Stinky New Hampshire Weather and Covered Bridges

I had called five campgrounds to find one on that weekend that (1) took dogs, and (2) had electricity and sewer. I grabbed the opportunity at Goose Hollow and stopped looking. I didn’t think cable was going to be very easy to find.  Bob loves sports, so as we approached the campground just off exit 28 from Rt. 93, we were pleased to find a few places within a short driving distance that he could watch the Sox and Patriots! 

Our campsite, which we backed into, was right at the edge of the ‘Mad River’. Mad River was a nice flowing brook with pretty yellow foliage around it. I was very happy with the location. No, there wasn’t going to be a sunrise on Saturday, that was for sure, but I was pretty certain it would get light enough to get some pretty pictures right there at our site! I’m glad I took pictures of that lightly flowing brook on Friday because that was the last we saw of ‘lightly flowing’.  

It was already raining when we arrived on Friday, but we had our two umbrellas and I had my shower cap!!! I should say my camera had its shower cap. I’ll never forget the first camera field club trip I took to Vermont on a very questionable day. As we stopped at a nice watery area in the drizzle, new friend Carol said to me, “I think I have an extra shower cap”. I had no idea what she was talking about and thought what an odd thing to say! Well, our course I now know that shower caps make excellent little hats for our precious image-makers!  

Just the Tuesday before, one of our instructors of the Gateway Camera Club focused on HDR or high dynamic range. During this trip I purposely chose scenes that had strong light and dark shadows. I exposed them for the lightest and for the darkest. I would be experimenting with the ‘merge to HDR’ feature of Photoshop CS2. 

As I meandered around the campground and took pictures of Mad River, Bob headed off to watch the Red Sox lose! First he tried a place called the Mad River Tavern. Small bar, about 8 seats, 4 or 5 people were there, “friendly as hell”, Bob recalls. But it wasn’t really a sports bar and Bob wanted people to yell, boo and cheer along with him. 

So, he headed down the road a bit and found The Sunset Grill.  He describes it as a place “where everyone knows your name”. It was full of very friendly locals. Bob could not get over how friendly everyone was. As he sat down and greeted the bar tender with “I’ll have a Bud Light” she said, “Well, you have to say hello in here first”. That’s how the evening went. He came back with a very nice feeling about residents in these parts and the rest of the weekend proved that wasn’t a fluke! 

The lightly flowing stream turned into the appropriately named 'Mad River'!

Blair Bridge - east of Rt. 3, 2 miles north of Livermore Falls

I found some historical comments that were interesting. The bridge was burned down by a man named Lem Parker who claimed that God told him to do it. The construction of the current bridge was brought about when a doctor trying to ford the river on horseback found the current too strong. The horse drowned, but the doctor was saved. The town voted to build a bridge immediately. 

After taking as many angles as I could envision as good compositions, Bob and I headed into the Mad Cow. I had a couple of Pinot Noirs, my wine of choice, and then we asked where the next closest bridge was. That was the Bump Bridge, the friendly bartender, Lea, told us. This was another very neighborly bar. They were joking about the ‘calendar’ and we got to see what they were talking about. It was a 16-month calendar of seemingly naked citizens in different scenarios, reminiscent of the movie ‘Calendar Girls’. Each scene was more clever than the last! It was so much fun. There was a Harley Davidson inside a bar with a seemingly naked patron on it with a strategically placed leather jacket on his lap. Behind the bar was a seemingly naked bartender. Another showed a couple, seemingly naked, leaning against a sunny rock ready newspapers that were cleverly placed. The calendars were priced at $15 and proceeds went to a local charity. The ‘model’s were prominent citizens, business people, doctors, etc. What good sports!

Bump Bridge, Campton, NH - Bump Bridge was our second covered bridge. As Lea was giving us directions, others at the bar chimed in just like good old friends. We left feeling warm inside and a little regretful that we had to leave. The Bump Bridge was older than the Blair Bridge.  The water level under this bridge and the others was now almost at flood level. Bump Bridge is a Queenpost style built in 1972 and is 68'4" long with a clear span of 61'6". The Bump Bridge was constructed in a manner replicating the traditional style of covered bridges.

