October 23-28, 2018

TL;DR: The smaller towns of New York continue to surprise and delight us, as do the northeastern parks. We’re also realizing that planning our trip around fall in the northeast was the right move. Sure, we’re skirting snow at the same time… but Layla is keeping us warm and safe.

(Also: Check out our shiny new home page!)

The sights

Overlook Mountain, Hudson Valley, NY

This was another place where we couldn’t park Layla at the main lot, so we had to go .7 miles down the road to the overflow lot, adding 1.4 miles to the already long hike (but who’s counting?). The trail was beautiful but it was basically uphill for 2.5 miles: We’re talking a 1,600-foot elevation gain.

Three highlights at top:

• The very eery frame of an abandoned hotel with tons of trees and spooky light.

• The fire lookout, complete with 10 rickety half-flights of stairs that gave us both the willies. The wind up top didn’t help.

• The overlook, with an 180-degree window on the entire valley. Could see the Hudson River, Kingston, and the Ashokan Reservoir, and all of the trees.

Woodstock, NY

Super charming! It was a bit dark and rainy, but nice to walk around nonetheless. First stop was Station Bar, which used to be an old railroad station. Cool spot that filled up with locals around when we left (we got there for the early bird special around 4:30).

We’d love to go back during peak season when everything’s open and packed with people and sunshine. Lots of quirky shops. Stopped for dinner at Shindig (see Roadfood) and sat at a tiny table with our knees bumping. Saw people we had seen at Station bar and also on the trail. Very small town.

Yep. Feels like Woodstock.

Kingston, NY

Upper Kingston was really cute and had a ton of churches, all on just about the same block.

Had breakfast at a cool spot that was half antique shop/half restaurant (see Roadfood).

Drove through Lower Kingston which wasn’t quite as nice but had a sweet owl mural.

Green Mountain National Forest, New Hampshire

Talked with a very helpful ranger who looked like an elder elf from Lord of the Rings. Got a ton of pamphlets. And a compliment on Layla, because she’s the best. We feel like we just scratched the surface here; it has 900 miles of hiking trails, and we were only in the southern half. We’ll be back. Especially because the northern half is where the moose are.  

White Rocks Cliffs trail, Green Mountain NF

We weren’t quite sure about the distance and timing of this one (the map said .2 to where you could barely see/hear a waterfall, but it really was more like .5), but once we got going it was a gorgeous hike.

First, we saw fall leaves …then we saw frost… and then more frost … And then full-on snow! It was only on one side of the trees, like a line of powdered sugar.

A lot of the leaves were still hanging on for dear life.

The higher we got, the more snow we saw, and then the trees switched to evergreens, and insulated the trail much more effectively.

The pop of green moss with the snow-caked trees was so striking.

Then we went down a bit to the lookout, which was beautiful but cold. Saw lots of the valley. Started getting dark toward the end of the hike (the sunsets are so early now!), so we were really booking it back. 1,400 incline and decline. Buns were very sore.

Little Pond Hike, Green Mountain NF

Compared to White Rocks, Little Pond was a little underwhelming, though it was nice to have not as much elevation (500 vs. 1,400).

Had another encounter with a bird that makes a crazy whooshing sound when it jets out super fast (the other was on White Rocks hike). It was one of those hikes where we couldn’t get back fast enough and it seemed to go on and on and on.

Pretty gorgeous, though.

Hanover, NH

This is where Dartmouth is, and Lou’s restaurant (see Roadfood). There was initially a huge line and Bri was devastated, but Jess somehow finagled a bar seat in about 5 minutes.

It was a cloudy, moody day, and Dartmouth was very quiet but pretty.

Rek’-lis Brewing in Bethlehem

Just outside Bethlehem is Apple Hill Campground, where we got water and dumped. It’s a great stop before or after Rek’-lis Brewery. This adorable brewery has delicious beer and what looked like really good food.

White Mountain National Forest, Vermont

Most of the pull-outs on Kancamagus Highway were way too snowy, but we found one we could pull into at Sabbaday Falls. Walked about half a mile to the falls, and though the stairs up to the view were closed, we found a little spot where we could see them.

We also stopped at the Lower Falls Scenic Area, which was very pretty. The haze on the mountains and the colors of the trees were particularly gorgeous.

In the beginning of the drive, you’re up higher with the conifers, so there’s just green for miles, but when you get closer to the center of the park, it warms up with tons of colors.

Drove through Conway to Moat Mountain Brewing Co., where we got a stout and pilsner, and some spicy brussels sprouts with honey, maple syrup, sambal, and wasabi peas.

Details, details, details

We hit 15,000 miles on the odometer!

One of our first nights in Green Mountain Forest, we covered all the windows in Reflectixx for the first time, which kept it quite toasty.

Franconia Notch sounded really pretty, but we couldn’t get there. It’s on our comeback list.

And then this happened…

Just outside Walmart in Catskill, we stopped at a campground to dump our tanks and the hookup they directed us to started to backup, which was beyond horrifying… So Bri let it out slowly and then we hightailed it out of there as fast as we could.

We started driving toward Hanover (in between Green and White Mountain National Forests) in a pretty aggressive snowstorm. It was our first driving experience in snow: Not as fun as we wanted. But Layla (and Bri) did great. The snow then turned into a pretty aggressive sleet.

In Green Mountain National Forest, we were trying to back into one spot and bottomed out and took off the generator exhaust pipe (again. sigh).

All throughout our drive near Moat Mountain in White Mountain National Forest, there were three Subarus that appeared to be in some sort of driving club, zooming up and down the road and revving their engines. They were pretty annoying.

We started The Haunting of Hill House in honor of Halloween and it was quite terrifying. Right at the end of the first episode, Jess legit screamed out loud, which was followed by a scolding from Bri. What would people do if they heard screaming from inside an RV? Let’s not find out.

When we were in Bethlehem, we stopped at Rek’-lis brewery right after we got water. We didn’t realize we parked on a slant, and came back out to find hat we had lost about a third of our water.

Now we know

To see the best colors, Bri thinks the move would be to start in Maine and then drive down to NYC to Pennsylvania.

When you use Reflectixx, they keep it so warm that there’s usually a ton of condensation on the windows the next day. So there’s one more step to drying them off, but worth the warmth.

Road food

Shindig feels like the heart of Woodstock, offering local charm and flavors from the spicy Buffalo Chicken Melt to a damn good burger.

Seasonal crullers, messy avocado toast, and lots of college students at Lou’s Restaurant in Hanover.

Antiques and sugar-crusted donuts at Outdated.

Where we stayed

Night one: Walmart, Kingston, NY

Night two: Cracker Barrel, Greenbush, NY

Night three: Green Mountain National Forest

Found a beautiful spot near Mt. Tabor.

Saw an amazing owl right outside Layla just off the road and next to our spot.

GPS coordinates: 43.355621, -72.974589

Night four: Green Mountain National Forest

The ranger advised us that there were some good spots off of Forest Road 10 (aka Danby Mountain Tabor Rd). We passed a few spots that were either too wet/muddy or weren’t quite big enough. Eventually found a perfect one right by a brook. [See video at beginning re: first snow]

GPS coordinates: 43.292655, -72.880179

Night five: Walmart, Auburn, Maine

Just show me the pictures already