cricket

At more than 8500 ft. elevation, it’s incredible to watch the weather roll through the mountains.

During the summer months, much of the region is open range which means cattle can pop up anywhere. (Even in your campsite at 5:30a!)

With the Jamboree trails as my introduction to this beautiful mountain range, I decided to stick around a while for some off-grid camping and exploration.

Fully loaded, the Cricket is still under its GVWR of 2,500 lbs. But that’s a little higher than I’d like to see for a lifted Rubicon running 35 inch tires…

Downsizing is easier when you have so little room to carry your things!

The Cricket has become my mobile habitat and moving van.

We’ll pick things up once I arrive in Dayton, Ohio – my old (and now new again!) home.

I spent an absolutely lovely week camping at Algonquin Park in southeastern Ontario. Canada is so incredibly beautiful and Algonquin is one of Ontario’s many highlights.

While I barely scratched the surface of all that there is to see and do, I did manage to take in a few scenic hikes including: Bat Lake, Lookout Trail, Big Pines Trail, Track & Tower Trail, and I enjoyed a refreshing bike ride from the Lake of Two Rivers down to Whitefish Lake.

I enjoyed a brief visit to Wellesley Island, one of the largest of the Thousand Islands in the St. Lawrence River. Wellesley Island State Park has a fantastic visitor center complete with 8 miles of easy, well-marked trails and a butterfly house!

I would never call myself a hiker, but for some reason, I decided to push myself a little bit on the trails recently.

Specifically, I headed over to Grafton Notch and hit a couple of the “moderate” loop trails around Old Spec Mountain. Both trails I took joined forces with the Appalachian Trail at certain points.

Table Rock Trail

Table Rock Trail is a 7.2 mile round trip that climbs 1,964 feet to the 3,124 foot summit of Table Rock Mountain. The trail ends 700 feet past the summit with spectacular views of Raven Cliff Falls, the Table Rock Reservoir, and the Caesars Head escarpment.

Eyebrow Loop Trail

The Eyebrow Loop Trail is considered more difficult than Table Rock and rises steeply to a 2,900-foot shelf-overlook on Old Speck Mountain.

These were quite challenging trails for me, so I was glad to have a nice fire and good food at the end of each day.

Now that the Cricket has joined us in Keene, I just had to get away for a quick shakedown in Vermont’s Green Mountains. Beautiful. Relaxing. Very glad we live so close to this…

Temps are dipping into the 30s at night and the crisp smell of leaves is everywhere. Fall has once again arrived in New Hampshire. If there ever was a time of year to visit the White Mountains, this is it. The colors simply defy description.

And even though Ruby Jean looks ready to go explore, there are very few camping days remaining. Of course, there’s always winter camping…

We spent an early fall weekend camping on the nearby coast of Maine.

With more than 3,478 miles of coastline, we always find something new when we visit. This trip we camped at Bradbury Mountain State Park and spent a long day hiking the Oven Mouth Preserves.

The fall color was just starting to hit in places so even a casual drive to the sample the local brew was full of interest.