begins. During that last minute the racers are jockeying their sailboats into position, hoping to be pointed the correct way and close to the start line when the start buzzer sounds--without crossing that line too early. With only the wind to determine their destiny, it was fun to watch these races.

We met some really fun people in Wolfeboro, who were so patient to answer our questions and let us join in this local event. They spend their cold New Hampshire winter months building their boats at classes held at the local boat museum. Then they spend their beautiful summers racing their boats. We've spent some time near the water in this Lakes Region, but we still haven't found a good place to go kayaking.

At the boat races, we were advised to not miss the local farmer's market from 12:30-4:30 on Thursday. It was one of our favorite markets of the summer. They had live music, plus several fresh produce stands, and Mark's favorite--a stand stocked with baked goods ran by a local Mennonite family. We ate lunch at a food truck after loading up on fresh goodies. We bought corn on the cob, cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, cookies, caramel sticky buns, and cinnamon bread. We also purchased Anadama bread that one of the boat racers recommended. We had never heard of this yeast bread made with molasses, and corn meal.

We haven't forgotten our mission to find a place to kayak, and we got some advice from locals we met at the farmer's market. Lake Winnipesaukee is the largest lake in New Hampshire, and the south side Carry Beach was recommended. But when we arrived, we found signs that you must have a local permit to park there. Brewster Beach was another recommendation, but it was too wide open and windy for kayaking today. We drove to Lake Wentworth, but it was windy and also needed a permit for parking. The Back Bay looked nice, but it was lined with houses and was too urban for a good kayak spot. We struck out on finding a good kayak spot on our day in the Lakes Region!

So we decided to go on a hike instead. We headed to Mount Major, where we planned a loop hike on the orange and blue trails.

It was a steep hike with 1,138 feet in elevation gain. Did we mention that we started this hike later than usual, so we must hike quickly to make the entire loop before it got dark?

Once at the top of Mount Major, we had glorious views of Lake Winnipesaukee far below us.

The sun was low in the sky by the time we took the picture of the pile of rocks holding up the summit sign.

We were surprised to see other hikers on the trail so late in the day. We came to find out that this is a great place to watch the sunset. So we had an offer to take a picture of us with New Hampshire's largest lake in the background.

We have wandered into another of God's wonders this evening.

While we intended to kayak here in lake country, we ended up biking and hiking instead. Some times our plans don't go as planned.

We were hurrying to get down the steep trail before it got dark. We finished the 3.2-mile loop in about two hours. The sun was setting on our drive home. It had been a great day of bike riding, finding boat races, going to a farmer's market, and taking a mountain hike. But we didn't do the one thing we planned--kayaking in the New Hampshire Lakes Region. 

 

P.S. In our on-going head-to-head apple contest, we pitted the crispy Kindercrisp against the less crispy Snappy Mac. Kindercrisp got the easy win.