Autumn Camping Trip in the Whites

After leaving work on Friday, September 24, we picked little Riv up from daycare and began our drive north to New Hampshire. We planned to drive only over the border to Nashua before stopping at a hotel for the night. We would travel the remaining two hours to Fransted Family Campground in Franconia Notch State Park the next morning. This was to be River’s first night in a hotel, and although we had confidence the night would go well, I was still pretty nervous. We arrived to the hotel around 4:30 after hitting quite a bit of traffic through Boston. River immediately began enjoying the hotel room, thrilled to have new furniture to climb up on. We planned to have River sleep in his pack-and-play in the bathroom. The only negative to this was we would have to pee four floors down near the main lobby. The positive was River would be in complete darkness and mostly quiet, an ideal sleeping environment. The night went well. River fell asleep pretty quickly, and so did we, exhausted from our long work week.

In the morning, River was up bright and early at 4:30am. We journeyed down to the main lobby to see if coffee was ready, and thankfully, it was. River had somehow wet through his diaper, so Bud did laundry while I fed River his morning milk. After we had packed up, we had a continental breakfast, River sitting in his Bumbo and enjoying his oatmeal and banana. After leaving the hotel, we made a quick stop at Target for a few provisions, and then we were on our way. The drive north to Franconia Notch was lovely, River sleeping soundly in the back while Bud and I listened to a podcast, one airpod each so we could still have white noise playing for River.

We arrived early to the campground, at 11:30am, but our reservation and entry code were taped to the office door, so we drove right to our site, the best site in the campground. It’s tucked way in the back, down a dirt road, isolated and spacious. River played in the tent while we set up camp. Then we made lunch, played on the tarp while listening to the chirping of chipmunks. When it was time for Riv’s second nap, we packed him into the car and drove to our fave side-of-the-road jam-stand- All Jammed Up in Woodstock. When River woke up, we packed him up for a quick hike up to Lonesome Lake. Bud carried River and we hiked quickly, climbing at a clip we used to employ pre-baby. It felt really nice to challenge our bodies on a hike in a way we haven’t since pre-pregnancy. River enjoyed the bounce and rhythm of the climb and the views as we moved. Lonesome Lake, at an elevation of 2700 feet, is along the Appalachian Trail and has incredible views of Franconia Ridge. We took in the beauty of the lake and its surroundings, early autumn colors beginning to pop out, then enjoyed the descent to our car. We made it back to camp in time to eat dinner and get River to bed on time. He fell asleep quickly, the air being nice and cool and darkness having descended. Bud and I snacked and watched the fire before hitting the sleeping bag by 9:30. 

It was chilly overnight, getting down to the low 50s. We changed River into his Little Mo sleeping bag during the night. He was awake for about an hour, drinking milk and cuddling. Because of this, he slept until about 6:30am, much later than usual. We awoke to a text message from our daycare provider stating that a child had tested positive for Covid and River had been exposed. We would have to get him tested. Our big plans to hike Mount Moosilauke would have to be changed. We packed up camp, stopped to take some sunrise photos on the Governor Gallen Memorial Bridge, and began our drive back to Westport. The next day, thankfully, River tested negative for Covid. Although we had to cut our trip short, it was a wonderfully fun adventure and we look forward to doing it again next year.