After shooting the Bump Bridge, we headed back towards our campground.

Bump Bridge is one mile east of NH Route 175 on Bump Road at Campton Hollow and spans the Beebe River

Turkey Jim's Covered Bridge - The original bridge on this site was built in 1883. It washed downstream in 1965, but was retrieved close to the original location. The present 60' 6" queenpost truss bridge, over the West Branch Brook, was built in 1958. The bridge is 1/2 mile east of Rt. 3 at Campton. It's located in a campground and you have to go into the campground to get to it. We turned into the campground and figured out that we had to walk from a blocked off section to the bridge. We decided now that we knew where it was; we’d come back in the morning since it was so close to our campground. It was still raining out.

It was quite a challenge balancing the umbrella, tripod, and shower cap. Awkward as heck. Every step was carefully thought of beforehand, especially considering the slippery ground and banks I was climbing up and down. I made a mental note to consider what equipment is out there for situations like this…umbrellas on hats? Attached to tripods? Better rain coverage for the camera than the shower cap? 

One prominent one read, “I love Michelle”…how very cool that someone carved his girlfriend’s name in the wood and it was my name! I kidded with Bob that he was very clever and quick to do that.

Since the Patriots played at 1p.m., we decided to have lunch at The Sunset Grill where Bob watched the Sox Friday night. We walked in, sat down and ordered Cokes. The bartender, Jessica, was dressed country, with country cut jeans, a cowboy hat, pigtails and turquoise accents. Big bright smile and friendly hello! But, there was something wrong! The TV was off… Bob said, “Sure hope you’re going to have the Pats game on”. Jessica told us cable was out in most of the area! Oh, this was so sad…. As we ate our delicious meals (I felt experimental and had fruit salad and Kalua French toast..yum) and the clock approached 1:00p.m. I knew Bob was trying to figure out where he could watch the game. He enjoys them so much! We decided to head back towards the campground and check out a couple of bars in that area. No luck, they were off too. But, he was able to hear it on the radio, so we went back to our RV and he listened to the game sitting at the picnic table, using our outside radio, watching our dogs, Max and Roxie, play outside.  He watched our raging Mad River right behind the camper and saw four kayaks white water raft by him! They had wetsuits and helmets on and seemed prepared. This light brook that had turned into such a raging river was a perfect white water rafting river now, funny how it was found so quickly. Actually, I suppose it’s usually higher than what we saw the first night.

I headed off to find more photo opportunities. The first place I planned to stop was at a lake on Rt. 49 in Campton. It was quite panoramic with mountains in the distance. The weather had produced gorgeous moody clouds and they were beginning to dissipate letting blue leak through. Nice! As I rounded the bend, there was a car parked on the edge of the road with a lady setting up her tripod. And here I thought I was the only one that would be there. It naively surprised me! I went a little further ahead and stopped the truck. As I got out, I heard other cars stopping. Seemed like a bunch of photographers thought this was also a great view! 

Given the fact that the sun was just beginning to peep out from the clouds, the scene was especially picturesque and I’ll bet some of those other photographers were also frustrated with all the rain!

After leaving this bridge, I decided to investigate a street named Mirror Lake Rd. The Jack O’ Lantern Resort was right at Exit 30 off Rt 93. Bearing right at the end of the exit, the bridge is on your left. If you go just a little further down the road, Mirror Lake Rd. is on your right. Head up the road and look for the public beach sign. Mirror Lake is a beautiful little pond with an overlooking mountain reflected in it. I spotted a couple in a perfect place on the lake. The couple was coming out just as I was through and I thanked them. They were very pleased to be in my pictures and I offered to send them if they had an email. We chatted for a while. 

Mirror Lake - Wow! And to top that off, there was one colorful canoe with two people in it, one wearing a blue jacket and one a red jacket, fishing! Perfect!! I composed and snapped a dozen shots. 

So, Sunday night, content with my quota of pictures and both of us enjoying our time out of our normal routine, we rented four movies to finish off our last night in NH. Monday we headed back home.  But wait, as we were driving down Rt. 93 towards home, I spotted a brown sign... historic sign... that said Shaker Village... shall we go on down that road? OK, off we headed towards another adventure..

Michelle Fontaine